For the second year, Global Development Solutions published their grant professional pricing survey results and they are worth talking about.
This year, the questions were more specific, which was helpful. They parsed out different types of grant professionals and asked more detailed questions.
I watched the webinar with Holly Rustick and Rachel Waterman where they summarized the findings and took notes.
I will share the stats I found most interesting and relevant.
Sponsored Content
Do you need an elevated grant tool with a robust matching algorithm that allows you to find the perfect grants and then track them through the process? After endless scrolling through “free” grant search tools, I decided to work smarter, not harder.
I subscribed to Instrumentl.
Save $50 with promo code EPICGRANTS50.
They offer a 14 day trial if you want to try it out.
The first thing I noticed is that 50% of surveyed contract grant writers and consultants have 10+ years of experience. This tells me that grant professionals are leaving their 9-5 jobs with nonprofits to forge their own paths.
I personally learned 20+ years ago that being self-employed allows me to earn more, work fewer hours, have control over my time, and travel more. It is encouraging to me that so many others are also realizing this.
A series of survey questions also revealed that contract grant professionals have no idea what to charge and that we kind of make it up as we go. This is a bit scary and my hope is that surveys like this and communities like Write Epic Grants will help us to be transparent, gain confidence in our pricing, and ultimately be paid our worth. Here are the things I think about when constructing a fee schedule.
As a result of not knowing what to charge, we end up working a significant number of hours for free. 45% of respondents reported working 10+ unpaid hours each month. That equals $20K+/year we leave on the table. If you are wondering whether non-profits have the money to pay grant professionals, I talk about that here. Spoiler alert: Unless pro bono work is part of your offering, we should be charging for our time.
I was surprised to see that the majority of contract grant professionals do not account for important factors when calculating pricing. For example, most were not considering self-employment taxes, retirement funding, health insurance, overhead costs like subscriptions, laptops, internet, home office, etc. Basically, we are not charging enough. This is why I only work on a monthly retainer for 6+ months.
I was encouraged to learn that grant professionals with a GPCI or CFRE certification earn 41% more than those without certification. Last week, I registered to take the GPCI, so this stat was encouraging. After passing the exam, I will be able to justify much higher rates to new clients.
It is on us to maintain the integrity of the grant professional industry and part of that is knowing our value and ensuring that our worth is reflected in our fees and salaries.
Until next time,
Write Epic Grants