How We Began & Tips on Putting Grant Writing to Work for Your Organization

Keller-Ferguson & Associates was born out of necessity. I was perfectly content working in an organization as a full-time technical/grant writer. After a couple of years of securing some really great grants and generating a lot of good press, I found myself being approached by organizations asking how to replicate our success.

I kept telling people the same thing, over and over, "you don't want to replicate this; you'll be hard pressed to find anyone willing to do it." At the time, I was a one-gal grant writing office, working 60-80 hour weeks, 12-16 weeks out of the year, then accumulating busy work to fill my time between funding cycles. My advice to everyone who asked, "you don't need a full-time grant writer because it's a cyclic job; hire a consultant when you need them."

I really didn't want my first paying consulting job. I was already burning the candle at both ends at my day job, but the client was persistent. During our meeting, I quoted a price I thought, at the time, was way out of the ballpark. But much to my dismay, they didn't bat an eye at my ludicrous price and I had to take the job. One thing lead to another and before I knew it, I had met the limit on gross revenue and had to file for a business license. The rest is history.

I still tell people the same thing, "you don't need a full-time grant writer; hire a consultant." These days I'd prefer that the consultant be Keller-Ferguson & Associates, but my reasons are still the same.

Most organizations truly don't need a full-time grant writer and it's far more economical to go with a consultant. Funding research is one of the main areas where a consultant will save you money. Grants.gov alone publishes, on average, twenty pages of new funding notices every week, not counting the modifications. KFA looks at every single one and selectively forwards the pertinent ones to the appropriate clients. A full-time grant writer would have to review every single one too, but only a fraction will be relevant to your organization.

The same goes for keeping up with headlines and funding trends. We spend countless hours every week pouring over a wide range of news sources and following politics. Is your organization's culture going to accept someone who spends a big chunk of their time watching CNN and surfing the internet? Probably not. But those activities are a legitimate part of a grant writer's job. What else will this person do between proposals? And can you justify filling their "down time" with activities that, by necessity, must lend themselves to being shoved to the back burner on short notice?

Lastly, there is the problem of the one-person grant writing office. I will elaborate more on that in an upcoming post, "It Takes a Team to Write a Grant, but Only One Person Should Write It."