Securing funding for non-profit organizations is no small feat. With limited resources, fierce competition, and often complex application processes, a strategic approach is essential. That's where a non-profit grant writer can make all the difference. These professionals bring expertise in crafting compelling applications that align with funder priorities, helping non-profits secure the funding they need to advance their missions.
Whether you're new to grant writing or looking to improve your success rate, working with a grant writer can transform your non-profit's fundraising efforts. Let’s explore how these experts can help, what to look for when hiring one, and how to ensure a productive partnership.
The Role of a Non-Profit Grant Writer
A grant writer plays a pivotal role in the funding journey of non-profit organizations. Their expertise goes beyond drafting proposals—they align your mission with funder priorities, ensuring your applications stand out. Key responsibilities include:
- Researching Grant Opportunities: Grant writers identify funding sources aligned with your organization’s mission, goals, and capacity. This involves deep research into databases, government portals, and private foundations to pinpoint the best opportunities.
- Crafting Compelling Proposals: Grant writers excel at turning your vision into persuasive narratives. They highlight your organization’s impact, structure the application clearly, and ensure compliance with funder requirements.
- Ensuring Compliance: Professional grant writers are meticulous about meeting application deadlines and following funder guidelines, reducing the risk of disqualification.
- Building Relationships: Beyond writing, grant writers often network with funders, helping to establish long-term partnerships that benefit your organization.
- Tracking and Reporting: Grant writers can help your organization track the outcomes of funded projects, ensuring compliance with reporting requirements and strengthening future applications.
By delegating these tasks to a skilled grant writer, your team can focus on delivering programs and advancing your mission.
Benefits of Working with a Grant Writer for Non-Profits
Engaging a grant writer offers many benefits for organizations striving to secure funding.
- Save Time and Resources: Grant proposals require significant time and effort. Outsourcing this work frees your team to focus on delivering impactful programs and managing day-to-day operations.
- Increase Success Rates: Grant writers know what funders look for in applications. Their experience in proposal writing, compliance, and storytelling gives your submissions a competitive edge.
- Gain Specialized Expertise: Experienced grant writers bring knowledge of the funding landscape, including which grants are most viable for your organization.
- Access Proven Systems: Grant writers often use established workflows and templates, streamlining the process while ensuring high-quality results.
- Strengthen Organizational Messaging: A grant writer refines your narrative, ensuring your organization’s impact and goals resonate with funders.
- Build Long-Term Capacity: Working with a grant writer can help you develop templates, systems, and skills that strengthen your grant-seeking strategy over time.
When a Non-Profit Should Hire a Grant Writer
Hiring a grant writer can be a game-changer for your non-profit, but timing is crucial. Here are the most common signs that it’s time to recruit some professional grant assistance:
- Overwhelmed Staff: Your team is stretched thin with existing responsibilities and cannot dedicate time to grant writing.
- Low Success Rates: Past applications have not yielded the desired results, indicating a need for improved strategy or execution.
- High-Stakes Opportunities: You’re pursuing large grants with detailed requirements that demand expertise.
- New Initiatives: Launching a new project or expanding programs requires additional funding beyond your current capacity.
- Don’t Know Where to Start: You don’t yet have a shortlist of grant opportunities, a grant template for your initiative, or ready-to-deploy text describing your work.
What to Look For in a Non-Profit Grant Writer
Finding the right grant writer can significantly impact your success. Consider these qualities when evaluating candidates:
- Relevant Experience: Seek a writer with expertise in your sector, whether it’s education, healthcare, conservation, or the arts.
- Proven Track Record: Ask for examples of successful grant applications and the types of organizations they’ve worked with.
- Strong Communication Skills: A great grant writer can simplify complex ideas and present them clearly and persuasively. A great indicator of strong communication skills is when you leave a call with this person feeling as if you’ve learned something or gained a new perspective.
- Adaptability and Collaboration: Look for someone who values your input, particularly in the early stages, and aligns their work with your organization’s voice and culture.
- Knowledge of Grant Platforms: Familiarity with tools like Grants.gov and subscriptions to paywalled services like Grant Station is essential for efficient grant research and submission.
- Availability and Flexibility: Ensure the writer has the bandwidth to meet your deadlines and adapt to your organization’s needs.
- Systems and Rules for Collaboration: An experienced writer will set boundaries around your work together, including timelines, deadlines, and how you’ll share feedback. Look for a writer who brings her own recipe for success rather than someone who waits for your instruction.
How to Maximize Your Partnership With a Grant Writer
Maximize the benefits of working with a grant writer by preparing effectively. Here’s how to set the stage for success:
- Clarify Your Goals: Identify the funding priorities and projects you want to emphasize. Be specific about the impact you aim to achieve.
- Select Relevant Documentation: Equip your grant writer with detailed program descriptions, budgets, and key performance metrics. Avoid overwhelming her with unnecessary documentation; instead, focus on providing a curated set of relevant materials. This ensures a streamlined process and allows the grant writer to focus on crafting a compelling application.
- Define Your Collaboration Expectations: Be ready to answer questions regarding how you prefer to communicate, what timeline and milestones are important to you, and how you want to contribute to the process.
- Provide Access to Knowledge Holders and Decision Makers: Especially when you’ve just begun working together, grant writers often need to clarify aspects of your organization’s operations or funding goals. Expect to provide access to technical experts and decision-makers to ensure accurate and persuasive narratives. This is particularly important for early drafts of the grant application, when adjustments can be made without major last-minute rework.
- Provide Context: Be ready to share your organization’s mission, values, and key achievements to help the grant writer understand your story.
- Be Open to Feedback: Grant writers bring fresh perspectives that can refine your strategies and messaging. Elicit their point of view, ask for their feedback, and embrace their recommendations.
- Build Relationships with Grantors: Grantors value personal connections. When possible, schedule meetings to discuss your organization’s mission and alignment with their priorities – or give your grant writer permission to do this on your behalf. This helps establish rapport and demonstrates your commitment to collaboration.
How Written Progress Supports Non-Profits
At Written Progress, we specialize in partnering with non-profits to secure vital funding. Our grant writing services are tailored to your unique needs, ensuring every proposal reflects your mission and maximizes your chances of success.
Our Services Include:
- Custom Grant Writing Template: A comprehensive system that captures your mission and programs in a reusable format and shortlists targeted opportunities for you, streamlining future applications.
- Grant Coaching & Review Services: Ideal for organizations building internal capacity, this service includes expert reviews, guidance, and tools to improve your grant writing skills.
- Full-Service Grant Writing: End-to-end management of the grant application process, from research to submission, ensuring polished and competitive proposals.
Success Stories from Written Progress
Written Progress has supported numerous non-profits in securing transformative funding. Here are examples of how their tailored services have led to real-world impact:
Case Study 1: Biochar
A biochar non-profit's in-house business development staff was burnt out and overstretched from attempting to recreate their application text for every grant opportunity. Written Progress’ Custom Grant Writing Template and Grant Coaching and Review services streamlined their grant work into a sustainable, enjoyable process.
Case Study 2: Biotechnology
A California university’s application to the US Department of Energy was nearly ready, but too far over the word limit to submit. Written Progress began carefully trimming the application just 24 hours before the submission deadline. The scientists were thrilled that the technical robustness of the application had been preserved, and they successfully submitted right on time.
Case Study 3: Rural Climate Change Resiliency
A rural development research non-profit was struggling to coordinate the research team to create coherent, compliant applications. Written Progress helped refine their strategy and narrative and successfully landed $30M for their work.
Key Questions About Working With a Grant Writer as a Non-Profit
Understanding how to collaborate effectively with a grant writer is vital for securing funding and ensuring your organization’s needs are met. Here, we address some common questions non-profits have when considering grant writing services.
Can a Grant Writer Guarantee Success?
No grant writer can guarantee success, as numerous factors influence grant outcomes. These include funder priorities, competition, and external decision-making processes. However, experienced grant writers significantly improve your chances by targeting well-aligned opportunities, avoiding common mistakes, and crafting compelling, evidence-based proposals.
For instance, the average win rate for general grant applicants is around 10–20%. Skilled grant writers can achieve win rates as high as 60–80% by focusing on funder alignment and proposal quality .
What Factors Affect Grant Success?
Beyond the expertise of your grant writer, external factors such as shifting funder priorities and the competitive landscape play a role. For example:
- Reviewer Preferences: Scoring criteria may vary between reviewers, leading to differences in how proposals are evaluated.
- Limited Resources: Even strong applications may not receive funding if the pool of available resources is small.
- Funder Relationships: Prior relationships with funders give organizations an edge.
- No Longer Considering Applications: Sometimes funders' sites are not updated to indicated that they've already awarded all funds.
Building a long-term relationship with your grant writer can mitigate these uncertainties. By collaborating over time, you can refine your approach and increase your success rate.
How Involved Will We Need to Be?
Our flexible approach accommodates your preferences, whether you prefer active collaboration or a hands-off process.
How Long Does the Process Take?
The timeline for grant results varies widely. Some grantors notify recipients within 30–90 days, while others take six months or longer. Planning ahead—ideally 12 months in advance—ensures sufficient time for preparation, submission, and follow-up.
When Should I Start Looking for a Grant Writer?
Don’t start looking when the application deadline is a few weeks away. Most grant writers will decline this work. Grant writers are judged by their win rate, so they will decline opportunities where the odds are stacked against them.
Instead, start recruiting a grant writer when you start thinking you’d like to have grant funding. A skilled grant writer will lay the foundation for stress-free, successful application by preparing your strategy, identifying the best opportunities, and preparing much of the text in advance.
How Soon Can We Start?
Grant writer’s on-boarding times vary from a few days to a few months, depending on their availability. At Written Progress, we are selective about the clients that we work with. But if it’s a fit, we kick off our work with you the same day.
An Important Misconception About Grant Writers
I can pay my grant writer on commission if we win.
Commission is a great tool for budget strapped initiatives to motivate talent and align interests. Unfortunately, it is prohibited by most grants, as well as the International Grantwriters’ Assocation, to compensate grant writers on a commission basis. It’s part of the broader paradigm that grant funds to focus on supporting beneficiaries. Grantors want grants to fund specific programs, and diverting funds for writer compensation can result in compliance issues. Some grant writers work around this by charging success fees. Most charge flat fees, retainers, or hourly rates to ensure transparency and ethical practices.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls When Working With a Grant Writer
Collaboration with a non-profit grant writer can be transformative for your organization, but certain pitfalls can derail the process and lead to unnecessary delays or reduced quality. Addressing these challenges upfront ensures smoother workflows, keeps budgets intact, and produces higher-quality proposals. Below are some common pitfalls and easy solutions to make your experience seamless and rewarding.
Decision-Makers Skimming or Skipping Early Draft Reviews
Issue: Decision-makers often overlook early drafts and focus their attention on the final draft. This can result in major last-minute changes that compromise the proposal's quality and strain the project timeline.
Solution: Experienced grant writers will provide a first-draft detailed outline for review. This document is designed to quickly convey the proposal’s direction and structure. Decision-makers should prioritize reviewing this outline and join calls for clarification or adjustments early in the process. Proactive feedback ensures the final draft is polished and avoids last-minute overhauls.
Editing Without Tracked Changes
Issue: Editing a grant writer’s draft without using the tracked changes (or ‘suggesting’) function, or leaving feedback within the text rather than in comment boxes, creates significant inefficiencies. The writing process will halt while the grant writer cleans the formatting, move syour ideas to comment boxes, and combs through the text for the changes you’ve made.
Solution: Use the tracked changes or suggesting function to edit, and use comment boxes for comments. If team members are unfamiliar with these tools, your grant writer can provide a quick tutorial. This approach saves time, reduces errors, and keeps revisions organized and effective.
Exceeding Word Limits
Issue: Grant proposals often have strict word limits. Adding new content without checking whether the topic has been addressed elsewhere can result in redundancy, disorganization, or applications that can’t be submitted due to excessive word counts.
Solution: A skilled non-profit grant writer helps structure the document to meet word count requirements while ensuring every key point is addressed. If something appears to be missing, check to see if it’s discussed elsewhere. Flag missing information with comments and suggest where existing content can be trimmed to make room for new ideas. Collaborative review keeps proposals concise and impactful.
Using Multiple Versions of the Same Draft
Issue: Feedback scattered across multiple versions of the same document causes confusion, delays integration, and risks losing valuable comments. Reconciling divergent drafts wastes time and budget.
Solution: A single “live” version of the document—often shared via platforms like Google Docs—prevents duplication and ensures real-time collaboration. Designating one master file that is passed between reviewers or edited online keeps all feedback centralized and avoids errors.
Providing Feedback After Review Periods End
Issue: Submitting additional feedback after the agreed-upon review period ends can derail schedules, disrupt timelines, and lead to miscommunication. This issue is compounded when divergent files have continued to evolve without centralized oversight.
Solution: Follow the grantwriter’s deadlines for feedback and resist the temptation to make a copy of online files that have been marked as “DO NOT EDIT” at the review period end. Instead, ask the grant writer how to proceed without delaying timelines.
Sharing Your Entire Resource Library for Review
Issue: It’s tempting to share all your resources instead of taking the time to create a curated resource library for your grant writer. However, resource-dumping is one of the most common reasons for budget overage. Without any prior knowledge of your initiative, the grant writer must sift through the entirety of your resources to begin to understand what is the most up-to-date and relevant. The result: slow kickoff, diluted focus, strained resources, and compromised quality.
Solution: Avoid overwhelming her with unnecessary documentation; instead, focus on providing a curated set of relevant materials. This ensures a streamlined process and allows the grant writer to focus on crafting a compelling application. This approach ensures clarity, focus, and high-quality outcomes.
Why Addressing These Pitfalls Matters
Grant writers operate in a high-pressure environment of strict deadlines and rigorous requirements. Avoiding these common issues not only ensures smoother workflows but also allows your organization to maximize the value of its investment in grant writing services. Open communication, organized feedback, and adherence to agreed timelines create a foundation for success.
At Written Progress, we specialize in managing these challenges with proven strategies and tools. From ensuring compliance to aligning feedback with project goals, our team is equipped to support non-profits in delivering competitive grant proposals that secure funding.
By addressing these potential pitfalls upfront, your organization can collaborate effectively with a grant writer and streamline the path to funding success.
Partner With Written Progress
Securing funding doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right grant writer, your non-profit can submit applications that get noticed, build your reputation with funders, and ultimately achieve your mission. Written Progress is here to help. We offer tailored services that land you funding and save your time.
Final Thoughts
Working with a non-profit grant writer is an investment in your organization’s future. By leveraging professional expertise and adopting a strategic approach, you can transform your grant writing efforts into a sustainable funding pipeline. At Written Progress, we’re here to guide you every step of the way, from crafting initial strategies to submitting polished, competitive applications. Ready to take your funding strategy to the next level? Let’s start the conversation today.