Freelance Grant-writing

Thanatos

I would kind of like to get into doing some freelance grant-writing on the side, to maybe make a little money, do some networking, and get some technical writing experience under my belt. Is this at all viable? What are some good resources, as far as learning how, exactly, to write grants? Is it something that can be learned on the fly, or are there lots of standard practices I should be aware of? How much money is possibly in it?

werehippy

This is really going to depend on where exactly you are (I seem to recall you're a doctoral candidate somewhere or another). Everything I'm personally familiar with seem to split grant writing pretty evenly between the principle researcher going for the grant and the department, with someone being hired full time to do the work on the department's side. You might be able to find part-time/freelancer work in that kind of a capability, or there may very well be researchers who prefer to hire people to do their grant writing for them, in both cases your best bet is to put feelers out and see the lay of the land.

As to the how, I guarantee you're university library has tons of books devoted entirely to writing grants and various style and format issues. Another great resource is the NSF website, they publish tons of successful grant applications on their site (I'll include the link when I track it down).

Thanatos

werehippy wrote: »

This is really going to depend on where exactly you are (I seem to recall you're a doctoral candidate somewhere or another). Everything I'm personally familiar with seem to split grant writing pretty evenly between the principle researcher going for the grant and the department, with someone being hired full time to do the work on the department's side. You might be able to find part-time/freelancer work in that kind of a capability, or there may very well be researchers who prefer to hire people to do their grant writing for them, in both cases your best bet is to put feelers out and see the lay of the land.

As to the how, I guarantee you're university library has tons of books devoted entirely to writing grants and various style and format issues. Another great resource is the NSF website, they publish tons of successful grant applications on their site (I'll include the link when I track it down).

I've actually got my BA in Poli Sci, and am currently in the workforce, saving for law school.

I wasn't referring exclusively to research grants, either; I know there are a lot of grants out there given by the government and NGOs to various entities (some for-profit, some not-for-profit).

And yeah, I'm aware there are a lot of resources out there for grant-writing; my problem would be finding ones that are good.

werehippy

Thanatos wrote: »

I've actually got my BA in Poli Sci, and am currently in the workforce, saving for law school.

I wasn't referring exclusively to research grants, either; I know there are a lot of grants out there given by the government and NGOs to various entities (some for-profit, some not-for-profit).

And yeah, I'm aware there are a lot of resources out there for grant-writing; my problem would be finding ones that are good.

Sorry, I hear grant and I immediately go to research, product of my environment and so on.

In your specific case, my advice is less useful. Your best bet might be to try and find a company or another freelancer and get some first hand information (not that I'm telling you anything you don't know). The market is so specialized and narrow that there's a world of difference between writing grants in a university setting and anywhere else.

As to what's good in terms of resources, try hitting Amazon. It's kind of a crap shoot, but it's not a bad place to get an idea of what people think, and this field is so esoteric the only people who will toss up reviews are those who actually need to do the work and use the references.

TychoCelchuuu

It should be pretty easy to find some local schools (or other people who are strapped for cash) that need grants written for free; a few of those will really shore up your resume and make you a shoe-in when you apply to write grants for cash. It's definitely a good way to learn what you're doing.