Built by someone who has run the programs.

Grants Made Simple is the firm of Matt Westbrook, PhD. Founded in 2020 and based in Thurmont, Maryland, we work with public agencies and nonprofits across the country.

Matt has spent more than 25 years inside grant-funded organizations. He started as a staff accountant doing governmental audits. He went on to manage grants at a graduate research institute, ran finance and compliance for a statewide AmeriCorps program, and served as senior compliance officer for Clackamas County, Oregon, where he oversaw subrecipient monitoring and wrote the county's grants management manual. He also served as a logistics chief in the county's Covid emergency operations center.

Since 2020 he has led Grants Made Simple, designing and running grant programs for counties, cities, chambers of commerce and community organizations. A large share of that work serves people that funding often misses: small and minority-owned businesses in low-income areas, households facing eviction, and young people at risk of violence. He holds a PhD in sociology from Drew University and a B.S. in business administration from Humboldt State University, and uses that training to design programs around the people they serve. He chairs the Thurmont Police Commission.