Reaching $250,000 per year in your freelance grant writing business might sound intimidating — but it’s absolutely doable. 

In fact, with smart systems, streamlined services, and a strategic pricing model, all you really need is conservatively eight clients to reach a quarter million dollars in your grant writing business.

Streamline Your Grant Writing Services to Reach $250K

Before you worry about the math, you need a clear, repeatable system in your business. That means:

• Automated onboarding (no more back-and-forth emails!)
• Consistent, rinse-and-repeat client deliverables
• Retainer-based contracts instead of hourly billing

Having a system allows you to bring in consistent revenue without starting from scratch every time you land a new client.

For example, in the Freelance Grant Writer Academy, we teach you how to create monthly retainers on a timeline of 12 months:

• Within first 10 days: Onboard clients with the same automated process
• Within first 4-6 weeks: Write a Master Grant Template Application
• Within first 6-8 weeks: Do a Funding Prospect Report
• From months 3 – 12: Write grants

Even if you’re working with different types of nonprofits — from community groups to arts organizations — your process can stay the same. The key is to create rinse-and-repeat systems for every stage of the client journey.

This helps you get REALLY great at writing high-quality grants, and helps you manage your time efficiently.Before you can handle eight clients, you need to set up your business to work smarter.

Retainers Are Better Than Hourly Pricing to Scale Your Business

One of the biggest shifts I help my students make is moving from hourly or one-off projects to 12-month retainers.

Why? Because retainers:

• Offer stable, predictable income (i.e., cash flow)
• Let you build long-term relationships with nonprofits AND funding sources
• Give you time to get better results (which = more referrals)
  

Instead of writing one grant for a client and putting a lot of prep time into finding out about their programs, you write grants for that client for 12 months. This reduces the time you take to write their grants as you will get to know their work really well. 

Additionally, because you work with them for 12 months, you are able to apply for the most ideal and aligned funding opportunities because you have time to wait until those opportunities open up (for example, many funding opportunities only open up once or twice a year).

You also help the client build a grant strategy, develop a master application, identify new funders, and submit quality proposals month after month.

And instead of charging $30,000 upfront, they pay you only $2,500/month. This makes it easier for them to budget knowing one month won’t be $4,000 and another month might be $800. Plus, for them, your fee is STILL less than hiring a full-time in-house grant writer. 

Add “Funding Assets” to Your Retainer Deliverables in 2025

In 2025, certain nonprofits and organizations may need other assets besides just writing grant applications. This is because federal grants might not be available for them, or just like any time, they may want diverse funding streams.

You can still serve these organizations as a grant writer!

Instead of telling folks that you will write X to Y number of grants for the retainer, we recommend you say you will write X to Y funding assets.

These funding assets could include:

• Master Grant Template
• Donor Letter
• Corporate Solicitation Letter
• Fundraising Appeal Letter
• Website Copy
• 12 Months of Social Captions
• And more

You can mix these up with your grant applications. This can be useful if you are only able to find limited grants available. Sometimes this happens if a client is a very niche nonprofit or organization. 

Additionally, funding assets can easily be derived from a master grant template.  When you go through our unique process of creating a robust 20+ page Master Grant Template, we teach you how to repurpose it to create a full range of documents and funding assets easily and quickly.

Hire Help In Your $250K Business

Once you have systems in place for your grant writing business, it becomes much easier to bring in a team or extra grant writers. You can hire (as a contractor) a grant writer or virtual assistant for:

• Grant prospecting and research
• Drafting proposals and funding assets using the Master Grant Application Template
• Onboarding clients
  

When hiring a grant writer, they do NOT need to be highly trained (like you are). All you need are your systems and processes—this enables you to bring on and quickly train up virtually anyone. 

Once you have four to eight clients, you CAN afford to pay someone for grant writing. 

Even if you’re paying an entry-level grant writer $50–$75/hour for 20 hours a month, that’s only $1,000–$1,500/month. Over a year, you’re spending $12K–$18K — and still keeping a lot of that $250K income. 

This is actually ethical as it’s what your business can sustainably afford. You can also increase hours as needed to increase support for client deliverables. 

Of course, you can always pay more if you want to. But make sure that if you are paying more, it is because you need a grant writer with certain experience AND you can consistently pay them a higher amount.

The beauty of having rinse-and-repeat systems is that you can hire entry-level folks who can be easily trained to offer high-quality support. 

Mindset Matters to Grow Your Business to $250k

The biggest thing holding you back from earning $250,000 in your grant writing business is your thoughts.

I just gave you a very conservative strategy to get eight clients at $2,500 per month.  You could also charge more than $2,500 a month and earn that money quicker. Many grant consultants charge between $5,000 to $10,000 per month to write federal grants or also include grant reporting in their services.

Grant writers charging these higher rates obviously need fewer clients to make $250,000 in their businesses. 

But the strategy I shared (charging $2,500 per month per client) works well for smaller organizations and for grant writers with less experience. 

But you might still have thoughts that make you doubt your ability to achieve this. Such as:

• I don’t know how to find eight clients.
• I would have to work too many hours to handle eight clients.
• I would need to take on clients that aren’t aligned with my values. 

These thoughts can STOP you cold in achieving your business goals. 

That’s why you need to replace these doubting, fear-based thoughts with empowering, supportive thoughts like: 

• It’s easy to find eight clients.
• I don’t need to work 60+ hours a week.
• I don’t need to take on clients that don’t fit.
• I definitely don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel.

There are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States alone, and far fewer freelance grant writers. Plus, your grant writing skills do NOT have to be limited to nonprofit organizations! 

For example, inside our programs, Gwen and Candice write grants for municipalities, Guy writes grants for for-profit social impact organizations, and Cheri writes grants for higher education institutions.  

They aren’t working 60-hour weeks because they utilize our systems to work flexible hours. Plus, they only take clients that are aligned with their values and mission. 

Most organizations need grant writing support, but they just don’t know where to find someone who actually understands funding strategy.

And if you include other assets beyond grants, you’re solving even bigger problems for these organizations That makes you more valuable.

You need strategy. You need systems. You need a plan.

Let’s make your freelance grant writing business work for you — and help you hit that $250K goal with ease.

We Will Help You Make $250K in Your Grant Writing Business

Inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy and Grant Professional Mentorship, we teach you exactly how to:

• Set up your retainer services
• Create funding assets that get results
• Find and onboard aligned clients
• Price your services with confidence
• Build a team when you’re ready to scale
  

Whether you’re just getting started or you’re ready to level up, we have the roadmap (and the community) to get you there.

Links Mentioned

Freelance Grant Writer Academy

Grant Professional Mentorship