Grant Application Writer

Grant application – Typically applies for various public and private grants on the behalf of small local or regional organizations, particularly non-profit organizations with minimal staff that is burdened with administrative costs.

Grants are often given from private endowments, but the vast majority of grants come from Federal, State, and local sources. They are given for a variety of reasons, many of which have to do with political ideologies of those in power at the moment. Grants fund everything from meals for the elderly to green building, startups for certain categories of individuals or businesses that are seeking to fund a particular project, jobs, or those who seek to do business in a certain part of the country.

While the concept of grants is that these are given without obligation to pay them back (otherwise it would be a loan), grants always have strings attached to them. First, they must be used for the purpose they are given. A grant that is given to build green housing couldn’t be used to build a shopping mall instead.

Grants usually have other restrictions or limitations. Some grants require that a certain number of people are hired, or that certain conditions are maintained for a given number of years. Grants may give away free money, but they are rarely without condition and requirement.

Applying for grants is not an easy thing. Each and every grant has different requirements, and often the grant writer first job is to determine what those who read the grant are looking for. Are they focused on jobs, minority opportunities, increasing technology, aid to people with health or handicap issues? Each of these issues can have overlap, so the grant writer is often left to determine the area of focus and what the grant should ask for. The grant writer must target the grant with a proposal the most closely matches the ideals of the granting organization.

Each year about $400 Billion in grants are given through Federal, State, and local governments. Hundreds of millions more are given by private organizations with specific goals in mind.

In each of these grant opportunities, grant proposals must be written. You can imagine how valuable these are to the organizations that get them and how much they are worth. A good grant writer is worth his/her weight in gold.

Grant writing in a boom economy

When economies are good, there are usually an abundance of grant opportunities. In many cases, it’s a matter of finding them and putting the right organization forward. Grant writing will always be competitive, but many grant writers take less time to be specific to the grant when they have many grant proposals to write. A good grant writer still goes for the gold in each opportunity.

Grant writing in a bust economy

Things get very competitive when economies sour. Organizations that never sought grants before are applying for anything they can find. While this means that there are potentially fewer grant awards, it also means that many organizations are willing to pay money to someone who has done it before and knows their way around.

How much money can I make?

A good grant writer can nearly write their own paycheck. That said, there are few people that fall into this category. It is impossible to put an income range on grant writing because it depends on how successful you are at locating clients, appropriate grants, and writing the grant proposal. Grant writing also requires a certain amount of research. If you aren’t going to spend the time learning how to write grant proposals and doing the research before you do, it’s not worth the bother. You will not only waste your time, but you could potentially waste the opportunity for those clients would do well with someone else. Grant writing is exciting and full of potential, but it is not a casual business that someone can just pick up and start to do.

Geographical limitations/differences

Grant writing will vary from state to state and depending upon the kinds of grant proposals you are good at. States that want to put a lot of money into green construction will attract different businesses than ones who are willing to put money into energy research or minority opportunities. Research your state’s own grant opportunities before going further.

Competitors

Every organization that wants the same money is your competitor, regardless of whether they have a professional grant writer or not. In many cases, nonprofits hire their own professional grant writer, and they do this all day long. Outside professional grant writers may have the opportunity to add a different perspective and see the organization differently, or spend more time in research from different perspectives.

Advertising your grant writing business

Many grant writing opportunities exist within the nonprofit sector. There are many nonprofits, even in small communities, so it should not be hard to locate potential clients.

Do not give up on the idea of writing grants for small business just because most people talk about grants that are only for nonprofits. Small businesses can take grant money for a variety of things, particularly having to do with jobs and research.

License Requirements

No licenses are generally required to write grants unless the grant itself requires it. An example of a kind of grant that might require a license could be one that requires the writer to be an expert in the field such as a medical doctor. These however, are rare.

All grant applications have certain signing requirements, but these are generally obligated towards a managing official of the organization for whom the grant is filed. Such signing requirements obligate the organization to use the funding in a certain manner if it is awarded, and to truthfully attest to any statements of fact about the organization including but not limited to it’s financial structure and condition.

Financial Requirements

Grant writers have few financial requirements past the purchase of a computer for the purpose of researching and writing grand proposals. A certain amount of education may come in handy and research will always be required. A good place to start on learning to write grants is found online at:

http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/tutorials/shortcourse/index.html

What to do next

Start educating yourself on the grant proposal writing processes and review grant proposals that you can find for a real world look at writing grant proposals. It is helpful to review the terms of the grant offering in light of the proposal to see how each writer approached the problem.

A grant writer can never start too late in researching the availability of grants and where to find them.

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