Sara Cottingham Consulting LLC
I help nonprofits, local governments, and mission-driven businesses develop strong projects and secure the funding to carry them out.
Funding strategy & grant support
I work with clients to shape their ideas into fundable projects and to manage the funding once it is secured.
Good projects don’t start with a grant application. They start with a clear idea, a realistic budget, and a funding strategy that makes sense.
I work regularly with state, federal, and foundation funding sources, and I understand the documentation and compliance expectations that come with public funding.
My goal is not just to help you win funding, but to help you manage it successfully.
Services include:
Grant readiness and fundability assessments
Funding strategy development
Project concept development and refinement
Grant writing and submission
Budget development and match identification
Grant management systems and compliance support
Reporting and performance documentation
Ongoing implementation and troubleshooting support
Feasibility & project development
Before you apply for funding—or invest significant resources—you need to know whether a project is realistic.
I provide feasibility and pre-development planning services that help clients evaluate new ideas, test assumptions, and understand financial viability.
This work often supports capital investment and is often undertaken with clients in partnership with Community Development Financial Institutions and other regional partners.
Services include:
Market assessments
Financial feasibility analysis
Pro forma development
Business and operating model evaluation
Investment readiness assessments
Pre-development planning
Strategic analysis and implementation planning
Grant funders
Through my grant writing work, I help clients in Appalachia secure and manage grants for community and economic development initiatives from funding programs including:
The Appalachian Regional Commission
HUD Community Development Block Grants
OSMRE’s AMLER Program
Congressionally Directed Spending
The Claude W. Benedum Foundation
I also have a client base in New England and have extensive experience with funders including the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Vermont Community Foundation, the Jack & Dorothy Byrne Foundation, and others.
Who I work with
My clients include:
Nonprofit organizations
Local governments and public agencies
Economic development organizations
Community-based organizations
Mission-driven and community-focused businesses
Based in West Virginia, I understand the funding landscape, economic conditions, and practical realities facing rural communities.
Sara Cottingham is an independent grant writer and rural community development consultant based in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Sara has a knack for helping communities leverage demonstrated strengths into viable market opportunities. She has a proven track record of combining forward-thinking feasibility studies with strategic grant writing efforts, which has earned her clients millions of dollars to implement their projects.
Over more than a decade of consulting, Sara’s plans, feasibility studies, and fundraising efforts have directly fueled downtown redevelopment and trail construction projects, as well as regional recreation initiatives and multi-state economic development projects
In addition to taking on individual studies and grant writing engagements, Sara serves as the contracted Grants Coordinator to the Mon Forest Towns Partnership. Through this role, she coordinates grant writing and project development efforts across the 12 gateway communities to the Monongahela National Forest.