Grant writing and administration for small organizations
If your organization hasn't worked with me before, I'll write your first grant application free.
Ask about a free applicationSee fees after that
Finding and writing a grant is one job. Keeping it after the award is another: every month there are reports to write, spending to check against the budget, drawdowns to request and deadlines to hit. In a small organization both jobs usually land on someone who already has a full-time job. I do the preparing. Your team reviews, signs and submits.
Your first application is free
Any organization I haven't worked with before gets its first grant application written at no cost. You review it and submit it. If it isn't awarded, you owe nothing. If it is, I'd be glad to handle the administration, usually paid out of the award.
It's how I'd rather start: showing you the work instead of describing it. After the first, each application has a flat fee by type, set before work starts.
After the first: flat fees by type
The fee follows the work a funder's format demands, not the size of the check. We agree the fee by email before I start, and it is the same whether or not the grant is awarded.
| Letter of inquiry or short form | $450 |
|---|---|
| Foundation ask under $25K | $950 |
| Foundation ask $25K to $100K | $1,850 |
| Foundation ask over $100K | $2,900 |
| City, county or state application | $2,750 |
| Federal, form-based | $950 |
| Federal, full narrative | $4,500 |
| Resubmission or renewal I wrote | Half the fee |
| Funder research report | $395 |
| Your first application | Free |
- What each application includes. A fit check against the funder's rules, a short intake form for the facts and numbers, the full narrative and budget narrative, two rounds of revisions, and a final draft at least five business days before the deadline when the intake arrives on time.
- No fee ever depends on winning. The fee is set before work starts and is owed whether or not the grant is awarded. I never take a percentage of an award.
Desk work only. You keep the relationships.
I do the paperwork side of grants: research, writing, tracking and reports. It runs by email and shared documents, which keeps the price low. Funders expect to hear from your own leaders, so the relationship work stays with you.
- You handle calls, meetings and site visits with funders, donor conversations, letters of support from partners, and any public hearing or presentation a funder requires.
- I support that from the desk with talking points before a funder call, draft emails and letters for you to send, a letter-of-support template partners can adapt, and an organized file ready for any funder visit.
What administration covers
- Award setup. I read your award documents and turn them into one clear record: the budget by line, which costs are allowed, any match you owe, and a calendar of every report, drawdown and closeout date for the life of the grant.
- Monthly budget tracking. Budget to actual for each award, with early warnings when a line is spending too fast or too slow, or the grant is headed toward money left unspent.
- Match tracking. How much match or cost share you've built up against what the award requires.
- Reports. I draft the financial report and the progress report in the funder's format, with your results stated against the targets in your proposal.
- Drawdown prep. Each reimbursement or drawdown request assembled: the math, the ledger detail and the backup documents.
- Closeout. Final financial and progress reports, and a reconciliation of any unspent balance.
What stays with you
- You sign and submit. I never sign, certify or submit anything to a funder for you. That belongs to your organization, by law and by the terms of your award, and I keep it that way.
- Your books stay yours. I don't do bookkeeping, payroll or audits. I work from read access or a monthly export.
- The judgment calls are yours. If I spot a question about whether a cost is allowed, I raise it. You and your funder decide it.
- Private data stays private. I work from totals and de-identified numbers only, never records about individual people you serve.
How it works
Send me the award
The notice of award, the agreement and the approved budget. I build the award record and the deadline calendar, then check them against the documents myself before anything goes live.
Answer a few questions each month
Early in the month I pull the numbers from your accounting and send five questions or fewer, only what the books can't tell me, like program counts or staffing changes. One email. No meeting.
Review, sign, submit
Around the ninth business day you get the drafted reports and any drawdown package. You review, edit if needed, sign and submit. Then forward me the funder's confirmation so the calendar shows it done.
Administration pricing
| Award $25K to $50K, 1 or 2 reports | $1,500 a year, all-in |
|---|---|
| Award $50K to $150K | $500 setup, $175 a month |
| Award $150K to $500K | $500 setup, $275 a month |
| Award over $500K | $500 setup, $400 a month |
| Federal or pass-through money | Add $150 a month |
| Reports only, no tracking | $350 per report |
- Priced by the work. Administration runs $1,500 a year for small awards and $175 to $400 a month above $50K, plus $150 a month for federal money. Complexity, not size, drives the work, and federal rules add the most of it.
- Paid from the award. Grant administration is usually an allowable cost, so the fee can come out of the grant rather than your unrestricted cash, as long as it fits the funder's rules and your approved budget. More on that in the questions below.
- Writing is priced separately. Your first application is free; after that each application has a flat fee by type (see above).
- No percentage of your award. Flat fees only, always.
- Messy books? If your accounting doesn't separate one grant from another well enough to track, I'll quote that cleanup separately before we start, so there are no surprises.
Who it's for
- Small nonprofits with budgets of roughly $150K to $3M: big enough to carry real grants, too small for a full-time grants manager. I'm in Humboldt County, California, and glad to work locally, and the work runs by email, so distance isn't a problem.
- Small for-profit businesses. Plenty of grants are open to companies, and few people help them apply. Examples include California's Employment Training Panel (ETP) for employee training, SBIR and STTR for small business research and development, and USDA programs for rural businesses.
Questions
Is the fee really allowable?
Usually, but it isn't automatic. Grant administration is typically an allowable cost, charged either as its own line in the budget or through your indirect cost rate. Whether it works for your grant depends on that funder's rules and on your approved budget. The cleanest way is to include it in the budget when you apply. If you're already awarded, it may take a budget change the funder has to approve. That decision belongs to you and your funder. I'll help you find where it fits, and if it doesn't fit, we'll talk about scaling down or stopping.
Do you submit anything for us?
No, never. I prepare the reports and documents. Someone at your organization reviews, signs and submits them, and sends me the funder's confirmation so I can mark it done. Nothing counts as filed on my side until that confirmation comes back.
Do you take a percentage of the award?
No. Many funders won't pay for it, and it isn't how honest work in this field is priced. You pay the flat fees above and nothing else.
Do you talk to funders for us?
No. Funders expect to hear from your own leaders, and that keeps my prices low. I prepare talking points and draft emails; you make the calls.
What do you charge by the hour?
$85 an hour in quarter hours, only for desk work not covered by a flat fee, and only after you approve a written estimate. Work done without that approval is not billed.
What do you need from us?
Your award documents, read access to your accounting or a monthly export, answers to a short monthly question list within a couple of days, and time to review and submit what I send.
Will you use our name as a reference?
Only with your written permission. Your records, award documents and results stay confidential.
Let's talk
Tell me about the grant you have, or the one you're hoping for. A few sentences is plenty, and I'll write back.
Seth