Business ProfileforAmerican Grant Writers' Association, Inc

I'm leaving this review to warn off others. I took AGWA's grant writing certification course online. The online course structure was such that completed course work was to be submitted via email for review, feedback, and if the work was deemed acceptable, the next chapter would be sent along. First, these materials were clearly meant for their in-person course and don't adapt well to an online course. When I (dared!) to ask if the materials were from their in-person course, the rude response was that they'd been doing online courses for years and these were the materials. I've taken online courses and these materials were subpar; I guess they were okay with that. The materials are sent piecemeal as PDFs. For the cost of the course, it would be nice if the hundreds of pages of information were shipped to students in a print format for note-taking, but printing is an extra cost/burden on the student. The materials were dated and chockablock full of spelling and grammatical errors. Ironically, the very first thing stressed was the importance of being meticulous in one's work. As completed course work was submitted and reviewed, often there would be two different email responses with two different kinds of feedback and two different "tones." More than once one person deemed my work acceptable and sent me the next chapter, but in the meantime, I had a second email from the other person asking for changes before they would send the next chapter! (Note: all responses came from a generic email address; all submissions went to a generic email address) When I asked if more than one person was reviewing the work because I was getting inconsistent feedback and noted it would be helpful for me as the student to have consistency, I was rudely told that, of course, there's more than one person! Ahem, not "of course." Poor form. In grant writing, consistency is key. Over time, the ruder of the two responders became even ruder. I'd ask questions about something in the chapter, one time eventually eliciting a comment from this person asking if I was just looking to get through the course or actually learn something. I was gobsmacked! I'll leave it right here, even though the list goes on. In support of my review, see the rude, defensive, and poorly written rebuttals from AGWA below.