Episode Details

 If you are a freelance grant writer, then you probably get asked by potential clients what your grant writing success rate is; i.e.:

While I completely understand this question, it isn’t the clearest level of success for a grant writer.

Sure, there is validation of having grants awarded. I definitely recommend boasting about your secured grants so potential nonprofit clients can see what types of grants and clients you have worked with.

But stating an 80 percent or 50 percent success rate doesn’t really say how good of a grant writer you are. Chances are the nonprofit client that asks you your success rate won’t be able to interpret what is a ‘good’ success rate either.

Of course, you can and should track grants won for your own method, but there are better ways to identify your value as a grant writer.

What is Your Grant Writing Success Rate?

A lot of time you, as a grant writer, won’t even know what your success rate is unless you are tracking it. But your success rate is built upon a variety of variables.

#1) Quantity: If you have a ton of clients, your success rate could be lower. For example, you may write 10 grants per client and get two or three grants awarded per client. That could be a total of 30 grants secured and could total well into the millions of dollars. But your success rate would only be 10 percent. Ugh! On the other hand, if you only have written one grant and got it secured, then you have a 100 percent success rate. But you can see how that may not be a good indicator of you being a good grant writer.

#2) Nonprofit Credibility: A grant writer’s success rate is much of the time really supported by the credibility and experience of the nonprofit. If a nonprofit has been around for 40+ years, has secured a multitude of grants (maybe 30 percent + of the annual operating budget is supported by grants), and has a strong infrastructure then your grant writing success rate is automatically increased just based on the health of the nonprofit. As a reviewer looks at resumes with a strong track record on managing grants and implementing projects, they will have more confidence in the application versus a start-up nonprofit’s grant application.

#3) Nonprofit Project Experience: If the nonprofit has had years of experience serving a similar project that it is asking for funding for, they will have a leg-up. This differs from overall experience, as it looks at specific project experience. For example, if the nonprofit has a women’s project that serves victims of crime with housing and they are requesting grant funding for supportive services for their existing clients, they will have a higher chance of securing a grant compared to a nonprofit who has never served victims of crime and is asking for the same funding. According to Funding For Good, a success rate for a well-established nonprofit can be around 90 percent, expanding programs around 80 percent, and start-up projects around 30 percent. So it really does depend, in large part, of how much the nonprofit has experience with similar projects. Funding begets funding.

#4) Funding priorities: This year is the year of opioid grants, research, and STEM funding. Last year the funding priority was human trafficking. The trends of federal grants are reflected of the political administration.

#5) Knowing the grant: Another variable is how well you as a grant writer know a certain grant. I know other grant writers who only write grants for specific grants and categories; such as SAMHSA grants for family and children pr