Libby Hikind

Libby Hikind is widely known as the “Queen of Grants” and is the Founder and CEO of GrantWatch, a leading grant funding search engine serving nonprofits, businesses, educators, and institutions across the United States and Canada.

Libby’s professional journey began in special education within the New York City Department of Education, where she worked directly with students who required additional resources, adaptive tools, and individualized support. It was in this role that her path into grant writing first took shape. Faced with limited funding and growing classroom needs, Libby began seeking grants to secure technology, materials, and opportunities for her students. What started as a necessity quickly became an area of deep expertise.

Over more than twenty-nine years with the NYC Department of Education, Libby taught Business Careers, Entrepreneurship, and Computers at the intermediate school level, blending practical skills with real-world applications. She later transitioned to elementary education, teaching across grade levels with a focus on balanced literacy. In addition to her classroom work, Libby authored a balanced literacy curriculum for the NYC Department of Education, contributing to instructional frameworks that supported reading, writing, assessment, and student engagement.

Libby’s success in securing funding led her to district-level work with the Brooklyn school district, where she won millions of dollars in grant funding in just two years. In 1994, she founded her first grant writing agency and launched NYCGrantsWatch, a weekly curated grant newsletter distributed to nonprofit organizations and institutions.

In 2010, Libby founded GrantWatch, a platform designed for grant writers, organizational leaders, and board members. Today, GrantWatch features thousands of active grants across more than sixty categories and is supported by public data, IRS 990 reports, and recipient insights. The platform attracts more than 350,000 monthly visitors and is widely regarded as an industry leader. Libby is also the founder of GrantWriterTeam and the host of the GrantTalk podcast, where she shares candid conversations with funders, grant recipients, and nonprofit leaders.

Libby is the bestselling author of The Queen of Grants: From Teacher to Grant Writer to CEO and is currently working on The Queen of Grants 2: GrantTalk Secrets for the New Era of Funding. She is also the author of Organizing My Thoughts, Manifesting My Goals 2026, a planner-journal focused on reflection, structure, and intentional achievement. In addition, Libby has written seven children’s books: Ziva the Zebra Runs Away, Bailey Bullied Me: And I Am Kinder Now, Rikki Wants a Pet, Why Won’t You Go to School, Kiki Kangaroo?, Twig Literacy, Mr. Squirrel’s Spring Cleaning Lesson, and Why Won’t You Fly, Sky?, along with accompanying activity and coloring books that emphasize values-based education, kindness, compassion, and social-emotional learning.

Libby has been featured on television news segments, podcasts, and radio programs including Bloom TV and Lifestyle Today. She has also been an invited guest speaker at nonprofit conferences, and her insights have appeared in Forbes, Inc., and Business Insider. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother and continues to teach, write, and build tools that help others turn ideas into opportunity.