Optimus Template

I’ve been a grant writing consultant for 10 years now and one of the biggest surprises in my industry has been that so many people expect me (or my company) to work for free. Please understand that our company has enough paying grant writing work that it takes a staff of eight people to handle it all. Yet people still call us up, expecting us to start on a new job with no payment, no contract for the work, and only the promise that they will pay us out of the grant once it is funded.

Should you offer to pay a grant writer out of the grant? The clear answer to this question is, “No.” Here are three reasons:

1. Most grant applications forbid it. Most government and private sources of grant funding don’t want to foot the bill for your grant writer. Most do not allow grant writers to be paid after the fact out of grant funds.
   
   If you insist on paying the grant writer out of the grant, you are left with the unethical option of disguising the expense in your budget by calling it something else. This is dishonest, and professional grant writers with professional ethics don’t like to work with dishonest people. We know that people who are willing to cheat the funding source are also likely to cheat us.
   

2. Most professional grant writers won’t do it. Most experienced, professional grant writers have plenty of clients willing to pay for their services. In our case, we have many repeat clients that are large institutions like school districts with a budget to pay for a grant writer.
   
   Sure, you can go find a grant writer who is willing to work for nothing on the front end and share 100% of the risk with you, but this is likely to be someone who is having trouble getting jobs. Is this really who you want representing you in the competitive world of grant writing?
   

3. If you aren’t willing to invest in your own project idea, then why should someone else? My experience as a grant writing consultant tells me that people who are not willing to pay for my services usually do not have a grant proposal idea worth writing. In general, people with innovative projects that are likely to attract funding don’t hesitate to invest their money. Think about it for a moment – if you aren’t willing to invest in your own project idea, then why should a grant writer or grant funder?

Just like lawyers, doctors, or other professionals, our company does some pro bono work to give back to our community. Since we are also grant program evaluators, we sometimes waive or lower a grant writing fee in exchange for a large evaluation contract. But these are situations we initiate with trusted clients. When a new client approaches us with the idea that we are supposed to do hours and hours of volunteer work and share 100% of the risk – well, let’s just say I have trained my office staff to hang up the phone with the fewest number of words.

As you can see, this is a topic I am passionate about—how about you? Leave me your comments below.