Grants
Grant Services and Pricing Guide
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Inquire About Grant Services
Please complete the client intake form below and we will be in touch soon.
Violation of the Ethical Code
Zemii Media and Publishing Group, LLC complies with the ethical standards set forth by the Grant Professionals Association and other regulatory associations or entities. Therefore we will not accept a percentage of a funding award as compensation for grant writing, grant management, donor solicitations, or fundraising campaign efforts. Payment for services must be paid in advance.
Foundations expect you to be financially strong to qualify for grant funding. They expect you to have additional resources. This is why we do not take payment after you receive grant funding applied for. You will not succeed in your grant requests if you are financially unable to pay a fee now. It demonstrates a need for additional fundraising effort in your community and through private donors before you will qualify for grant funding.
We all understand that grant writing is risky – many hours are spent researching and writing proposals with no guarantee of success. Some organizations believe that it is a standard practice to pay a consultant on a contingency basis (i.e., if the grant is funded, the consultant is paid). This is incorrect. Consistent with both the Grant Professionals Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals Codes of Ethics, whose members are not allowed to work on a contingency basis. Not only does this practice violate the Codes of Ethics, nearly every government agency and most foundations do not allow the practice.
Most government agencies and foundations state in their guidelines that they do not fund pre-award costs. Therefore, all costs associated with the preparation of the proposal cannot be paid from grant proceeds. Some organizations will “hide” this payment under inflated costs for project management or evaluation – a practice that no Code of Ethics could ever endorse.
Finally, from a financial perspective, hiring a grants professional on a contingency basis can cost your organization a lot of money. Those grant writers that charge on a contingency basis usually charge 10% on grant award over $100,000 and 15% (or more) on grants under $100,000. In real terms, using a government grant as an example, with a $600,000 award spread over three years, the consultant’s contingency fee would be $60,000 (or $20,000 per year). Consider that the average federal grant takes approximately 60 hours (or more, depending on the complexity) to write. Using the contingency example, the grant writer would be paid $1,000 per hour – far above the industry norm, not to mention unreasonable!
I want to speak with someone about grant services.
Please complete the grant inquiry form at the top of this page. Upon receipt of the form, we will be in contact with you for next steps.
Where do I find out about my grant submissions?
Your grant submission report is a link that was sent to you. This Google Doc is a live document that is updated by our team as we work. Keep this link for all future reference on grants submitted. You can share this link with your board so that they can also be kept up to date. This report does not apply to New Nonprofit Grant Package clients.
How long do grants take to fund?
Many grants take an average of 6 months to fund. Some can be sooner and some can be later. Foundations set up their own calendars with deadlines, review dates and notice timeframes. Some are upfront with this information. Others do not disclose their calendar information. Some accept requests year-round, others quarterly, monthly, or annually. We cannot move the foundation deadlines, no matter how quickly you need funding. We also cannot control how fast they respond. Contacting a foundation to ask about your application is usually not recommended. Sometimes it can hurt your request. Patience is the name of the game. Your grant submission report will list any information we have regarding each submitted request’s Foundation calendar. If there is no information listed, then we have no more information to provide. Some foundations may never send any notice if they are not interested. Some will send decline letters immediately if you are not running in their competition. Some may contact you for further information, request an additional application form, want to interview your staff, or do a site visit. Please watch your mail, email (check your spam folder, too!), and voicemail for any notice from a foundation. If you fail to respond, you will be disqualified. We cannot track that for you. You need to be diligent on this aspect. Always send in every response you get from a foundation, positive or negative so we can help you track your progress.
Help us to help you with your grant applications. The Client Information Form requests a lot of details from your organization in order for us to properly provide the best possible research and grant proposal. In order to learn more about being grant ready, please visit our Grant Readiness Resources page.
New Client Tutorial
For clients who have already subscribed to one of our grant packages.