What to prepare before hiring a grant writer

The single most useful thing you can provide first is the opportunity itself, in its official form. Collect:

• The official program link on the funder's own website
• The current program guidelines, in the version you are working from
• The deadline, including time of day and time zone
• The application form or portal questions, if they can be viewed before submission
• Funder FAQs, webinar recordings or applicant guides
• Any budget template the funder requires
• Previous correspondence with the funder, including answers to questions you have asked

Third-party grant listings are useful for discovery but are often out of date. Always confirm the current program guidelines from the funder directly.

Before drafting begins, someone at the organization should be able to discuss, in plain language:

• What the organization wants to do
• Why it is needed, and what prompted the idea
• Who will participate, and roughly how many people
• Where it will happen
• When it will start, and how long it will run
• Who will deliver it — staff, contractors, volunteers or partners
• What is expected to change as a result
• What it is likely to cost

Ideas do not need to be well written before you engage a grant writer; writing is the part you are contracting for. They do need to be developed enough to support a meaningful conversation. If three people at the organization would answer the questions above differently, that disagreement is best resolved internally first.

Most applications ask about the organization before they ask about the project. Having this written down once saves repeating it for every submission:

• Mission statement and mandate
• Current programs and services
• Organization history, including founding date and major milestones
• Populations served
• Service area
• Governance structure, including board composition
• Staff capacity — how many staff, in what roles, full or part time
• Organizational accomplishments you can support with records

Exact requirements vary considerably between funders, but the following are requested often enough to keep current:

• Incorporation documents
• Charitable registration information, where applicable
• Financial statements — audited, reviewed or internally prepared, depending on what the funder accepts
• Current operating budget
• Board list with roles
• Most recent annual report
• Strategic plan
• Organizational chart

Budget questions are frequently the slowest part of an application, because they usually require someone other than the writer. Be ready to discuss:

• The project budget, at whatever level of detail currently exists
• Revenue sources for the project and for the organization
• Confirmed funding, with amounts and funders
• Pending funding and the decision dates you are waiting on
• In-kind contributions and how you would value them
• Matching funds, where the program requires them
• Staffing costs, including wages, benefits and the portion charged to the project
• Quotations, where the funder requires evidence for equipment, renovations or contracted services

This guide does not offer accounting or tax advice; your finance staff, treasurer or professional advisors should confirm how figures are presented.

Engagements move faster when one person is clearly responsible for the organization's side of the work. That person handles:

• Answering the writer's questions, or routing them to the right colleague
• Obtaining missing information and documents
• Reviewing drafts within the agreed timeframe
• Approving final content
• Coordinating board or executive approval, and knowing when the board next meets

This does not need to be the executive director, but it should be someone with enough authority to make decisions rather than only relay them.

Applications ask you to substantiate need and capability. Collect whatever you already hold, even if it is informal:

• Participation numbers from current or past programs
• Waitlists or unmet demand
• Survey results from participants or the community
• Evaluation results, internal or external
• Community consultations and what they found
• Demographic information about the community you serve
• Program outcomes you have tracked
• Partner feedback and letters received previously

If the evidence is thin, say so early. A writer can work with limited evidence honestly; they cannot work with evidence they discover was overstated after submission.

A grant writer should never fabricate statistics, partnerships, outcomes, commitments, budget figures, or organizational history. If the information does not exist, the application either says less or the organization creates the information properly before submitting.

This matters beyond principle. Funders can and do ask for source documentation, and reporting obligations later reference what was promised. A number invented for a narrative becomes a target the organization is held to.

Most engagements generate a long series of requests: a document here, a clarification there, a revised budget figure two days later. When those live in email threads, it becomes difficult to see what is still outstanding, and easy for a single request to be missed until the week of the deadline.

Structured intake solves an unglamorous problem. A single list of requested answers and documents, with a visible status for each, reduces duplication and makes the remaining gaps obvious to both sides.

Saervo uses DocAmass during active engagements to organize client intake and document requests. Any equivalent shared workspace serves the same purpose; the important part is that one list exists rather than several.

Funding opportunity

• Official program link and current guidelines
• Deadline and submission method
• Application questions and any required templates
• Funder FAQs and prior correspondence

Organization

• Mission, history, programs and service area
• Governance structure and board list
• Staffing and organizational chart

Project

• What, why, who, where, when and by whom
• Intended outcomes
• Scale — participants, sessions, locations

Finances

• Project budget and operating budget
• Confirmed and pending revenue
• In-kind and matching contributions
• Quotes where required

Evidence

• Participation and demand data
• Evaluation or survey results
• Community consultation findings

Documents

• Incorporation and registration records
• Financial statements
• Strategic plan and annual report
• Partnership letters or agreements

Approvals

• Named internal decision-maker
• Board or executive approval dates
• Signing authority for the submission