Meet the Sunflower team

Chase has been involved in grant writing for 15 years. He started working in Emergency Management for a small coastal NC municipality and wrote a few successful grants. He loved the fact that he was able to connect his writing experience with improving the service of local community resources. It was then that Chase decided to focus on working with nonprofit organizations, higher education, and local governments in all things grant writing.

Chase loves connecting generous foundations, government agencies, and private funders with impactful organizations that truly make a difference in the communities they serve. He is grateful to have the privilege to assist these organizations in reaching their missions and making a powerful change in their communities and audiences. Chase loves getting to spend his time working with amazing people and missions.

Fun Fact: Since 2016, Chase has been a hobbyist glassblower. He is also an ordained minister that has performed weddings, and he makes an amazing lasagna!

Elif has worked in development for nine years, wearing different hats in non-profits and collectives. They started writing grants in 2015 while working for a reproductive rights non-profit in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Elif loved the mixture of strategy and creativity it demanded. Since then, they have worked in gender justice, Jewish organizing, youth development, and community arts, getting people the support they need for their wonderful work.

Elif loves that being a grant writer puts them in touch with fascinating people and projects. Grant writing broadens their sense of what people are busy with and passionate about.

Fun Fact: Elif is an avid cook – currently busy perfecting their Massaman Curry and Chicken Musakhan recipes. 

Larissa started grant writing 25 years ago for a community center called Sunflower House. She quickly started working with a variety of nonprofits, including homeless youth art programs, the largest classical Chinese garden in the United States, a Waldorf school, several local library systems, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Larissa helped nonprofits raise grants as small as $500 for gas to bring a medical van to uninsured communities and as large as millions of dollars to create a soaring riverfront building for Portland Opera. She loves learning from passionate people about subjects that are new. She gets personally invested in every project and does everything she can to help people fund their dreams.

Fun Fact: Larissa once threw out the first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game, fulfilling a lifelong dream of appearing on a JumboTron!

Guin brings lots of research, writing and publishing knowledge to the Sunflower team. She has a background in biological research and has helped fellow researchers and peers in a collaborative setting to develop and prepare grants for research.

Guin loves the challenge of new opportunities. She enjoys the research process and learning about new topics.

Fun Fact: Guin has described two new species of parasites and completed hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.

Craig has been involved in grant writing since 2020. He completed his master’s degree in public administration and has always had a love of public policy and grants are a natural extension of how policy can impact funding.

Craig loves a good challenge. He is always amazed by the fact that he can find grants for each of our clients where their mission aligns with funders giving priorities!

Fun Fact: Craig played trombone professionally for 30 years in the United States Air Force.

Lindsey is a grant writer, consultant, and educator with over fifteen years of experience in the fields of secondary and post-secondary education. She is a proud graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she received both a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, and a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration. Her areas of professional interest include workforce development, student equity, and educational law, with an emphasis on post-secondary athletics. Lindsey specializes in post-award management and is passionate about fostering sustainable growth and community-building through effective grant implementation. She is an active member of both the National Grant Managers Association (NGMA) and the Grant Professionals Association (GPA).

Fun Fact: Lindsey has a passion for geography, and can name all 197 countries in ten minutes or less. She also hails from southeast Nebraska, where she grew up on a llama farm.

Elisabeth has over a decade of experience in development within the arts, higher education, and human services. She discovered nonprofit work through her studies as a classical musician, seeing it as a way to connect people with causes they are passionate about. While she has held various roles in fundraising, Elisabeth’s areas of expertise are in grants, donor communications, and strategic development. She especially loves collaborating with organizations to create strategies for funding and helping them build meaningful relationships with their donors. Elisabeth is a member of Women In Development New York and serves on the Impact Committee of The Sato Project. When not grant writing, Elisabeth enjoys experimenting with new recipes, exploring museums, and going on excursions with her husband and their dog, Lucca.

Fun fact: A lifelong animal love, Elisabeth had many pets growing up, including a goat named Montauk.

Nzuki brings 15+ years of grant strategy and resource mobilization, translating complex ideas into winning proposals for nonprofits, social enterprises, and global programs. He has helped secure $15M+ from federal, foundation, and corporate sources—partnering with funders like Gates, Rockefeller, Microsoft, Soros, and multi-year awards with USAID, UNDP, and UKAID. His work spans the U.S., Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, where he builds cross-sector partnerships, designs compliant grant systems, and leads high-quality proposals with a consistently high success rate.

Fun fact: A devoted student and teacher of Japanese culture and cuisine, Nzuki is especially passionate about kaiseki cuisine. He also collects regional yukata (Japanese male traditional robes)—with more than a dozen in his wardrobe from all the prefectures of Japan—and is the author of Bridging Japan & Africa, available on Amazon.