Should You Hire a Grant Writer?

Grant applications live and die by their ability to cram a bajillion shades of meaning into approximately 1000 characters or less, and while these articles won't be quite so pithy, I hope you will allow me the opportunity to share a few of the tips and tricks I've learned by tuning in every Tuesday to my cool little corner of the Interwebs.

Today's topic is the elephant in the room: Can't we just do all this ourselves? Grant-writing, I mean. And the answer is of course you can. Most under-funded, under-staffed, and over-worked nonprofits choose to do just that. They do all their fundraising and grant-writing in-house, sometimes off-loading the work onto volunteers or interns to mixed results.

Sometimes these efforts work out, sometimes not.

The choice to hire a consultant is an investment that carries with it a degree of risk. Are consultants worth the money? Sometimes. We can't guarantee funding. No one can. There are too many factors outside our control. Everything from postage delays and power outages to plain human error.

I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a grant after going over it time and again, hitting submit, and then realizing I used the same word twice or didn't doublecheck a key anecdote or missed out on some other bit of information that I didn't realize was essential. It happens. We make mistakes. But we work hard, and we deserve to be paid for our labor. Of course, you deserve results for your money.

But I'm getting off track. Because nonprofits are often understaffed and overworked, grant-writing and fundraising in general can take a backseat to programs (as it should). As a result, the grant application doesn't get its chance to shine. On top of that, grant applications get repetitive after a while, encouraging even the best of us to copy/paste off the website or boilerplate marketing material we've left untouched since roughly 2011. Not the best strategy for winning new funders or keeping old funders happy.

Copy/pasting from old marketing material or old applications can be extremely tempting, but problems emerge when the old material doesn't match a new program or a new funder's needs and interests. Worse, when the old material doesn't match the new direction your organization's going in.

A consultant can help you there. You know what I do all day? Write. I don't do programs. I barely do grant reporting or funder relations. I don't have phone calls coming in all day from customers or clients (well, nonprofit clients, but you get the idea). When I'm not writing, I'm out making sales calls, networking to help more people so I can hopefully get more clients, going to BNI meetings, making more calls, and attending more Zoom webinars than I care to admit. Do you know how often I wear pants? Always. Why would you ask that?

Listen. A good consultant will work with you. Our prices can be high, but that's so we can move them down for you. Don't tell the other consultants I told you that, ok? It'll be our little secret.

My final send-off today will be a dad joke. 

Today's joke: Why don't skeletons fight each other?

They don't have any guts.

I am of course taking submissions for future dad jokes to close out future articles.

That's all for now. Until Tuesday, please like, comment, and call your Momma or Mother-figure!

*Quick disclaimer: AI did give me the idea for the concept behind this post (The Hidden Cost of DIY Grant Writing), but I wrote this whole thing and edited it by myself. Didn't even use AI to double-check anything, which I have done for grants in the past. Boy, does it show, huh? Want to show you my best, 100% human work. Unfortunately, do not currently have the funds for a human error, and as I am VERY single, I do not have a significant other to annoy with my demands for free editing assistance. Future post about the positives and pitfalls of AI forthcoming.