
One thing that a lot of people don’t know is that non-profit organizations can apply for and receive government grants. This is a major source of funding for lots of non-profits. Since non-profit have a lot of volunteers their overhead is usually a lot less than the typical for profit business. One non profit recently applied for and received a large government grant to improve their equine therapy center. The people at this center use horses to help both disabled children and disabled veterans improve the quality of their lives. The government grants they received will help them buy more land and more horses. It also went to help with the maintenance of the entire facility. I was informed that in the next year they will apply for six more grants.
One thing that they and many people find very helpful is to have a professional grant writer. Grant writing can at times be very frustrating and time consuming. Grant writing has become a very competitive field and there are a lot of professional grant writers available. A lot of non-profits don’t have the extra funds to hire a professional grant writer. In these cases many grant writers will offer their services at a reduced rate. If a grant writer does require payment for their services there are different ways to pay them.
One way to pay a grant writer is to make the payment continent on getting the grant awarded. Then the grant writer is given a percentage of the grant that is awarded. This is where things can get a little tricky. The organization needs to come up with a percentage that is fair to the organization and to the grant writer too. This type of pay arrangement is sometimes troubling to a lot of the agencies that give out money. The grant money is earmarked for a specific purpose and not to pay for the services of a grant writer. This could cause some problems getting government grants. Its a lot of peoples opinion that grant writers should be paid a one time fee and or an hourly wage. Either way its a better practise than going the contingent pay option. The hourly wage or flat fee method of payment for grant writers is better for them too. Not all grants are awarded. It would be an awful lot of work to write a grant and then not be paid due to reasons that are beyond the grant writers control.