Put simply, grant writers write many grants, to multiple funders, for a variety of different organizations.  This allows us to think critically, compare what we know between funders, and generally have expertise on language, on interpreting complex applications, and for writing sections efficiently and with one unified voice.  We have a process, and our value lies in our ability to take the stress off of YOU, and use OUR expertise to stay calm through the process, being familiar with the flow of a grant writing project.  Thus, nobody is stressed, and you have someone write your proposal who has written many proposals to a variety of funders!  I can cut my own hair, sure (and I have -- wasn't pretty); but I'd rather just go to the person who...cuts hair...every day...for many types of manes. With varied techniques to match.

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To give more insight into the value of a grant writer, I will cite the article entitled "How to Determine Grant Writing Fees" on www.fundingforgood.org.  The following blurb is taken directly from the article:

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"Consider this scenario, which many of us in the nonprofit sector have experienced before.  A foundation program officer asks a nonprofit to submit a grant proposal for a new program. The funder says the grant amount may be up to $250,000—which would be the organization’s largest single grant ever. The organization’s current fundraising capacity consists of one development associate who handles grants tracking, donor data entry, acknowledgment letters, and grant reporting.  Usually, the executive director and program leads work together to write proposals. But this proposal is important, and staff are already stretched thin. The organization has a choice: hire a contract grant writer or write the proposal in-house. Let’s see how each choice might play out:

Someone suggests hiring a grant writer, but the executive director says it’s not in the budget. They decide that the development associate will keep the grant process on track and help with writing, and the executive director and program director will do drafting and editing. But as they start writing, everyone quickly realizes they need far more details fleshed out about the program—especially measurable goals and objectives.  It takes three staff working nights and weekends to get the proposal ready in time. In all, these staff members, including the executive director, each spend 25+ hours working on the grant—a total of 75+ staff hours. After submission, the funder awards the full grant amount of $250,000. But the program officer notes that they had to advocate hard internally for the grant award and explains that: “In the future, a clearer and more concise proposal will make my job much easier.”  

Next time, instead of making do “in-house,” the organization decides to pay a skilled contract grant writer $6,000-$10,000 to craft a new grant proposal. The grant writer not only drafts the narrative, but guides program staff in crafting compelling and achievable goals, metrics, and strategies. The grant writer has written several grants for this funder and offers valuable suggestions on framing the proposal and metrics. The grant writer also helps prepare the budget and budget narrative. In all, the grant requires about 10-20 total hours of staff time, mostly focused on honing the program strategy and reviewing proposal materials. The funder loves the project and awards the full $250,000.  

In the first choice, the organization has invested tens of thousands in staff resources—and still needs to scramble to improve the grant proposal before sharing it with other funders.  In the second option, the organization walks away with a stellar proposal that can be shopped around to other interested funders—all for only $6,000 and minimal staff time.  This is the value of an expert grant writer."

This is a good question and is a common misconception when seeking to hire a grant writer.  The Grant Professionals Association is a membership organization that has set ethical standards for the grant-writing industry. It is widely understood in this space that grants typically only fund activities after a funder approves an application and agrees to fund a given program's activities.  Therefore, the contracted professional writing services required to produce that application would be considered a "pre-award activity", meaning the funder could not have consented to funding it.  Thus, it is considered unethical for grant writers to accept commission-based or award-contingent fees for preparing a grant application.

However, the value of a grant writing service goes far beyond just securing grants.  The process of crafting a competitive grant application is very much a participatory relationship between the grant writer and the organization.  The grant writer does not work alone.  The process allows you to think strategically about your organization's funding strategy, anticipated activity outcomes, evaluation and data management metrics, detailed budget, project timeline over the course of many years, and a vision for program growth trajectory.  In other words, it helps develop a strategic vision and plan as related to your program, or to hone one that you may already have in place. A final application for federal grants often runs between 45-120 pages of detailed program blueprints, which can be used as a tool.  Thus, the application narratives can be repurposed (with minor adjustments) for infinite future funding opportunities, increasing their long-term value.   Think of a job application's cover letter or resume that requires you to make small tweaks, depending on the employer you're applying to!

Sure!  We charge a rate of 10% of the requested grant amount because typically, the more money being applied for, the more time-intensive the application process becomes.  However, to avoid infinitely high grant writing fees for minimal increases in application complexity, the foundation grant application fee is capped at $5,000.  With that said, writing an application for a brand new client requires much more hefty onboarding and research than a client or program we've worked with in the past, because we retain all documents (securely) for past clients, which helps ease the writing process for future applications.  Thus, we implement a first-time minimum of $2,500 for foundation grants to account for the additional onboarding time.  Once we work with you and your program, the true 10% fee structure is implemented (I.e. if we write a $50,000 grant for you as a repeat client, you're only paying $500!). 

Federal grants typically require 50-100 hours of focused work, and the final product typically ends up being between 45-120 pages. This robust project is intended to serve as a master blueprint to guide a project.  When broken up hourly, it usually works out to approximately $95-125/hour, depending on the project and complexity.

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With anything less than 4 weeks to prepare an application, we are working around the clock to get it done on time (and we will get it done on time!). For our small team to offer highly attentive support to each client, it also means we're working nights, weekends, and 8-10+ hour days during tight deadlines, requiring most other projects to be put aside until the deadline hits.  A grant writer often has at least a few projects going at any given time (or at least this one does!), so putting everything else on hold has a felt impact on business.  To account for this rushed service and convenience, we add an additional 20% to our usual fees.  How to avoid this surcharge? Plan ahead! Try building a Master Grant Application ahead of time :). We are certainly not afraid of tight deadlines (our record is 6 days for a SAMHSA grant), but we're sure appreciative of having 6+ weeks to prepare a federal application.

Regardless of my own personal opinions of human development (we'll need some more time for that), I believe we're at the point where it would be a disadvantage to avoid learning how AI can serve you in whatever profession you're in. In our lifetime, and even this current generation, we are going to watch AI transform how we learn, work, shop, drive, form relationships, seek knowledge, and even how we think.  In other words, it will (and is already starting to) enter every aspect of our daily lives.  If one learns to use it ethically and intuitively, it can save significant amounts of time, organize or synthesize large amounts of information, increase efficiency and capacity, and create more room for creativity, relieving you of some of the burdens of grant writing [Or Enter Administrative Task Here].

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Using AI for grant writing doesn't mean plagiarizing a narrative.  I do not use AI to write grant proposal sections.  That will be easy to spot by a grant reviewer, anyway, and the more frequently you use AI tools, you'll be able to spot bot language, too.  I do, however, use it as an expert editor and reviewer, a tech genius, a subject matter expert, and a grants consultant every step of the way.  By becoming familiar with and able to prompt AI, it can work for you.  Don't know how to use Excel?  AI can help you create complex spreadsheets.  Need to write a job description for an application, but you don't actually know what that job entails?  AI does.  Where do you even start to find relevant funding opportunities for your program? Share your mission (or if you're well-known, maybe even just your organization's name) and funding range; prompt it with, "What federal (or private) funders might have an interest in funding my program? And share their website links directly.  Oh, and give me a 2 sentence description of why that funder might have like-minded priorities, so I can create a summary of opportunities to share with my colleagues."  Or let's say you've written that 8-page introduction section of your federal project narrative, but you want to make sure (1) there are no grammatical errors, (2) your voice and sentence structure are concise and easy to understand, or (3) you addressed everything the funder asked you to address.  Plug in that text, ask it to check for these corrections, and watch as a top-notch professional editor gives you complex, organized feedback in a matter of seconds!  Pro Tip: The bots don't always get it right on the first prompt.  Keep working through until you get the answers you're looking for. Just like Googling!

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Here are some more tools for grant writing using AI:

• Fundamentals of AI: Grant Writing Course (1-Hour, Free)

• GrantBoost: An AI grant-writing software

• Article:  "How to Generate Compelling Grant Proposals with AI Powered ChatGPT"

• Numerous.ai:  A Microsoft Excel plug-in that allows you to explain your ideas for what you want a spreadsheet to do, and it will produce the correct formula to plug in!

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