As a grant writer, you can earn as much or more than other freelance writers, even though you're working for the nonprofit sector. All clients expect to pay for the things they value the most, and nonprofits truly value grant writers. The more successful grant proposals you write, the more valuable you become to your clients and potential clients.

You are working with organizations that have limited budgets, however, so be fair. Give them a not-to-exceed project fee for every grant proposal. For instance, if you plan to charge by the hour, review the Request for Proposal (RFP) or guidelines, estimate how many hours it will take to completely write, review, and develop the proposal, then add a few more hours to cover contingencies. Using your highest estimate, inform the organization that it will not cost any more than that figure to complete the project. Of course, there may be times you've underestimated a project and make less than you wanted. But as you gain experience with various types of proposals, and get to know your clients and their work, you'll find that as often as not, you'll complete the project in far less time than you had estimated.

There is no way to estimate what a grant writer can earn. It depends on whether they are employed full time as a grant writer or they freelance, whether they are specialist or generalist writers, whether they take in several projects a year or just one or two, where they live in the United States, and myriad other considerations. A best guess for full-time employed grant writers within nonprofit organizations is the salary of a mid-level manager. Freelance grant writers can charge their hourly rate, whatever they and their local market dictate, and often earn more than full-time employed grant writers.

As a general rule of thumb, you can figure an experienced grant writer will estimate the hours for a project within the ranges listed on the chart below. These estimates include meetings with clients, filling-out forms, writing budgets, writing the grant proposal itself, and making revisions. Minor expenses such as shipping, mailing, or mileage are not included.

Until you become accustomed to the process, it will probably take you longer to write your first few grants. It's also likely to take more time when you write a grant for a new client. But as you work with them on developing subsequent proposals, you'll find that you accumulate “canned” text that you can use over and over again. For instance, several paragraphs in your need statement must describe the organization and those it serves. Once a client approves what you've said and your first grant for them is successful, there's no need to “reinvent the wheel.” It will save you a lot of research and writing time if you plug in those paragraphs when you tackle their next proposals. You can reuse them again and again with only minor updates and revisions.