Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence

Dwayne Collins is retired grant professional. Dwayne worked for the City of Rockford, Illinois as a grants compliance manager for over 30 years and Boone County, Illinois as a grant administrator for another four years. During his tenure in public grant administration, he was responsible for helping to secure over 250 million dollars in grant funding from states, counties and federal agencies. He also managed a Community Assistance Program for 24 years that disseminated over 2.8 million dollars to small community-based organizations to fund program activities and build capacity to address identified needs in the community that they served. In addition, he has served on grant review committees for the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois, The Rockford Community Trust, District 205 School District, the Rockford Park District, the Winnebago County Second Chance Program and the Rockford Area Arts Council.

Mr. Collins holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in business management from Alabama A & M University and earned his Master's Certificate in public administration from Northern Illinois University. In addition, he is a certified grant reviewer for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, having reviewed grants under the Compassion Capital Fund Demonstration Project, the Strengthening Our Communities Initiative, the Jobs Opportunities for the Low Income, the Compassion Capital Find Targeted Capacity Building Program, the Community Economic Development Program, the Community Development Focus on Energy Program, the Fair Housing Initiative Program and the New Market Tax Credit Program over the course of the past 20 years. He is also a former adjunct instructor, teaching various courses at Rockford Career College and Rock Valley College, for a combined 17 years.

Mr. Collins is the president of the DAC Consulting Group LLC, an organization that primarily works to build the capacity of for-profit and nonprofit business entities (faith and community-based) by helping them secure financial resources to carry out their missions.

Lastly, Mr. Collins is the co-founder of Club 800 Financial Literacy, an educational component designed to teach financial literacy to better equip minority men with the tools necessary to maintain their proper role as bread winner and head of the family unit.

Dwayne's areas of skill include:

• Grant writing
• Board development
• Capacity building
• Program development and evaluation
• Performance and outcomes measurement