He is a professional who has the skills to be able to take the program concept or idea that the nonprofit organization has and present it in a way that compels an entity to award the monies needed. The formal way to obtain those monies is by writing a grant. P.K. Local, state and federal governments have money set aside for specific uses. Foundations are nonprofit agencies usually set up by families or programmatic entities. In order to keep the tax benefits of nonprofit status, they must give money away each year to others in the nonprofit community.
Some corporations are donors as well.
P.K. Very competitive. The grant writer, again, is very crucial. He must be able to synthesize an organization's idea, make the case that it is the best organization to engage in this particular program or service and make that argument to a foundation or government entity that is reading hundreds of other proposals at the same time. It's critical to get some training in grant writing because there's a very precise way to write and structure a grant request. P.K. Good program development, conceptualization and writing skills are very valuable.