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| Re: New Grant Writing Professional Looking for Advice
Posted by Linda Procopio   on 5/3/2011, 8:56 pm, in reply to "New Grant Writing Professional Looking for Advice"
VIP Poster|
Congratulations on your new career direction. I visited your website. My most heartfelt advise relates to your fee structure page. There is SUCH a steep learning curve each time you work with a new client, and you need to decide early on how you're going to get paid for all of the time you need to spend learning enough about every new client to be an effective grantwriter for their mission. This learning curve is lost "billable hours" if you can only charge for the time actually spent in composition of a proposal. Because we recognize that this learning curve for every single new client is steep and time-consuming, we never do a single proposal for any client. If I'm going to learn that much about any nonprofit, I want to use that knowledge more than once. For that reason, we sign contracts for a minimum of 1 year to complete 10 to 20 proposals within 12 months for a flat annual fee. Then we work hard to renew those annual contracts; over half of our current 30 grantwriting clients have been with us continuously 3 to 8 years. I encourage you to think about your business model, as you will be able to do your best work when you work with the same clients year after year, and you will be more successful for your clients when you have time to build a thorough understanding of the nuances of their programs and mission. A profitable grantwriting consultancy is only possible if you are successful at getting your clients grant awards; that's what brings the repeat business and referrals. You want a business model that positions you for success.
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