How to Hire a Contract Grant Writer

Grant writers and proposal fundraising consultants can help increase funding for non-profits. Many grant writers have skills and insight into the proposal development process that can be valuable to your organization's fundraising. Hire a contract grant writer to relieve you and your staff of the responsibility of writing the proposal.

Things You'll Need

• Annual reports
• IRS 990
• Financial statements

Instructions

1. Draft a statement of the organization's funding needs and the proposed plan for identifying the sources of grants. Create a fundraising support budget that outlines how much the organization will pay per proposal or per day for grant writing.

2. Write a "Scope of Work" with detailed fundraising objectives and grant targets. If the organization has not identified the potential funding sources, add this task to the "Scope of Work."

3. Advertise for a contract grant writer on popular nonprofit websites and get referrals from colleagues. Be specific about your grant writer's proposed qualifications and years of experience. Look for professional grant writers in the Association of Fundraising Professionals database.

4. Decide in advance how to integrate the proposed grant writer service into the management operations of your organization. Specify how the consultant will access information about the organization that is needed for the grant. Determine how often organization management and staff will need to meet with the consultant to monitor progress.

5. Interview the top five candidates. Check all references and qualifications. Obtain copies of previously funded grants and make sure that they are in the same or similar categories as the ones your organization is seeking.

6. Create a contract for the grant writer that includes the scope of work, a non-compete agreement, a non-disclosure agreement, and remedies for non-performance. Get commitment from grant writer and specify length of service, number of proposals and relevant milestones that apply.

7. Assemble background documents that the grant writer will need and establish a plan to monitor progress, milestones and timelines.

Tips & Warnings

• Grant writing fees must be allocated from non-restricted organizational funds. Most foundations and government grants prohibit paying fees to grant writers from their funds.

• Successful grant writers should have copies of funded proposals or references who can verify that they completed funded proposals. If they do not, move on.

Resources

• Get grant help at compasspoint.org.
• Find professional grant writers at nsfre.org.