Starting-a-Grant-Writing-Consulting-Business

Starting a Grant Writing Consulting Business

By Chataun Denis

More and more people are investigating how to supplement their income, or replace their day job altogether, by writing grants. If you have the gift of writing, it can truly change your life. Since starting my business 7 years ago, I have been able to help raise almost $3 million for many deserving nonprofits; and my workweek has gone from 40-50 hours per week to 10-12 hours per week. It's heaven on earth. If you are thinking about taking the plunge, you can do it! I do caution you to have a strategy though.

There are two major pre-requisites one should have before marketing his or herself as an accomplished grant writer. These are having:

1) a track record of successful grant proposals; and

2) nonprofit knowledge and experience.

There are numerous people out there touting themselves as professional grant writers. Meanwhile, they have little to no field or nonprofit grant writing experience. They think because they are confident in their writing ability, or have a background in technical writing, that they would easily make the transition. Grant writing and technical writing are very different.

Grant writing is similar to technical writing in that you’re gathering information about various subject matters. As a grant writing consultant, you may have one client or multiple clients with varying missions and programs. Having a technical writing background will allow you to write about numerous subject matters with ease.

Grant writing is dissimilar to technical writing in that it is an emotional appeal. One has to be able to merge the technical side of the argument with the emotional side. People who give away money do so because they have an emotional or personal connection to a cause. It is the grant writer’s job to convince the grantor donor that their charity deserves the grant more than the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of other asking charities.

Anyone can print a business card and say they are capable of delivering such a product. However, I would dare to say, as a CEO or Executive Director of a nonprofit looking to outsource my grant writing the chances of me hiring someone with no track record, knowledge, or field experience would be close to zero. I have heard far too many horror stories about the unethical practices of people claiming to be professional grant writers. This behavior makes nonprofit leaders distrustful and resistant to the idea of outsourcing their grant writing.

If you are an experienced grant writer and you have the documentation to prove it, you can start your own home-based grant writing consulting business with very little start up costs. When I started 2 1/2 years ago, I developed a presentation folder that included:

1) a portfolio of foundations that had approved my proposals;

2) my bio with professional related experience;

3) a brochure listing the types of projects I had worked on; and

4) a postcard that highlighted the benefits of working with my company ($ secured to date, affordability, and free grants research).

I made a short presentation to a few people I knew who managed nonprofits. Then I used local grantee lists to start a database in order to send out advertisements. Each month I would mail a postcard to the nonprofits on my list and follow up with a phone call. I got my first few clients using this marketing strategy. Soon after, those clients began to refer their colleagues and the rest is history.

Have more questions, book a Free 20 Minute Phone Consultation with an expert, today!

Grant Source Articles