You Can Make a Living as a Grant Writer

So maybe you've been blogging or producing articles for associated content with some success, and you feel ready for bigger projects. Perhaps you work for a nonprofit, or have a job in the arts, and could use some more money for operations. Regardless of your motivations, you're considering writing grants professionally. It's an ambitious undertaking, but if you enter the field with an understanding of what you're getting into, you can be a successful grant writer.

If you've made a few dollars here and there writing articles online, you have some idea of what it's like to write for a living. That said, writing grants is a horse of a different color. When you write for a site like Associated Content, most producers can put together an article for submission in somewhere between thirty minutes and two hours. You submit your work, and get your answer regarding payment within a couple weeks - often much faster. If an article is rejected, you can just write another one before the end of the day. Writing a grant application can take 10, 20, 40 hours or more, and it's not uncommon to wait six months for an answer. A good grant writer should be able to focus on a single goal, grant, and organization day after day until they get results. If you're a short-content producer, you should experiment with putting together longer pieces, perhaps try to sell a research paper or two, before jumping right into the fray as a freelance grant writer. Grant writing is tougher than articles but potentially much more rewarding, as well. The rest of the article is aimed toward grant writers within the requesting organization. If you've decided to got he freelance route, this is critical information for you to work through with your clients. The better you understand their work and needs, the better your grant applications will be.

If you're not a writer, but just working with a project that requires funding, your worries may not be with your own personal income, but rather with supporting the organization for which you are writing. The bottom line is much the same though; freelancers and fund raisers need focus and tenacity. Raising funds takes time.

Set Goals. In order to effectively pursue grants, you'll need to set some specific, simple goals. Are you writing a grant for a nature center? Try to look for specific needs. Funders are much more likely to give you money to fix the roof, bring in every 5^th grade classroom in the county free of charge, or start a rehab program than to contribute to the general operating budget for the organization. The same goes for art or religious grants. Fund a teen program rather than the whole church, or pursue money to offer performances in parks throughout the state, and not just to pay the performers' salaries.

Shift Cash. Everyone needs operating cash, and it's frustrating that there are so few general support grants available. That said, when you go after a grant, take the time to look at what funds will be freed up when you receive the grant. Looking at our 5^th grade program example for the nature center, staff will be needed to offer this programming, and if you can use your regular paid staff for this work, and pay them for this time from your grant, you can divert the money budgeted for their pay back to the general budget. This is how grants can most benefit receiving organizations.

Fund what the organization is already doing. Many non-profits, in particular, make the mistake of applying for every grant that could possibly apply to their organization's work. The theory is that any finding is good funding. A grant application is both a request for funding and a commitment from the applying organization to use the funding - if granted - in a specific way. If you write a grant for a large project that your organization would otherwise have no interest in, and receive it, you need to divert energy, time, and effort from your main mission to the mission of this grant. Funding is great, sure, but only if it helps you to do what you do best.

Include Pictures. Government grants respond less strongly to this, but private grantors tend to love some visual aids. Pictures help to establish a connection between your grantor and your organization. The stronger this connection is, the more likely they will be to fund your request. That said, be tasteful. Show the grantor who is benefiting, but don't ram it down their throats, whatever you do! Behaving professionally in your grant application shows that you will behave professionally with the granted funds.

Apply a LOT! This is absolutely critical if you're looking to make a living writing grants. Just as you need to submit more articles to the web than you expect to pay off, you MUST apply for more grant funding than you need. Competition is strong for most grants, and fund raisers abound. Especially when you're just getting started in the field. Write a lot of grants, and hope that at least one gets funded. Most grantors like to know if you've applied for grants elsewhere to fund the same project. Ready the grant guidelines to find out whether or not that's a requirement.

Payment. It's reasonable to expect payment for your grant writing efforts. There are a lot of professional fund raisers and grant writers out there who make a great living in the freelance markets. Part of the reason these people make a good living is their track records. A professional grant writer typically gets payment up front, or on an hourly basis. Very few grant writers are paid on a commission basis, but such arrangements do exist. As a beginner, with no established track record, it may be very difficult to get work. If you do work with a nonprofit organization already, perhaps your grant writing work can be performed on the clock. If this isn't possible, you may need to write a few grants on your own time, or on a modified commission basis. As you have more successful grants to show for your efforts, work will come more quickly and with less effort.

Stick to it. Expect to be rejected - a lot. Just as you had fewer and fewer rejected Associated Content articles over time, as you got to understand the format, so will you have fewer and fewer grants rejected. If comes down to knowing what folks want to see, and giving it to them. Another important element to success is being selective. Use your time wisely and apply only to the grants for which you feel that you can be competitive. Dig in, and write a lot, and you'll get there eventually.

Success. Success as a freelance grant writer comes slowly. Be persistent, don't quit your day job, and write your butt off. If you really want to make it as a fund raiser, you can do it, and when you look at all of the organizations that you've helped out, you'll be doing work that you can really feel good about.