Should you hire a contract grant writer?
Nonprofits large and small often find it beneficial to hire a contract grant writer, someone outside the organization. It can save money and take projects off the plates of staff members.
So how should you structure an agreement with a grant writing consultant, once you decide you’d like to hire one? At Professional Grant Writers, we break our grant writing services down in two general ways:
Grant writing contracts
We offer a six-month or year-long contract for an entire grant writing package. This includes researching grant opportunities, writing a series of highly competitive grant proposals, participating in debriefs with foundations on rejected proposals, and helping our clients build long-term relationships with foundations following a successful proposal. For the organizations that contract with us, we act as much more than a writer. We serve as grant writing consultants to help ensure the long-term success of the grants program.
A la carte services
We’ll help you identify and write a handful of specific grants based on your goals and budget. Or, if you have a grant opportunity in mind you need help with, we work with you to complete that in time for the deadline.
So how do we (and you) decide which to pursue?
We diagnose your needs based on a few different criteria and we can help you figure out how best to hire a contract grant writer. If your organization is larger and more established, with both the budget to pay for ongoing services and the need to write a high volume of grants, a contract is usually better. This also works well if you want to outsource the grants management aspect, which involves follow up and reporting.
Smaller nonprofits may not need such a high volume of grants written. They probably also don’t have the funds to hire someone to write grants constantly. Maybe they just need one or two written to get the grants program off the ground. Or, the executive director prefers to write them but is knee-deep in planning the annual auction and needs an extra set of hands to meet a specific deadline. In these cases, it can be helpful to hire a company like Professional Grant Writers for short-term help.
Ultimately, we can mix and match services, designing an agreement that works best for your nonprofit’s specific needs and budget. That flexibility ensures we’re doing our best to serve your needs, so you can serve your clients.
Learn more about our grant writing services here.
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