The infamous question of “How long does it take to write a grant?” does not have a cookie-cutter answer. 

However, it IS possible to determine how long it will take YOU to write a specific type of grant. 

Let’s look at how. 

How Long Does it Take to Write a Foundation Grant or a Government Grant? 

After training and mentoring more than 1,000 grant writers, these are general baselines for how long it takes to write a grant: 

On average, a foundation grant takes 10-20 hours to write, a state grant takes 40-60 hours to write, and a federal grant takes 100-150 hours to write. 

However, even these generalized estimates should be taken with a grain of salt! There are many variables that affect how long it will take YOU to write a particular grant. 

These grant writing timeline variables include: 

• How much experience do you have in writing grants in general?
• How much experience do you have in writing that specific grant?
• What type of grant is it?
• How extensive is the grant application process?
• How organized is the organization you are writing the grant for?

In the rest of this article, I’ll break down HOW you can get a realistic and customized estimate for how long it will take to write a specific grant. 

5 Key Factors that Affect How Long it Takes to Write a Grant

How much experience do you have writing grants in general? 

If you are brand new to writing grants, there will always be a learning curve (just like in anything). As a new grant writer, you should add more estimated time to write a grant proposal than you think you need due to this learning curve. 

For example, you will spend more time checking your work as you write, looking up terminology that is new to you (such as objectives, RFPs, etc.), and getting familiar with the flow of grant writing. 

Tip: If you are new to writing grants, add at least 25-50 percent more time to the grant writing baseline time ranges above. 

How much experience do you have in writing that specific grant?

Do you have years of experience writing a specific grant application? This affects how long it will take you to write a specific grant for a specific funding opportunity. 

For example, one of the many grants I became very proficient and prolific in writing is the Administration for Native Americans Social and Economic Development grant. I have written this grant many times, gotten it awarded for various nonprofits, and been a federal grant reviewer for this grant. 

When applications are open, I can easily say, “I’m taking on five clients for the ANA SEDS grants,” and book out those five slots. 

I know this grant inside and out. Does this mean I can write it in my sleep? No. 

This is arguably one of the most difficult federal grants to write. But I know how much lead time and how much writing time I need. I know what the organization needs to have in place before I even take them on as a client. I know that writing this grant is going to take an easy 100 hours of my time—even with highly streamlined processes. 

This grant application itself is also not static. The priorities and how they want the grant written change every few years, sometimes even annually. I know that I will have to attend the webinars, submit questions, and build out work plans. 

If you have never written a proposal for a specific grant application before, you are going to want to add buffer time to the estimates above.

I know one federal grant writer who will base her time on the number of pages. She basically knows that each page in the application will take her a certain number of hours to write. 

The more familiar you are with a certain grant or certain types of grants, the easier it is to accurately estimate how long a grant will take to write. Moral of the story: write more grants.

Tip: If you are NOT familiar with a specific grant application or funding opportunity, add more time to the grant writing estimates above.

What type of grant is it? Writing foundation vs state vs federal grants

There are three main types of grants you may be writing—and some take longer to write than others. Here’s why: 

Private foundation grants are usually the fastest to write

This type of grant is non-governmental and funded by a family, a business, a trust, etc. Think of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Walmart Foundation, etc. 

Foundation grants vary heavily in how much time they take to write. Some only want you to submit a 2-page Letter of Inquiry, while others have a 10-page application. 

Many foundation grants are now submitted through online platforms, which makes it easy to submit. 

Private foundation grants also have more flexibility on who and what they want to fund. For example, during the first part of 2025, when the Trump 2.0 Administration signed Executive Orders that impacted words not to use in federal grants, many foundations reached out to current grantees to let them know they would not put in the same stipulations. This is because they are non-governmental and don’t have to follow federal priorities. 

Tip: In general, foundation grants take less time to write than state or federal grants.

These types of grants are from your state (if you are in the United States) or a Territory. State grants can be derived from local state monies or can be federal pass-through monies (i.e., the money comes from the federal government), or a combination of both. 

State grants are more in line with regional gaps and are usually only competitive for organizations within your state. 

State grants are usually less taxing to write compared to federal grants, but they can take longer than foundation grants. 

Federal grants generally take the longest time to write

Federal grants are the big fish of grants, both in terms of money and time to write. Federal grants are designed to be objective and have many different layers on the review side. 

Not only have I been a federal grant reviewer for ANA SEDS, I’ve also been a grant reviewer for SAMHSA, DOJ, and more. (Check out this article if you’re interested in becoming a grant reviewer.)

Federal grants have very clear criteria and apply scores to these criteria. The grant review panel will evaluate and score each area, and then meet together to negotiate any scoring. 

Because of this, federal grant applications ask a lot of questions and need a lot of clarity. Oftentimes, federal grant applications also need many attachments, resulting in grant proposals and application packages that can easily be 75 or more pages! 

On average, federal grants can take anywhere from 70 hours to 300 hours to write. Just reviewing a federal grant application can take 10 hours! 

Your grant writing hours may also depend on the federal agency you are applying to. For example, I find that SAMHSA grants take less time than Department of Education grants. 

Tip: Get to know what types of grants you may want to specialize in: foundation, state, or federal grants, and check the agency grant requirements and applications. 

How extensive is the grant application process and guidelines?

All grants (foundation, state, or federal) may request certain attachments. Even if this isn’t part of your grant writing time, it can take time for your nonprofit or clients to gather these together.

As a grant writer, it is usually your responsibility to let the nonprofit or client know about these attachments and give them time in advance to start working on them. 

Inside the Academy, we have tons of templates (including Letters of Support, Memorandums of Understanding, Letters of Commitment, Board Resolution templates), and more to help speed up this process.

Tip: Get templates in place for common grant application attachments that you can easily customize.

How organized is the organization you are writing the grant for?

If the nonprofit or organization you are writing grants for is new, it often doesn’t have a lot of the necessary materials ready for grant applications. 

This might include not having their IRS Letter of Determination 501(c)3 available yet, their CAGE CODE (for SAM and to submit federal grants), or things like financial policies and procedures. 

Being grant-ready before you submit a grant is so important! That’s why many grant writers who offer grant writing services in our programs offer a Grant Readiness Package.  

But even nonprofit organizations that have written grants before may not be highly organized. However, they will likely have previous grants for you to pull some wording from, and hopefully, some documents available. 

Tip: Understand how grant-ready the organization is that you are writing a grant to understand the amount of time it will take to write a grant. 

Conclusion: Writing a Grant Proposal Can Take from 10 to 150+ Hours! 

As you can see from all these factors, there is no one set amount of time writing a grant proposal may take. But as you start writing more grants, you will quickly become familiar with how long it takes YOU to write a certain type of grant proposal. 

If you’re interested in gaining more grant writing skills, getting faster at grant writing, and making extra money as a freelance grant writer, our Freelance Grant Writer Academy is a great place to start.