f.a.q.
Frequently asked questions
For almost two decades, we have worked with a variety of organizations–large and small–at various stages of development and with a range of experience with grant seeking. Please read over the following frequently asked questions to see if we may be able to help you.
Unfortunately, most foundation and corporate funders do not award grants to individuals or businesses, and neither does the government. (The exception is for well-established, mature for-profit businesses that are leaders in their industry AND are responding to a specific government grant opportunity or Request for Proposal.)
If you are trying to get a grant on behalf of yourself, your family, or a small for-profit business, we cannot help you. There are almost no grants available for those purposes, even if you are disabled, a member of a minority group, or a woman. If someone tells you that he or she can get you a grant, beware–it is probably a scam. Most grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations, schools, and other government entities that exist for public benefit. There is no free money!
No. We invoice monthly and request payment within two weeks.
No, sorry. We are excellent grantwriters with a proven history of securing grants. Unfortunately, we cannot control the decisions that funders make. Funders frown on paying grantwriters on commission for a variety of reasons.
For more information, please check out the website of the Puget Sound Grantwriters Association for a great article from Goodwin Deacon on grantwriting ethics, including why grantwriters should never work on commission: Ethics and Commissions (grantwriters.org).
We learned the hard way that brand-new organizations often bring extra challenges. In order to be successful obtaining grant funding, your organization must have some things in place: a budget, a strategic plan, a board of directors, and your 501(c)(3) federal tax determination. Also, most funders will not give you a grant (and some don’t even want to see your proposal) until you have your 501(c)(3) in hand, and they want to see that you have a proven track record of serving your community. See Question #6 below for more information.
We can only write grant proposals for your church if your services are nonsectarian and open to the entire community (and not just the members and prospective members of your church). For example, if you run a food bank or a homeless shelter that serves people regardless of their religious affiliation, we would be happy to hear more about your organization.
At minimum, your organization needs to have an active and involved board of directors, your 501(c)(3) status, a financial system and procedures, program goals, and support of your community (both financially and otherwise). For more details, please see our Grants Readiness page.
No grantwriter can guarantee that a proposal will be funded.
Whether a proposal is successful or not is dependent on many factors, many of which are outside the grantwriter’s control. These factors may include the current state of the economy and the financial health of the funder, the relationship and history between the grantseeking organization and the grantor, the funder’s current interests and priorities (which often change over time), whether an organization is relatively new or has been around for decades, whether or not a program has a proven track record of success serving the community, how competitive the funding is from a particular funder, and how appealing the program and organization are to the prospective funder.
Our current clients vary widely in mission, focus, scope, and appeal to grantors–and our success rate varies with each one vary accordingly. For example, our client organizations that focus on providing basic human needs for
low-income individuals have very high success rates; these organizations often have the widest appeal to funders. Those organizations that don’t serve clients directly may have a lower success rate.
For more information, please contact us.