If you?re serious about acquiring funds for your organization through grant applications, you are no doubt hiring, or at least considering hiring, a professional grant writer.

The problem is that few non-profits can afford a professional grant writer?s fees, which can often climb to $8000 or more per application or $100 or more per hour!

So what?s a non-profit to do?

As a grant writer myself, I face my own problems.

I have to think, when setting my fees, about the non-profits I?m looking to work for and what they can reasonably afford to pay out.

But I also have to think about myself. I have to set reasonable fees to ensure I?m contributing enough to my household and providing sufficient support to my family.

I?m not here to tell you that my fees are the best and that you should hire me for your grant work.

In fact, I?m going to let you in on a few secrets that most professional grant writers would rather you didn?t know.

And by doing this, I?m probably ensuring that I never make those millions that most writers aim for and will do anything to grab.

But I am doing this for a more important reason, as you will see as you read on.

There are three main methods of paying a grant writer and most grant writers have their own rules as to how they are paid.

They are:

Hourly
By Commission
Per Project

Let?s cover these one by one.

Most grant writers will charge by the hour. Paying a grant writer on an hourly basis for their work can cost a non-profit a lot of money.

Why?

Who?s to say how many hours that grant writer has spent on the work? He or she may quote 50 hours altogether but may have only spent 30 on the work.

See the problem here?

As we?re talking about hiring freelancers here, let me just mention the disadvantages of hiring someone full time for the work.

Obviously, non-profits will have to provide a salary and benefits to any full time workers and that includes our grant writer.

That?s another chunk added to the non-profit?s expenses.

And what?s the point in hiring someone to write grants full time when no non-profit spends a whole year, year after year, applying for grants?

Waste of money.

Let?s look at payment method number 2. Paying by commission.

This probably the most dangerous payment method for a non-profit, not to mention pretty miserable for the grant writer.

Very few grant writers will set commission as their payment method.

However, most non-profits choose commission as their method for paying grant writers.

For the grant writer, they are never guaranteed to get paid and there is nothing worse than working your butt off only to get nothing at the end of it if your grant applications fail.

But for the non-profit organization, this can result in the destruction of their organization.

Here?s why.

If a non-profit decides to pay a grant writer a percentage of any funds that the writer attains for the non-profit, they have one of two choices.

One ? Include this percentage in the budget info that will be included in the grant applications, or

Two ? Don?t include any info regarding paying the grant writer.

There are disadvantages from both.

If the non-profit decides to include the grant writer?s cut in the budget info, they are unlikely to receive any funding. This is because grant makers don?t look kindly on the possibility of their money being used for irrelevant purposes. Grant makers want to know that their money, every cent of it, is going to be used to directly benefit the project that the grant proposal describes. And paying a grant writer does not fall into that description, according to grant makers.

If the non-profit decides not to mention paying the grant writer using part of the funds, this situation could end in disaster if the grant maker finds out.

If a non-profit uses funds for anything other than described in the original grant proposal, and this includes paying a grant writer, and the grant maker finds out, the grant maker will demand the return of the original amount granted to the non-profit.

And this is enforceable by law.

That kind of situation can have a drastic impact on the non-profit and could even result in the non-profit falling apart, especially if most of the funds have already been spent.

The other danger to the non-profit paying commission is demonstrated by the following short report (do read it, it is really eye-opening!):

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/2007/06/04/fake_writer/

So I think we?ve established that Hourly and Commission-based payment methods are open to big risks.

So what have we got left?

Paying grant writers on a project-by-project basis is probably the safest method for both parties.

For the non-profit, they can see up front what it will cost them for the work they want done and can therefore avoid any nasty surprises.

For the grant writer, this ensures they are paid fairly for their work.

A common question that non-profits often ask is ?Why should we pay the grant writer if none of the grant applications have been successful and we have received no funding??

It?s a fair question.

My answer, which is admittedly biased, would be that grant writing is a profession, just like any other. The amount of work that has to be done just to compile one grant proposal is immense, involving a great deal of research.

From a non-profit organization?s point of view, if the grant writer fails to acquire funding for the organization, that non-profit should receive something for their payment.

That something should be in the form of the research that has been done by the grant writer, which will be very valuable for the non-profit in the future. That way, the organization receives something for their money.

So how can a non-profit get their grant applications written without having to spend a ridiculous amount of money? Find a grant writer who accepts payment on a project basis and doesn?t charge a fortune for their work! Hard to find but definitely worth it.

So to summarize, the best option for both non-profit and grant writer is project-by-project payment. This way, there are no nasty surprises for the non-profit and the grant writer is paid fairly for their work.

Be very careful, non-profits, if you insist on paying on a commission basis because if you decide not to quote this expense in your proposal, you run the risk of having to pay back any funding you may receive if the grant maker finds out, whether you have spent all the grant money or not!

If you are interested in my accepted methods of payment for my grant writing services, please see the FAQ section of my website.

Be very careful when hiring a grant writer and how you decide to deal with paying them.