Maryn Boess

Executive Director

GrantsMagicU

Over her 35+-year career in the nonprofit world, Maryn has been an on-staff program developer and grantwriter; a independent grants consultant (winning more than $42 million for her clients over 10 years); a grants project manager; a grants trainer; a grants reviewer, author, speaker, mentor and coach; and - starting in 2006 - even a grantmaker.

This done-it-all background gives her the unique 3-D "insider's" perspective she brings to the practical and inspiring trainings on healthy, successful grantsmanship that she has been blessed to share with thousands of nonprofits of every size, nationally and internationally as well.

GrantsMagic U, launched in fall 2015, is the "virtual academy" she created to make her extensive portfolio of grantsmanship trainings available (and affordable!) for anyone, anytime, anywhere. GrantsMagic U's global student community now includes over 45,000 people from at least 34 countries, including all 50 U.S. states, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.

GrantsMagic U is an Approved Continuing Education Provider for both the Grant Professionals Certification (GPC) and Certified Fund-Raising Executive (CFRE) credentials. GrantsMagic U is also one of only 15 "Approved Trainers" for the Grant Professionals Association.

Since 2006 Maryn has also been “in the grantmaker’s chair,” managing up to $2 million annually in grantmaking for K-12 education in the U.S. Southwest. She considers herself a dual citizen in the grants world, and may be the only person to hold simultaneous membership in both GPA (Grant Professionals Association, for grantseekers) and GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, for grantmakers). 

In 2020, in recognition of her longstanding service and contribution to the grant profession, Maryn became just the second person ever to be inducted into the international Grant Professionals Class of Distinguished Fellows.