Frequently Asked Questions

We write grants for foundations and government funding, and sometimes for corporate foundations. We are driven by our values, which are progressive and social justice-oriented. We specialize in areas related to health, human services, and movement building. This includes victim services, mental health, homelessness and housing, substance use disorders, criminal justice, disabilities, and youth services. Movement building organizations tend to work on organizing, policy advocacy, voter mobilization, training, and capacity building.

RIC’s clients and experience are pretty diverse, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to talk further about your organization and your needs.

Here’s how we get results for our clients:

Get Grant-Ready: You’ll begin your partnership with us with a grant readiness assessment to determine what kinds of grants your organization is eligible and competitive for. We’ll use our time-tested methodology and expertise to analyze your organization’s capacity and produce a detailed assessment with recommendations to help you get more grant dollars.

Grant Research: Our secret sauce to finding highly aligned funders is the reverse search. Our expert grant consultants analyze which grant funders support similar organizations and programs. We also explore who already funds your organization and identify lapsed funders. Then, we compile a grant calendar of prospects and deadlines (or add to one if you have one in place) so we never miss a funding opportunity. Don’t worry — we will add to the calendar throughout the year as we find new grants.

Grant Writing and Submissions: Once we identify a viable grant opportunity, we discuss the next steps, including cultivation, funder outreach, and application deadlines. Remember how we said that relationships matter? Increasingly, funders are shifting to invitation-only opportunities. We’ll provide key background information and talking points to help your organization stand out when speaking with grant funders. Once you approve us to move forward with a grant, our expert grant consultants will draft proposals and assist with the submission. We are meticulous, diligent, and detail-oriented writers, supported by our dedicated editing team. When reviewing drafts, you can expect minimal edits and high-quality applications that will impress grant funders. While we mostly focus on applications, we also write reports and related grant collateral on request.

We’ve all heard the saying: You have to spend money to make money. According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals, nonprofits should have a full-time development person for every $500,000 your nonprofit needs to raise. What if we told you that you could do it more efficiently by hiring an expert consultant? We can save your nonprofit time and money — per the 2023 Grant Professionals Association’s salary survey, the average Grant Writer’s salary costs $78,363, and benefits cost even more. We are able to support your grant services needs for less time and money because we are experts who work efficiently. We have the knowledge, tools, and experience to support your needs for grant research, writing, and strategy for an affordable price.

We don’t want to push you to submit grant applications just to meet a quota. We want you to be strategic about your time and resources. For example, you could submit 20 applications for a total amount of $1 million requested, or you could be more strategic and submit 10 applications for $1.5 million because you’re only applying for grants when you are sure it’s the best fit and you have a strong relationship with the funder. Also, we might work on an application only to get new information that causes us to halt or change course, such as a key partnership falling through.

There are many reasons why grants are not a quick or easy way to raise money for your nonprofit. A lot of the reasons are due to funder timelines. It can take months or even up to a year after an application deadline for funders to announce awards. It depends on the rounds of reviews, the timing of board meetings, foundation or corporate portfolio performance, and numerous other factors. Many grants also take a great deal of planning and preparation. Finally, grant success depends heavily on relationships between your nonprofit and grant funders. Those take time to develop, especially when they are new. 

We are seeing more and more funders move to invitation-only processes and give fewer, larger grants. This means that your time is best spent on enhancing your organization’s credibility, visibility, and relationships. RIC helps by providing research, talking points, and expert guidance to position your organization to get the coveted invitation to apply for a grant award. Then, of course, we write the application!

We work with nonprofits that have IRS-approved 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 status, or have a fiscal sponsorship agreement. Your organization must also have a written, board-approved budget, and your current annual operating budget must be more than $500,000.

To ensure our work together has the most impact, we look at both the current infrastructure and capacity your organization has to reach the goals identified for our contract. If you are seeking grant consulting services, please be aware that we require clients to have at least five years of operating experience and supporting data. We also highly recommend that you have an audit and an engaged board of directors.

No, but we commend you. Starting a nonprofit is lots of hard work. Fortunately, there are many free resources available through some fantastic organizations whose mission is to help create and sustain effective nonprofits. Visit the National Council of Nonprofits and your state’s nonprofit council for more information and support.

No. We generally recommend that nonprofits wait until they have an audit and at least two years of operating experience and measurable outcomes before applying for a grant. Applying for and managing grant funds requires capacity and established infrastructure, so it’s usually an intermediate step in a nonprofit’s growth. There are some consultants who can help you get grant-ready, but it does require an investment. We recommend Catapult Connections, which offers a fantastic coaching package to help nonprofits get grant-ready.

Our fees are listed under Services and we can also offer custom packages. Please contact us for a free 30 minute consultation for more information.

Our clients work in health and human services, capacity building, and systems change (policy, advocacy, voter mobilization). Some are national networks and some are state coalitions. Their budgets range from $500,000 annually all the way up to $101M+. 

We are most successful with clients who have active boards that engage in making introductions to funders. Executive Directors and Development Directors who are active and enthusiastic about contacting funders (and being persistent) are also more successful.

This is a good question but in our field, average grant success rates vary widely. If clients are willing to take risks they have lower success rates, as do many newer, smaller nonprofits. Conversely, clients who only apply when they have a good chance of funding, and larger, more established organizations tend to have higher success rates. For these reasons, we don’t track success rates. Anecdotally we can say that there’s a 0-25% chance of getting a cold grant where there is no relationship and the odds increase from there based on the type and nature of the relationship of the organization to the funder.

Our role in success is to guide clients towards the best matches, consult on relationship-building, and of course to write the best proposal possible that is both compelling and meets the funder’s guidelines.

RIC – and frankly any grant writing firm – cannot guarantee successful outcomes. The decision to award funding is entirely at the funder’s discretion and cannot be guaranteed by RIC. Success is also contingent on the client’s implementation of best practices, board engagement, and other myriad factors beyond RIC’s scope of work.

Our value comes from helping position your organization in the best possible light to maximize the chances of grant funding. We provide coaching and consulting to help steer clients in the best direction to improve their chances of getting funding, and we take grant research and writing off of our clients’ plates so they can focus on their important work.