Your number
$4,275
Your rate card
- Day rate$950 per day
- Hourlyfor anything that does not fit a day$125 per hour
- A grant application$4,275 per project
- Monthly retainera pipeline of applications a month$3,600 per month
What to charge for each thing (4)
- Foundation grant$2,925 each
- Federal or state grant$9,000 each
- Letter of inquiry$500 each
- Prospect research$1,475 each
US rates for grant writers at your level, adjusted for your market. What you last got wins.
- a grant application$4,275
For a grant application, the quote is $4,275.
To take home $85,000 after $9,000 of costs and 30% tax you need to bill $134,286 a year. At 24 billable hours a week for 47 weeks that is $125 an hour, $950 a day. Anything under that is a pay cut you did not agree to.
Grant writers usually day at $500 to $1,000. You are above it. That is fine when the work is, and it is the reason to say it plainly and show the work.
A grant application runs $1,500 to $8,000 and takes about 30 hours of your time; at your hourly that is $3,750. The number is the higher of the two, because the client is buying the outcome, not the hours.
A retainer is the month, not the hours: a pipeline of applications a month. It is priced about 20% under the same work bought one at a time, in exchange for the certainty; three months minimum, or it is not a retainer.