self taught grant writers? - Page 2

[shayinme]

Originally Posted by rainbowmoon

I definitely would be freelancing if this moves forward. I was told for a percentage of the grant. Is that correct? How much does a freelancer usually charge in a situation like that? The situation IS that the non profit will hopefully buy more land for an eco village in 2 locations (including the one I live at that is hopefully being developed if the $ comes through). Thanks so much for the tips too Shay! I am in MA currently.

Nooooo, no and no.. Sorry to be so dramatic but writing for a fee is a huge no-no and almost anyone who is in this line of work will tell you it borders on borderline unethical. First off it puts an unfair burden on the grantwriter, heck even a "small" grant proposal could easily be at least 20 hours, to some degree grantwriting IMO is part art, part science but no matter how great I do my job, ultimately the decision is up to the grantmaker.

Generally folks with little to no experience will try to do this work for a percentage and again IMO its organizations taking advantage of the person's lack of knowledge. If you just google around you will see that the idea of a grantwriter working on a percentage is a really heated issue with most folks saying its a bad idea. My personal belief is that if an organization can't pay the grantwriter up front then they are not ready to pursue grants unless they are using volunteers.

There is also the pesky fact that most grants don't want to pay for someone's fee or salary (goes back to the point I made earlier about general operating fees and how difficult it is to get that type of money) and at the end of the funding period the organization has to report back to the funder how they spent the money and unless its a grant (generally federal) that will allow for salaries on the admin end, you or rather the organization is asking for trouble.

I'm with Avengingophelia on this one, my personal experience over the years is that organizations who are using this angle in many cases are just not ready for grant funding. Since in today's climate, grants really should just only be part of the overall funding plan. That said one of my regular clients did try that approach with me and after I said no, I did work with them to charge a fee they could afford now and that didn't leave me working for chump change. They are my one flat rate client, where they pay a flat rate every month.

Again, don't want to the voice of gloom but I hate when I hear organizations trying to get someone to do this work and are not willing to pay something. There is also the fact that the time between when you write a grant and when they get an approval and actually get the money could be 2-3 months but it could be well over 6 months. Personally I can't work for 6 months with no cash coming in, I'd be homeless and hungry.

Shay

[shayinme]

Originally Posted by rainbowmoon

Thanks mamas!

If I went with it though would it be on a contract since I'm freelancing? Would it be unheard of to bill for the research/writing hours if it falls through or does it just not work that way? Either way I won't work for free. They do have classes/workshops and things though so maybe it could be in trade or something..

This is definitely just something to add to my resume and
"try on for size" sort of thing. Not what I want to be doing long term, or at least I don't think so! I really am not sure!

I bill for research time, regardless of whether or not they decide to apply for the actual grants that I researched since in many cases after I do the research, I make recommendations on whether or not they should go ahead and apply. In many cases the research process saves the client money since and this is an actual example with one of my clients. They had 5 foundations they had heard of that might fund them, well after my research (talking to program officers, looking at who and what they have funded previously is part of that process). I was able to determine that 2 of the 5 leads were definite no's, not a good match at all. 1 was iffy and 2 were good, so said client went with the 2 I said were good, guess what paying for what was 8-9 hours of research time was cheaper than if we had just wrote 5 grants or 80-100 hours of work.

Billing includes research/calls made on client behalf/emails.. pretty much anything I do for the client is considered a billable hour, only area where I don't tally my hours is direct contact with client.

Generally I submit a bill for research after the research is done, for the most part none of my clients have a problem with it since they understand its part of the services that I provide.

Shay