Grant Writer Job Description Templates for Small Nonprofits
6 templates for organizations hiring or contracting for grant work: staff writer, part-time, contract scope of work, grants manager, development coordinator, and federal specialist. Download as DOCX.
Almost every grant writer job description online is a generic writing posting with the word grant pasted in front of it. It asks for excellent written communication skills, attention to detail, and a passion for the mission, and it produces a stack of applications from copywriters who have never built a budget narrative or missed a funder deadline in their lives.
The gap is structural. Grant work is two jobs bolted together: research and persuasion before the award, compliance and reporting after it. A posting that does not say which half it owns will attract people who are good at one and allergic to the other, and at a small nonprofit there is nobody to absorb the difference.
At FirstHR we build hiring templates for organizations without an HR department, and nonprofits are the clearest case. The six templates below cover a staff writer, a part-time seat, a contract scope of work, a post-award grants manager, a blended development coordinator, and a federal specialist, each with the classification and cost notes the generic versions leave out.
TL;DR
A grant writer job description should name the engagement shape (staff, part-time, or contract), a submission volume, and whether the role covers pre-award writing, post-award reporting, or both. Federal cost principles treat proposal costs as indirect, so name the funding source before posting. Never pay a percentage of awards. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
Staff Writer, Part-Time, or Contractor
The engagement shape is the first decision, and it drives everything else in the document. Hire an employee when grants are a standing revenue line with a calendar that never empties. Engage a contractor when the need is a defined body of work: a handful of submissions a year, or one large application that exceeds your current capacity.
Volume is the honest test, not budget size. An organization submitting three proposals a quarter needs a person in the building who knows the programs. An organization submitting five a year is buying a service, and pretending otherwise creates a role with nothing to do in the slow months.
Staff grant writer
Enough volume to justify a salary
Right when grants are a standing revenue line and the calendar never empties. You get institutional memory, faster drafts each cycle, and someone who can sit in a program meeting. You also carry payroll, benefits, and the cost of a quiet quarter.
Contract grant writer
A defined body of work
Right when you have a handful of submissions a year or a single large application that exceeds your capacity. You buy expertise without payroll, but every engagement starts with the writer relearning your programs from scratch.
Part-time employee
Steady but not full
The middle path most small nonprofits actually need. A standing part-time role keeps institutional knowledge in the building at a fraction of the cost. Treat it as non-exempt unless the duties and salary clearly clear the exemption tests.
Grants folded into another role
One development person, many hats
Common and perfectly sound if you write it down. The failure mode is hiring a coordinator, never naming grants as a duty, then being surprised when nothing is submitted. Put the submission count in the job description.
The middle option is the one small nonprofits underuse. A standing part-time employee keeps institutional memory without a full salary, and it removes the misclassification risk that makes open-ended contractor arrangements dangerous. Our guides to employee versus contractor status and to hiring a contractor properly work through the tests in detail.
Write the Submission Number Into the Posting
The single most useful sentence in a grant writer job description is a quantity: four letters of inquiry and three full proposals per quarter, or eight submissions per year. It tells candidates whether the role is realistic, tells you whether the hire is working, and stops the position from quietly turning into general communications support. Vague grant roles at small organizations drift, because everything else in the building is louder than a deadline sixty days out.
What Belongs in the Posting
A grant writer posting has to do four things: describe an organization a funder would fund, filter out generalist writers, state the legal terms of the engagement, and give a strong candidate a reason to answer. Most nonprofit postings do only the first, then wonder why the shortlist is thin.
The parts that attract the right writer
Mission in one sentence a stranger can repeat
Operating budget and the share that comes from grants
Funder mix: foundation, corporate, government, or all three
Whether this is the first grant role or a second seat
The parts that filter applicants
Submission volume expected per quarter or year
Whether budgets and budget narratives are in scope
Post-award reporting duties, stated separately from writing
Portfolio requirement with outcomes disclosed
The parts that protect you
Employee or contractor, stated without hedging
FLSA classification and how hours are tracked
No commission, finder’s fee, or percentage of awards
Ownership of drafts, research, and funder relationships
The parts that close the hire
Pay or a good-faith range
Who supplies program data and how fast
Who signs off before submission
Remote, hybrid, or onsite, and the meeting expectation
The omission that costs small organizations most is the data supply chain. Candidates want to know who hands them program numbers and financials, and how fast. If that is unspecified, experienced writers assume the worst, because they have lived it. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure that sits underneath this one.
Element
How to handle it in a nonprofit posting
Engagement type
Employee or contractor, stated in the first three lines, never left ambiguous
Submission volume
A number per quarter or per year, not a description of availability
Pre-award vs post-award
Say which the role owns; if both, list reporting duties in their own section
Budget work
State whether the writer builds budgets or receives them from finance
Funder mix
Foundation, corporate, government, or federal; each demands different experience
Compensation structure
Salary, hourly, flat fee, or retainer; never a percentage of awards
Classification
Exempt or non-exempt for employees, with hours tracked for anyone non-exempt
Portfolio requirement
Two samples of different lengths plus submission history with outcomes
6 Grant Writer Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: organization overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a compliance or classification note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Grant Writer Job Description Templates
Staff writer, part-time, contract scope of work, grants manager, development coordinator, and federal specialist. All in one download.
Grant Writer, Staff
Full-time, salaried
The standard full-time posting, with research, writing, submission, and reporting duties plus the no-commission clause stated up front.
Part-Time Grant Writer
Hourly, standing schedule
For a steady part-time seat, with a submission quota, a calendar duty, and the non-exempt classification spelled out honestly.
Contract Grant Writer
Scope of work
A scope of work rather than a job posting: deliverables, acceptance criteria, ownership of drafts, and the contractor status warning.
Grants Manager
Post-award compliance
For the half of the work that starts after the award letter: reporting, expenditure tracking, subrecipient monitoring, audit readiness.
Development and Grants Coordinator
One-person shop
For the blended development role most small organizations really hire, with grants named as a duty and a number attached to it.
Federal Grants Specialist
Uniform Guidance work
For federal and pass-through funding, with registration upkeep, cost principles, and the documentation an auditor will request.
Template 1: Grant Writer, Staff and Full-Time
The standard full-time posting, with research, writing, submission, and reporting duties, plus the no-commission clause and the indirect cost note stated up front.
Grant Writer Job Description (Staff, Full-Time)
GRANT WRITER JOB DESCRIPTION (STAFF, FULL-TIME)
Organization: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Executive Director / Development Director]
Employment type: Full-time employee
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT [ORGANIZATION NAME]
[Organization Name] is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in [City, State] working on
[mission in one sentence]. Our annual operating budget is $_, and
[percentage]% of that revenue currently comes from grants. We are hiring our
[first / next] Grant Writer to build a predictable pipeline instead of a scramble
every time a deadline appears.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Grant Writer researches funding opportunities, writes and submits proposals
to foundation, corporate, and government funders, and manages the reporting
calendar for awards already in hand. This is a writing job with a research job
attached, and it lives or dies on deadlines.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Research and qualify foundation, corporate, and government funding prospects
that fit our mission, budget size, and geography
•Write letters of inquiry, full proposals, budgets, and budget narratives
•Own a grants calendar covering application deadlines, report deadlines, and
renewal cycles, and publish it to program and finance staff
•Interview program staff to turn activity into outcomes a funder will fund
A scope of work rather than a job posting: deliverables, acceptance criteria, ownership of drafts and research, and a plain warning about contractor status. Pair it with the proposal manager templates if your work is bid-driven rather than philanthropic.
Contract Grant Writer Scope of Work
CONTRACT GRANT WRITER SCOPE OF WORK AND ROLE DESCRIPTION
Fee: $_ [flat per proposal / monthly retainer / hourly]
ABOUT THIS ENGAGEMENT
[Organization Name] is engaging an independent grant writer for a defined body
of work. This is not an employment relationship. The contractor controls how and
when the work is performed, uses their own equipment, and may serve other
clients during the term.
SCOPE OF WORK
•Deliver [number] full proposals and [number] letters of inquiry between
[start] and [end]
•Research and present a prospect list of [number] qualified funders with fit
notes and deadlines
•Draft budgets and budget narratives from figures supplied by our finance staff
•Submit through funder portals when we grant access, or deliver final files
[number] business days before each deadline for us to submit
•Provide a written status update every [two weeks]
DELIVERABLES AND ACCEPTANCE
•Each proposal is accepted when it meets the funder's stated format, length,
and attachment requirements and has been reviewed by [named staff member]
•One round of revisions per deliverable is included
•The contractor assigns all rights in the drafts, research, and final files to
[Organization Name] on payment. Do not rely on a work made for hire clause:
commissioned writing of this kind falls outside the categories that clause
covers, so a written assignment is what actually transfers ownership
FEES AND ETHICS
Fees are flat, hourly, or retainer-based. We do not pay commissions, finder's
fees, or a percentage of grants awarded, and we will not sign an agreement that
proposes them. Professional association ethics codes in the grant field prohibit
percentage-based compensation.
CONTRACTOR STATUS NOTE (read before signing)
Independent contractor status turns on the actual relationship, not the label on
the agreement. The IRS looks at behavioral control, financial control, and the
type of relationship between the parties. If you set the writer's hours, supply
the equipment, direct the method, require attendance at staff meetings, and keep
the arrangement open-ended and full-time, you have an employee regardless of
what the contract says. Collect a Form W-9 before the first payment and issue
Form 1099-NEC where required. This is general information, not legal advice.
HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT
Email __ with your rate structure, two writing samples,
your submission-to-award history for organizations of our size, and two client
references we may contact.
Template 4: Grants Manager, Post-Award
For the half of the work that begins after the award letter arrives: expenditure tracking, reporting deadlines, subrecipient monitoring, registration upkeep, and audit readiness.
Grants Manager Job Description (Post-Award)
GRANTS MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION (POST-AWARD FOCUS)
Organization: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Executive Director / Director of Finance]
Employment type: Full-time employee
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
Writing the proposal is the easy half. [Organization Name] manages [number]
active awards totaling $_, including [federal / state / foundation]
funding with distinct reporting, allocation, and audit requirements. This role
owns everything that happens after the award letter arrives.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Grants Manager administers awarded grants end to end: compliance with award
terms, expenditure tracking against approved budgets, reporting deadlines,
subrecipient monitoring, and audit readiness.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Read every award agreement and translate its terms into a compliance checklist
•Track expenditures against approved budgets with [finance staff] monthly
•Prepare and submit programmatic and financial reports by every deadline
•Manage budget modification and no-cost extension requests
•Monitor subrecipients and document that monitoring
•Maintain the documentation set an auditor will ask for, organized by award
•Keep our registrations current, including the annual SAM.gov renewal
•Support the annual audit and, where required, the single audit
•Brief the executive director and board on spend-down risk and renewal timing
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years administering government or foundation grants
•Working command of the federal Uniform Guidance cost principles
•Ability to read a general ledger and reconcile it to an award budget
•Documentation discipline: if it is not written down, it did not happen
COMPLIANCE NOTE
A nonprofit that expends $1,000,000 or more in federal awards in a fiscal year
must have a single audit for that year under the federal audit requirements, a
threshold that applies to fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024.
Organizations without a negotiated indirect cost rate may elect the de minimis
rate of up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs. Both facts belong in
your budget conversation before you accept an award, not after. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Organization Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a brief description
of the largest award you have administered.
Template 5: Development and Grants Coordinator
For the blended development role most small organizations actually hire, with grants named as a duty and a number attached to it. If the role is senior enough to own strategy, use the development director templates instead.
Development and Grants Coordinator Job Description
DEVELOPMENT AND GRANTS COORDINATOR JOB DESCRIPTION
Organization: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Executive Director]
Employment type: Full-time employee
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
[Organization Name] has one development position, and grants are part of it, not
all of it. This role writes proposals, runs the donor database, supports the
annual appeal, and helps with [one event] each year. Applicants who want to write
grants exclusively should apply to a larger organization.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Development and Grants Coordinator handles the full fundraising cycle for a
small shop: grant research and writing, individual donor communications, the
annual appeal, gift acknowledgment, and database hygiene.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Write [number] grant proposals and [number] letters of inquiry per year
•Maintain the grants calendar and complete all funder reporting
•Manage donor records in [system] and keep the data clean
•Draft the annual appeal, [number] e-newsletters, and the impact report
•Acknowledge every gift within [number] business days
•Support [one signature event] with logistics and sponsor materials
•Pull the reports the board development committee reviews each [quarter]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years in nonprofit development, with proposal writing among the duties
•Strong writing across formats: proposal, appeal letter, donor note, report
•Database competence and willingness to own data quality
•Comfort switching between deep writing and administrative follow-up
CLASSIFICATION NOTE
Blended roles are the hardest to classify. Exempt status depends on the actual
primary duty and on meeting the applicable salary test, not on a coordinator or
manager title. A role that is mostly scheduled administrative support, data
entry, and event logistics is usually non-exempt. Decide honestly, write the
classification on the posting, and track hours for anyone non-exempt. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Organization Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one writing sample.
Template 6: Federal Grants Specialist
For federal and pass-through funding, with registration upkeep, cost principles, and the documentation an auditor will request. Organizations whose grant work is mostly technical documentation should also look at the technical writer templates.
Federal Grants Specialist Job Description
FEDERAL GRANTS SPECIALIST JOB DESCRIPTION
Organization: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Executive Director / Director of Finance]
Employment type: Full-time employee
FLSA status: [Exempt / Non-exempt] (see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per year
ABOUT THIS ROLE
Federal funding is a different discipline from foundation funding. The
applications are longer, the cost rules are codified, and the reporting does not
forgive. [Organization Name] is hiring a specialist to pursue and administer
[federal / state pass-through] awards specifically.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Federal Grants Specialist finds, writes, and administers federal and
pass-through awards, and keeps the organization registered, compliant, and
audit-ready throughout the award lifecycle.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Monitor federal funding opportunity announcements relevant to our programs
•Keep SAM.gov registration and the Unique Entity ID active, with annual renewal
tracked well ahead of the expiration date
•Build applications to the exact structure the notice of funding opportunity
demands, including all required forms and certifications
•Prepare budgets and budget narratives consistent with federal cost principles
•Apply our negotiated indirect cost rate, or the de minimis rate if we have none
•Track allowable, allocable, and reasonable costs against each award
•File all federal financial and performance reports on schedule
•Maintain procurement, time-and-effort, and subrecipient documentation
•Prepare the schedule of expenditures of federal awards for the audit
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Number] years working directly with federal awards
•Working command of the Uniform Guidance cost principles and audit requirements
•Experience with [Grants.gov] submission and at least one federal agency portal
•Ability to write to a scoring rubric rather than to a personal style
COMPLIANCE NOTE
Under federal cost principles, costs of organized fundraising are unallowable
except with prior written approval from the federal agency, and proposal
preparation costs are normally treated as indirect rather than charged directly
to an award. Plan the funding source for this position accordingly. Organizations
expending $1,000,000 or more in federal awards in a fiscal year face single audit
requirements. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Organization Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per year, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and one federal
application narrative you drafted, with the funder and outcome named.
Who Pays for the Grant Writing
You generally cannot fund a grant writer out of the grant they are writing. Federal cost principles treat proposal preparation costs, for both successful and unsuccessful applications, as indirect costs allocated across all current activities rather than direct charges to a specific award.
That rule surprises boards more than any other item on this page. It means the funding source for the position has to be identified before you post: unrestricted revenue, indirect cost recovery, or a capacity-building grant that funds fundraising infrastructure deliberately. Guessing later is how a new role gets eliminated in its second year.
Proposal writing is normally an indirect cost
Federal cost principles treat the cost of preparing bids, proposals, and applications, whether they win or lose, as an indirect cost allocated across all current activities rather than a direct charge to a specific award. That single sentence decides how you fund the position. You cannot simply add a grant writer line to the direct budget of the grant they are writing, and you cannot carry proposal costs from a past accounting period into the current one. Most small nonprofits therefore pay for grant writing from unrestricted revenue, from indirect cost recovery, or from a capacity-building grant that funds fundraising infrastructure on purpose. Decide which before you post the job.
Organized fundraising costs are unallowable on federal awards
Under the federal cost principles, the costs of organized fundraising, including financial campaigns, endowment drives, and the solicitation of gifts and bequests, are unallowable, and become allowable only with prior written approval from the federal awarding agency when they serve program objectives. That matters for a blended development role: if the same person writes federal proposals and runs your donor appeal, you need a defensible way to separate the effort. Time-and-effort documentation is the ordinary answer. Build the timekeeping habit at hire, not during an audit.
The de minimis indirect rate is 15 percent of modified total direct costs
An organization without a current negotiated indirect cost rate may elect a de minimis rate of up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs, up from the 10 percent that applied before the October 2024 revision. The election requires no documentation to justify it, may be used indefinitely, and must be applied consistently so no cost is charged both directly and indirectly. For a small nonprofit this is the most practical funding source for grant staffing, because indirect recovery is unrestricted in a way program dollars are not. Say so in your budget narratives.
The single audit line sits at one million dollars
A nonprofit that expends $1,000,000 or more in federal awards during its fiscal year must obtain a single or program-specific audit, a threshold that applies to fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024 and replaced the earlier $750,000 line. Crossing it is a staffing event, not just an accounting one: schedules of expenditures, procurement records, subrecipient monitoring files, and time-and-effort documentation all have to exist before the auditor asks. If your federal portfolio is approaching that level, hire for post-award administration rather than adding more writing capacity.
The practical route for most small nonprofits runs through the indirect cost rules, where an organization without a negotiated rate may elect a de minimis rate of up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs. Indirect recovery is unrestricted in a way program dollars are not, which makes it the most realistic seat for a grant salary.
Grant writing is unusually prone to drift across that line. An engagement starts as three proposals for a flat fee, then the writer joins the weekly staff meeting, gets an organizational email address, works from your equipment, and is still there two years later. At that point the arrangement is employment with a contractor label, and reclassification brings back taxes and penalties a small budget cannot absorb.
Keep contractor engagements scoped and finite. Collect a Form W-9 before the first payment, and remember that the reporting threshold for Form 1099-NEC rose to $2,000 for payments made on or after January 1, 2026 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with inflation adjustments after that. Payments below the threshold remain taxable income even when no form is issued, as our comparison of the two 1099 forms explains.
For employees, exempt status requires both a qualifying primary duty and a salary meeting the federal threshold, which the Department of Labor restored to $684 per week after the 2024 rule was vacated and formally rescinded in May 2026. A senior writer exercising independent judgment on funding strategy may fit an exemption; a coordinator assembling attachments on a schedule generally does not. Our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification works through both tests.
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There is no federal occupation code for grant writers, so benchmark to the codes the work sits between and adjust for your sector and geography. National figures pool every employer size and sector, including universities, hospitals, and for-profit firms, which is why a small organization usually benchmarks below the median rather than at it.
National Medians for the Closest Occupations
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $76,910 for writers and authors and $72,550 for fundraisers. Fundraising managers had a median of $125,470 and social and community service managers $80,390 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Benchmark occupation
National median (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
How to read it for a nonprofit role
Writers and authors
$76,910 per year
Closest match for a pure proposal-writing role; nonprofit pay typically sits below it
Fundraisers
$72,550 per year
Closest match for a blended development and grants role
Social and community service managers
$80,390 per year
Reference for a grants manager with post-award and supervisory duties
Fundraising managers
$125,470 per year
Reference for a development director, not a writer; treat as a ceiling
Technical writers
$90,390 per year
Relevant only when the work is federal and heavily technical
Contract engagement
Flat fee per proposal or monthly retainer
Price the deliverable, never a share of the award
Publish a good-faith range where pay transparency laws apply, and state the structure plainly. Percentage-based compensation is the one line you should never cross: ethics codes in the grant and fundraising professions prohibit commissions, finder’s fees, and contingent pay tied to awards, and funders react badly when they discover it.
Screening for Writers Who Win
Screen on outcomes and deadline behavior, not on prose quality alone. Ask every candidate for two samples of different lengths, a short letter of inquiry and a full narrative, then ask for the numbers behind them: proposals submitted, proposals funded, average award size, and the budget size of the organizations they served.
A writer who will not discuss declinations is either inexperienced or evasive. The funded rate matters far less than the ability to explain why a specific proposal lost and what changed on the next attempt. That answer separates people who write from people who fundraise.
Pay for the Work Sample, and Use Your Own Data
The real skill in grant writing is turning incomplete internal information into a fundable narrative under a hard word limit. A generic writing test measures none of that. Give finalists a short paid exercise using your actual program data and a real funder guideline, cap it at two hours, and pay the going rate for the time. Unpaid multi-hour assignments filter out exactly the experienced writers you want, because they have paying clients and no reason to work for free.
Check references with the people who watched the deadlines: an executive director, a program officer, or a finance lead who supplied the budget figures. Ask one question above all others, which is whether drafts arrived early enough to be reviewed. If you are also staffing volunteer or program support around this role, the volunteer coordinator templates cover the adjacent seat.
Hiring Grant Staff Without an HR Department
Small nonprofit hiring fails in three predictable places: the executive director is doing the work personally, the new writer cannot get program data, and a contractor arrangement slides into employment without anyone deciding it should. Each has a fix that costs nothing but clarity.
The executive director is writing the grants at eleven at night
In a small nonprofit with no development staff, the person writing the proposal is usually the executive director, working after the program day ends. It is the most expensive hour in the organization spent on a task a specialist does faster and better. The honest fix is rarely a full-time hire. It is naming the volume you actually need, three proposals a quarter or eight a year, and buying exactly that: a part-time employee with a standing schedule or a contractor on a defined scope. Write the number into the job description. A grant role without a submission target drifts into general communications work, and nobody notices until a renewal deadline passes.
You hire a writer and then cannot feed them the data they need
Grant writers fail at small organizations for a boring reason: they cannot get numbers out of the programs. How many people did you serve, over what period, with what outcome, at what cost per participant. If those figures live in three spreadsheets and one person’s memory, the writer spends the deadline week chasing instead of writing, and the proposal reads thin. Before the first posting goes up, name the person who supplies program data, name the person who supplies financials, and agree on a turnaround time. Put both names in the job description. Candidates read that as a sign the organization is ready for the role, because it is.
Hiring a contractor turns into a payroll problem nobody planned for
Contract grant writers are a common answer for small nonprofits, and that arrangement is where the misclassification risk lives. The moment you set the writer’s hours, require standing staff meetings, supply the equipment, direct the method, and keep the engagement open-ended, you have an employee with a contractor label. Reclassification means back payroll taxes and penalties that a small budget cannot absorb. Keep the engagement scoped and finite, or hire properly. Once you do hire, the paperwork is the same as any other employee. FirstHR runs the onboarding sequence with e-signature for offer letters and policy acknowledgments, document storage for tax forms and agreements, and employee profiles that keep it all in one place. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is accepted, the work becomes a repeatable onboarding checklist, and for organizations formalizing policy at the same time, our guide to building a nonprofit employee handbook covers what belongs in it. Boards hiring at the leadership level should start with the executive director templates.
Key Takeaways
Decide the engagement shape first: staff employee, standing part-time employee, or contractor on a finite scope, because it changes the document and the obligations.
Write a submission number into the posting, four letters of inquiry and three proposals per quarter, or the role drifts into general communications work.
Separate pre-award writing from post-award administration in the job description, because they are different skills and combining them silently is why reporting deadlines get missed.
Federal cost principles treat proposal preparation costs as indirect rather than direct charges, so identify unrestricted revenue, indirect recovery, or capacity-building funding before you post.
National medians (BLS OEWS, May 2025) run $72,550 for fundraisers and $76,910 for writers and authors, and nonprofit pay generally sits below both.
Never structure pay as a commission, finder’s fee, or percentage of awards, and keep contractor engagements scoped and finite to avoid misclassification.
A small nonprofit hires rarely, which is exactly why the paperwork never becomes routine. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for offer letters and policy acknowledgments, document storage for agreements and tax forms, and employee profiles that keep records in one place instead of four inboxes. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a grant writer do?
A grant writer researches funding prospects, writes proposals and letters of inquiry, builds grant budgets with finance staff, submits through funder portals, and writes the reports due on awards already received. In a small nonprofit the job is usually broader than the title suggests: the same person maintains the grants calendar, keeps the attachment library current, interviews program staff to turn activity into measurable outcomes, and tracks declinations and funder feedback for the next cycle. A large share of the job is research and funder intelligence rather than drafting, which is why a writing sample alone is a weak screen. The distinction that matters when you write the job description is pre-award versus post-award. Proposal writing and grant administration are different skill sets, and combining them in one posting without saying so is why small organizations end up with an excellent writer who misses reporting deadlines.
Should a small nonprofit hire a grant writer or use a contractor?
Use a contractor when the volume is low or the need is a single large application, and hire when grants are a standing revenue line with a calendar that never empties. The break point is not headcount, it is submission volume and institutional memory. A contractor buys expertise without payroll, but every engagement begins with the writer relearning your programs, and the funder relationships stay with them. An employee, even part-time, keeps that knowledge in the building and writes faster each cycle. Many small organizations land in the middle with a standing part-time employee on a set schedule. Whichever you choose, define the deliverable as a number of submissions per period rather than as hours of availability, and never structure the pay as a percentage of what gets awarded. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
How much does a grant writer make?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not track grant writers as a separate occupation, so anchor to the two codes the work actually sits between. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $76,910 for writers and authors and $72,550 for fundraisers, while fundraising managers had a median of $125,470 and social and community service managers $80,390. Small-organization pay usually sits below those national medians, because the figures pool every employer sector and size, including universities, hospitals, and for-profit firms, and geography moves them substantially. For a contractor, expect a flat fee per proposal or a monthly retainer rather than an hourly rate. Never pay a commission or a percentage of the award: professional association ethics codes in the grant field prohibit it outright.
Can we pay a grant writer out of the grant they win?
Usually not the way people imagine. Federal cost principles treat proposal preparation costs, for both successful and unsuccessful applications, as indirect costs allocated across all current activities rather than direct charges to a specific award, and proposal costs from a past accounting period may not be allocated to the current one. Costs of organized fundraising are unallowable on federal awards except with prior written approval from the awarding agency. Practically, that means small nonprofits fund grant staffing from unrestricted revenue, from indirect cost recovery, or from a capacity-building grant that funds fundraising infrastructure deliberately. An organization without a negotiated indirect cost rate may elect the de minimis rate of up to 15 percent of modified total direct costs, which is often the most realistic source. Some post-award administration effort can be charged directly when the service is integral to the award, the individuals are specifically identified with it, and the same cost is not also recovered as an indirect cost.
Is a grant writer exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
It depends on duties and salary, and many grant writer roles at small nonprofits are non-exempt. Exempt status under a white-collar exemption requires both a qualifying primary duty and a salary that meets the federal threshold, which the Department of Labor restored to $684 per week after the 2024 rule was vacated and then formally rescinded in May 2026. A senior writer who exercises independent judgment on funding strategy may fit the administrative exemption; a coordinator whose day is scheduled drafting, data entry, and attachment assembly generally does not. Part-time is a schedule, not a classification, and the salary test is applied to the actual salary rather than prorated. Classify on the real duties, write the classification on the posting, and track hours for anyone non-exempt. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do I tell whether a grant writer is any good before hiring?
Ask for outcomes, not adjectives. Request two writing samples of different lengths, a short letter of inquiry and a full narrative, then ask for the submission history behind them: how many proposals submitted, how many funded, at what average award size, for organizations of what budget size. A writer who declines to discuss losses is telling you something. Give a paid short work sample using your own program data, because the real skill is turning messy internal information into a fundable narrative under a word limit. Check references with program officers or executive directors who saw the deadline behavior, not just the prose. Deadline discipline is the trait that separates writers who get funded from writers who write well.
What is the difference between a grant writer and a grants manager?
A grant writer works before the award and a grants manager works after it. The writer researches prospects, drafts proposals and budgets, and submits. The manager reads the award agreement, tracks expenditures against the approved budget, files programmatic and financial reports, monitors subrecipients, keeps registrations such as SAM.gov current, and assembles the documentation an auditor will request. Small nonprofits routinely combine both in one job and then discover that the person hired for narrative skill has no appetite for compliance work. If your federal portfolio is growing toward the $1,000,000 single audit threshold, split the roles or hire for administration first. Writing capacity without administrative capacity produces awards you cannot defend.
