I have had the pleasure of working with Martina on two state government evaluations, each with varying scope, approaches, deliverables and outcomes.
Martina is professional, engaging, insightful, very approachable and friendly and has the ability of sharing her knowledge and directing the conversation while also making you feel heard and included.
I was new to the Evaluation space and she took the time to listen and understand my objectives and challenges and then worked with me and the team to help build our capacity and to produce a really sound, perceptive and detailed evaluation plan and report.
While some might think that grant programs are much the same, being able to succinctly demonstrate outcomes against indicators and logic pathways in plain English while being an engaging read is a rare feat in government.
Her work with our community stakeholders was also great to witness as we went about capturing stories of impact and change. She makes undertaking evaluations look easy and fun!
We all really value Martina’s input on our evaluations and look forward to working with her again in the future.
– Laura Bayndrian, NSW State Government employee
I would recommend the Grant Writing for Freelancers course to anyone looking to move into freelance grant writing. The modules were really informative and covered the entire process of grant writing. The two one hour coaching sessions with Martina are super valuable and help you take what you learn in the course and implement it into your business. If you’re thinking about grant writing this course is a great place to start.
– Joanne Corrigan, grant writer
We’ve now worked with Martina on multiple occasions when preparing applications for grants. Both times we’ve engaged Martina’s services we’ve ultimately been successful with the grants we applied for.
She has a deep understanding of the thought process of assessors, and how to clearly address grant criteria. Martina quickly grasped the broader context of our business – allowing her to make valuable suggestions which we hadn’t thought of.
She’s thorough, attentive to detail and a pleasure to work with.
Couldn’t recommend Martina more!
– Cam Martin, Founder – Work Window
“a really sharp mind and always brings a lot of energy to the discussion.” – Gerard Atkinson MBA QPR GAICD, ARTD Consultants
I have worked with Martina on several grants and tenders – both big and small.
She is one of the most talented individuals I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
She understands grants like no other person I know having been on both sides of the table. She always has kind and considered feedback, her attention to detail is second to none and my success rate since working with her has been better than I could have imagined.
I sing Martina’s praises to anyone who will listen and could not recommend anyone more highly to be your next grant writer.
– Emma Sharp, Stupid Old Studios
“Martina presented to my Write Earn Thrive community about how freelance writers can break into grant writing and was brilliant. She held everyone’s attention until the very end and could answer even the curliest questions about grant writing. I’m thrilled with her presentation and that I was able to share Martina’s genius with my community.”
– Lindy Alexander, Write Earn Thrive & The Freelancer’s Year
This is such an enjoyable course! Martina really shows the whole cycle of grant writing and there are tips galore, transcripts for each of the videos and really helpful worksheets to use when you’re doing the work. The course is super easy to navigate and the lessons are all bitesized so you can do as many as you want without feeling overwhelmed. I’m so pleased to have completed (yes, a course you will complete and not leave in a dusty folder somewhere on your computer!) it and added a whole new, rewarding skillset to my writing services. Martina’s experience and expertise really shines through and I feel fortunate to have been taught by her both through the course and via private coaching calls. – Jillian Pocock, enrolled in Grant Writing For Freelance Writers
“It has been a pleasure working with Martina, she is highly skilled and very professional. We will certainly use her again.”
I found Martina to be: prompt, efficient, professional with a strong business acumen and she delivers what she promises.
Amal Madani, General Manager, 3Bridges Community
“⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Martina has outstanding ability to structure information, consolidate and writing them into beautiful pieces. She has been instrumental in my application. Job well done! Highly recommending her!”
We’ve been working on and off with Martina for over 3 years now, and she has always delivered great quality work on time.
She’s quick to understand our business operations and projects, and contributes ideas that help strengthen our proposals. She clearly understands what RFPs are looking for, and she’s great at getting our ideas across in a succinct way.
I would definitely recommend Martina to anyone working in this space.
– Susan High, Greenmash
Monaro Media Group Pty Ltd engaged Martina Donkers to assist us in writing to funding applications. Our previous efforts for funding under the Innovation Grant program has been unsuccessful.
With Martina’s guidance, we were granted $226,036.96. She also assisted us in applying for funding under the PING program and again, we were successful. Not only was Martina a delight to work with, she really knew how to word applications for the best result.
– Gail Eastaway, Editor, The Monaro Post
I reached out to Martina at short notice to help on a grant proposal for my business and she was fantastic to work with. Not only was she a pleasure to deal with, but she provided a great strategic overview of how best to position the proposal and detailed exactly what I needed to cover to make be competitive and put our best foot forward.
I was so relieved to have the support of someone in the know to provide guidance on the grant process, and to have her expert wording input to help craft my responses so that they were impactful and covered off on all the required keywords and phrasing to meet eligibility.
I would absolutely recommend working with Martina and will hopefully do so myself when it comes to submitting future grants.
– Louise Glendon, Click Grow Love
“FIVE STARS. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!! Martina was absolutely faultless from start to finish. She went above and beyond to ensure she completed the task quickly to allow us to meet our deadline. The quality of her work was fantastic and we will certainly have no hesitation in working with her again.”
Martina was enthusiastic and reliable. – Kim Power, Sunflower Foundation
“Wow, what can I say she knows her stuff. Martina is amazing at what she does, I highly recommend her, and will be back for more work in the future. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️” – Cody Middlebrook
Your knowledge and ability to teach someone with such little understanding of the grant world is just outstanding, and I feel as though I now have somewhat of an idea what I am doing, so thank you so much!
– Nina Denham, Blues Train
“We had an opportunity to respond to an RFP. I was excited but very stressed about it and it was the first RFP I had done. We worked with Martina as a team and produced something to be proud of, a winning document. I am confident we will win (and if we don’t we did the best we could ever do). Her fee was higher than the others but knowing her talents now I am sure she provides the best value. If you really want to win your proposal, or stand out above the rest, hire this provider as your teammate till the finish line.Thank you for producing on schedule the best RFP ever!“ (note: we DID win, and it was over 8 figures!)
Martina grasped the concepts of the work quickly, in detail and managed the project from end to end in a manner that provided me with a great deal of comfort knowing that we had engaged a highly competent professional. The quality of her work was exceptional and she met every deadline set.
Martina delivered an excellent submission for our organisation. Her well planned, consultative, inclusive and inquisitive approach to our project produced a much better tender than we hoped for. She also made the experience enjoyable with her engaging personality and genuine interest in what we were doing creating an environment to truly collaborate.
Highly recommended!
– Steve Lowe, Operations Manager, Home Modification Solutions
“⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thank you so much Martina for such excellent work! Not only did you rework and rework the case statement until it was perfect, but you offered so much of your own advice and professional opinion which was greatly appreciated. Thank you. Your writing skills are exceptional and you are able to formulate ideas and research to produce a piece of writing that is compelling. Thanks again. I highly recommend you and will be absolutely using you again in the future!”
The most useful thing I learned from [Martina’s] course is that I believe I can actually succeed as a professional grant writer.
– Julie Freelove-Charton