I spent April 6-8 in Nashville at the Rx Summit, an event we’ve attended and sponsored for several years now. If we had the chance to meet there, I’m really glad we connected.
In my last article, I was bellyaching about the fact that I had to cut out earlier than I intended because we had four major grants due that week and I couldn’t reliably connect from the convention center to the submission platform I needed to get into. If we didn’t get a chance to circle up at the conference, I apologize and hope you will reach out.
If you’ve never been to the Rx Summit, it’s hard to fully appreciate the scale of it. Thousands of people from across the country, clinicians, nonprofit leaders, law enforcement, policymakers, researchers, all focused on one thing: responding to the opioid crisis. It’s an intense environment. Not just because of the size, but because of the stakes. The work being discussed isn’t theoretical. It’s immediate. It’s urgent. It’s deeply human.
As an Appalachia native, in the epicenter of the crisis, it is deeply personal to me. I lost one of the most important people in my life to an overdose. Most of the people I know have too. The 27th anniversary of my loss coincided with the conference this year and I felt it keenly.
Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I was staffing a booth on the exhibit floor talking about grants.
On the surface, that can feel like a disconnect. When you’re surrounded by people doing direct service, treating patients, running programs, responding to crises, grant writing can feel a step removed. But it’s not. Because none of that work happens without funding. And no one is more committed to securing those grants than we are.
Conversations That Don’t Show Up on a Balance Sheet
The most valuable parts of the week didn’t happen in sessions.
They happened in the in-between moments. Conversations at the booth. Quick exchanges in hallways. The “Can I ask you a quick question?” that turns into a much deeper conversation about funding challenges, timing pressures, and the realities of trying to scale important work with limited resources.
I talked with organizations doing incredible work but struggling to navigate an increasingly complex funding landscape. I talked with leaders who have built strong programs but are hitting ceilings because they can’t grow without additional support. I talked with people who are tired, because the need keeps growing, and the funding never quite keeps pace.
None of those conversations result in immediate revenue.
But they matter.
Because they shape how we think about the work.
They remind us where the pressure points are. They highlight the gap between what funders ask for and what organizations are actually experiencing on the ground. They reinforce something we see every day: grant writing isn’t just about winning funding, it’s about translating real-world needs into something that fits within systems that don’t always feel aligned with reality.
That’s not something you can fully understand from behind a desk.
What Stayed With Me
What stayed with me after the conference wasn’t a single session or takeaway. It was the consistency of what I heard. Different organizations. Different states. Different models. But the same underlying tension showing up again and again.
The work is getting harder.
Not because people don’t know what to do. Not because there’s a lack of commitment or expertise. But because the environment we’re operating in keeps shifting.
Funding is less predictable. Requirements are more complex. Systems are harder to navigate. Timelines are tighter, while awards are slower and slower. Expectations are higher. And all of that is happening while the need continues to grow.
That’s a difficult combination to manage. Especially for organizations that are already stretched thin.
What I heard, over and over again, wasn’t just “we need funding.” It was, “we need a way to make this sustainable.” That’s a different conversation.
Where Grant Writing Actually Fits
There’s a version of grant writing that people imagine from the outside. You find opportunities. You write a strong proposal. You submit. You get funded.
Clean. Linear. Predictable.
That’s not the reality most organizations are operating in right now. What we’re seeing, and what was reinforced throughout the week, is that grant writing has become less about individual applications and more about navigating a system that isn’t always intuitive or aligned with how organizations actually function.
It’s not just about telling your story well.
It’s about timing. Positioning. Readiness. Compliance. Systems. Access. Follow-through. It’s about understanding how all of those pieces fit together and where things are most likely to break down. Because they do break down. My early departure from the conference is a great example.
If you’re reading this because we connected at the Rx Summit, I’m glad you’re here. I came away from the conference reinvigorated to do exactly what you need to connect with the funding to fulfill your mission.
Those quick conversations on the exhibit floor don’t always leave a lot of room to go deep. There’s a lot happening, a lot of noise, and not nearly enough time. Reach out to schedule a time to follow up with us.
Most of what we share here isn’t theory. It comes directly from the work we’re doing with organizations like yours, navigating the same challenges in real time.
Some weeks, that looks like strategy. Some weeks, it looks like troubleshooting. And some weeks, it looks like a story about getting locked out of a system the night before a deadline and scrambling to fix it. Because that’s part of the work too.
The Rx Summit is always a reminder that this work sits at the intersection of urgency and complexity. The urgency is obvious. The complexity is harder to see until you’re in it. But it’s there.
And the organizations doing this work deserve systems, funding structures, and support that actually make it easier to succeed, not harder.
Over the next five weeks, my team and I are digging into a major research project. Much like the COPA foundation database we published at the end of last year, we’re going to dig into creating a definitive source of information about all of the various ways to access Opioid Settlement funding across the country.
If we crossed paths in Nashville, or if this is your first time here, I’m glad you found your way into this conversation. Stay tuned!