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Dr. Barbara Wright, a Kansas City grant-writing expert with 30 years of experience and founder of Certified Dream Builder, Inc., launched an app to help nonprofits worldwide secure funding.
Wright released Grant Builder Pro Max in October 2025.
She also has another app, Budget Builder Pro Max.
The applications, available on iOS, Android and the web, help organizations build grant frameworks, budgets and narratives.
"They can become instant grant writers because it basically does the work," Wright said. "They’ve got me in their pocket."
Wright spent 10 years developing the application before AI became widely available.
"The next week, AI came out," Wright said. "And I was so heartbroken because it had taken me 10 years to get this to a full app that was approved. I had to go back to the drawing board and figure out how I was going to incorporate AI into the apps."
Now, the app evaluates grants to determine whether an organization is likely to get points, and it writes executive summaries and letters of support.
It's free to use, but it includes future subscriptions to access certain features.
"It does the whole thing for you," Wright said.
Before developing the app, Wright worked as a grant writer for Kansas City Public Schools until she retired to work for herself.
During her first year, she wrote 40 grants, and 41 were funded after an organization decided to grant additional funding.
“You’re made a believer because the person gets the grant, and they continue to get it year after year,” Wright said.
She helped the district win a grant that brought in 26 additional social workers for students.
Wright also wrote grants for the Housing Authority, Hogan Prep and Lincoln Prep.
"Nobody knows who the grant writer is," Wright said. "The blue field over at Lincoln Prep."
Wright said she is extremely grateful to have a presence in Kansas City and to help so many people.
"You would never see my name, but I know that it was done," Wright said.
In addition to the app, Wright hosts free virtual grant-writing and AI business development classes on Mondays and Thursdays.
She said she recently had 317 people attend a Monday class and 367 people attend a Thursday class on Clubhouse, not including attendees on Facebook and Zoom.
Wright said she has trained thousands of people over the years and reached every continent except Antarctica.
During her classes, she often repeats a common phrase to her students.
"You have to determine if you’re raggedy or ready," Wright said. "People are not ready. They don’t have their goals, their objectives, their evaluations, their assessment."
Pastor Evelyn Deterville of Soul Train Church in Century, Florida, connected with Wright two years ago and continues to attend the classes.
She was in Monday morning’s 9 a.m. class.
"I would have been raggedy," Deterville said. "I’ve been doing it for 20 years by myself."
Deterville said she has secured grants and developed programming in her rural town since taking the classes.
"I have been able to secure 3-4 grants," Deterville said. "I have also been able to develop programming in this rural town that has no school system. All the children have to be bused out 15 miles plus to every school."
Deterville said she put programs back in the town, created jobs for the youth, and helped other churches in the region learn to write grants so they do not get taken advantage of financially.
Dr. Daniel Haupt, based in Denver, also attends the classes.
He is creating a program to help first-generation youth discover their purpose.
"Her models, her innovation, the science that she brings us to be social entrepreneurs that are actually taking calculated risks to create value for a social reason has been transformative for me," Haupt said.
Wright said her goal now is to pass the torch and promote other leaders.
"It helps people who will need to find other streams of income, other pathways," Wright said. "It helps leaders to create pathways for their students, for their clients."
Wright attributes her success to her ability to adapt.
"It’s evolving over time," Wright said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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