Q & A

Typically, we charge what a charity with $1 MM to $5 MM a year in revenue would pay for a full-time, salaried, grant writer in their market area. According to Zip Recruiter, the average annual pay for a nonprofit grant writer job in the U.S. is $55,592 a year. The total cost of a grant writer is 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary, depending on certain variables. On average, the price of working with Lightning Fast for a year would be $77,829. Lightning Fast requires monthly payments in advance of each month’s work.

Lightning Fast will deliver 200 applications per year including full proposals, online applications, or letters of inquiry as requested by the corporate or foundation funders we calculate are most likely to fund your nonprofit organization. In addition to these applications, Lightning Fast also provides grant research, funder interviews, and specialized mailings including introductions to appropriate community foundations, information only letters of inquiry to funders who do not accept applications. In other words, a complete package.

We can produce 10X more applications than a regular grant writer because we leverage the division of labor, apply the latest technologies, and train our staff in Dr. John Drew’s Lightning Fast systems, procedures, and habits.

Division of Labor

As the worldwide leader in improving the productivity of grant writing, Lightning Fast leverages the division of labor. For example, Lightning Fast grant writers work in two person teams, The team members are titled the grant pilot and the grant co-pilot. The grant pilot is a highly skilled and successful grant writer, a subject matter expert, who has a remarkable track record of success and proven mastery of the Lightning Fast systems and procedures. We use their valuable time appropriately by asking them to focus on the most sensitive and difficult tasks. In contrast, the grant co-pilot functions as an assistant who frees up the time of the grant pilot by taking over less difficult tasks including conducting basic grant research, replicating earlier copy in new formats, and personalizing letters of inquiry, full proposals, and online applications. (NOTE: Extraordinary grant pilots may have more than one co-pilot assisting them.) The grant pilot has final responsibility for each application.

Technology

Lightning Fast grant writers are trained to use voice recognition software to protect their health and speed up the creation of documents at rates close to 300 words per minute. We also make use of the latest technology including project management software, grammar and spelling check systems, and a vast library of received grant applications.

Time-Saving Tips and Procedures

Dr. Drew has spent at least two decades exploring the techniques needed to increase the productivity of grant writing. We do not have the space to cover everything here. Nevertheless, his primary innovations include process mapping, documented business procedures, and detailed training and continuing education programs. Much of Dr. Drew’s  philosophy is published public knowledge. At the core of his philosophy is a strategy that focuses on the reduction of the number of decisions a grant writer must make in the process of producing a winning grant proposal. If we reduce the decisions which need to be made, we cut the time spent on the task to a minimum, while also freeing up the mental and physical resources needed to make an application bullet-proof and impressive.

Lightning Fast creates a unique environment for its staff and extraordinary results for non-profits. By using grant co-pilots, Lightning Fast can offer much higher than normal salaries for grant writers who rise to the level of grant pilots. These extraordinary grant writers can handle multiple clients who benefit from their talent and industry experience. Co-pilots can see grant writing masters at work and learn by a proven step by step process for maximizing grant success and increasing productivity. We benefit from geographic arbitrage by offering staff the opportunity to work and to live in parts of the United States with less expensive living costs.

Lightning Fast solves multiple problems for multiple stakeholders. For the client, it gives them access to some of the top grant writing talent in the nation at an affordable price. It gives the client the combined power of a grant pilot, co-pilot, and a proofreader for the price of what they would normally pay for a single individual who takes on all three functions. Most importantly, Lightning Fast vastly improves the productivity of grant writing so that instead of producing 20-30 applications per year, the client will be sending out at least 200 applications per year to its most likely funders. This approach is particularly useful for hot charities. Hot charities are those which have a timely cause or enjoy massive media attention on a short time basis. When the charity is hot, Dr. Drew says, it is crazy to limit themselves to a small number of applications per year. Such charities need to strike while the iron is hot and grow by quickly by capitalizing on their current, and probably temporary, winning streak.

Thanks to high productivity and broad coverage, the charity with our efforts has a better chance to find new donors, make new friends and connect with the top leadership of corporate and foundation funders more quickly.

Our clients also benefit from Lightning Fast’s library of grant applications and budget templates and its years of experience in working with the relatively consistent top funders in each of the top market areas. They also benefit from the connections, knowledge and experience of the grant pilot. In addition, more advantages accrue to the client in subsequent years when the new information gathered in the first grant campaign allows for better targeting of subsequent annual campaigns and an increased variety of application packages.

Dr. Drew is an award-winning political scientist who earned a Ph.D. in political science from Cornell University. He is skilled in applying the survey research, program evaluation, and measurement tools needed to complete a high quality grant proposal. As a political scientist he was something of a child prodigy who won an award for the best doctoral dissertation in the nation in his field American Government. He taught at Williams College in Massachusetts, the nation’s number one rated liberal arts college. He is a published author on the development of child welfare and protection policies. As a consultant, he implemented his Lightning Fast grant writing system first as a sole proprietor, and later as a team leader with an extensive grant writing staff called Drew & Associates. In this role, he raised $54 MM in funding over two decades. Lightning Fast is based on the prototype he developed to support his own career as an independent grant writer.

At the root of Dr. Drew’s system of high speed, maximum productivity, grant writing is his analysis of grant writing decision-making. For example, Dr. Drew emphasizes product positioning techniques both as a tool for creating winning messages, but also as a decision making rule that reduces indecision and wasteful thinking during the drafting process. Likewise, Dr. Drew’s system incorporates procedures which reduce the number of decisions made by individuals and teams. In his system, work processes are carefully analyzed and then properly staged to maintain maximum interest, focus and productivity. Dr. Drew’s techniques are based in common sense time management skills. They are not magical, although all together, the results do seem like magic when they come together.

The Lightning Fast Grant Writing system and its revolutionary promise to produce 200 applications per year for what you will pay a regular full-time grant writer only works if we have the complete cooperation of the nonprofit client. For example, in our contract, we stipulate that the charity make all the documents we request from them available within two (2) weeks. We insist that all phone calls, text messages, and emails be responded to within 48 hours. We negotiate for a single point of contact, the higher in the organization the better. Without the compliance of the charity, the whole Lightning Fast campaign grinds to a halt and it becomes impossible to produce at our promised level of productivity. In addition, we ask for the clients to carefully proofread the model letter inquiry, model full proposal, and the model online application so that these documents are ready to present to the most likely funders for their most important and attractive project.

To begin working with Lightning Fast, please call us to schedule a one hour appointment with you – face-to-face, by Zoom meeting, or over the phone. During this initial interview, Dr. Drew or one of his representatives will ask your three basic questions:

What’s going well for you and your charity?

What’s not going so well?

What have you tried to do so far to fix the problem?

Sometimes, there is not much Lightning Fast can do for a charity. If it is too small, if its cause is too limited, or if it is confined to a limited geographic location, then there is not much we can do to help. The charity will not have enough prospects to hit the 200 application per year threshold.

Nevertheless, if it looks like Lightning Fast might be useful to you and your charity, Dr. Drew will ask for your permission to create a letter of understanding which would guide its grant writing on your behalf.

In this letter, Dr. Drew will outline the services his team will perform and the total fee to be charged to you or your charity based on the going price for fulltime grant writers in your area. He will be requesting a check from you for the first month of services, the total fee divided by 12, which he will need to receive prior to implementing the work indicated in the proposal letter. Dr. Drew will normally follow-up by phone in a few days after this proposal letter is sent to answer any of your questions and see how, if at all, we should proceed. Typically, 200 applications will be completed within 12 months. The contract maybe cancelled at any time, by either party.

Since funders tend to judge a book by its cover, it really helps with the process for the charity to take immediate action to gather the most important documents typically required by a funder. For example, in California, we ask the charity to provide us with copies of the following documents:

Copy of its 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) determination letter from the IRS.

Copy of its State of California Franchise Tax Board 23701 (d ) letter – the functional equivalent of the IRS letter at the state-level.

Copy of its latest IRS 990 tax return.

List of its Board Members and their affiliations.

Resumes for the Executive Director, Program Director or Artistic Director.

Most recent audited financial statement.

List of previous donors and the amount of their gifts to the charity.

Photographs of the highest possible quality of the charity in action including its leadership, clients and activities.

Copies of its two most recent CDs or DVDs – if any.

Electronic version of the charity’s existing letterhead, if possible.

Additional information will need to be collected, as needed, to fit the requirements of the funders who are the closest match to your charity.

A new charity that follows Dr. Drew’s procedures exactly should win at least one out of every ten grant applications that it sends into funders. The chances of success increase as more experience with grant proposals is gained by the nonprofit. Established charities who know who their prominent funders are, for example, can easily obtain a 100% success rate over the course of a year simply by going back to the funders who have given them money in the past — provided the charity has done a good job with the previous grant, properly acknowledged the funders, and spent the money in a way that made a measurable difference for the charity’s clients.

Initial grants given to a new charity tend to be in the $25,000 to $50,000 range. Some of these grants, however, may require a cash or in-kind match so it is important to strengthen other fundraising operations enough to secure the required matching funds.

Nonprofits have many options and are not dependent on Dr. Drew or, for that matter, any other grant writing consultant. For example, grant writing can easily be learned from the courses offered through Candid or by taking one of Dr. Drew’s grant writing classes. Dr. Drew teaches one day grant writing workshops at various community colleges in Southern and Northern California and has added a new two-day grant writing retreat program which gives the opportunity to create a full grant proposal with his assistance in a small class limited to 12 students. At this retreat, Dr. Drew guides the class through grant-writing, step-by-step, so that attendees emerge from the two-day retreat with a document ready to submit to a major funder in their area. If you do not have time for a class, Dr. Drew also sells booklets on-line which reveal – in a highly condensed manner – the secrets of success he has used to become a successful grant writer. See, http://johndrew25.blogspot.com/

Yes! Even though 95% of all grants go to 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations, the other 5% do go to individuals. Typically, grants are available to individuals in the form of scholarships, support for art projects or scientific research. Moreover, you can also work with an existing 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and ask them to serve as the fiscal agent for your grant for a small percentage of the grant. Information on all these topics is freely available through the Candid Online Directory website. Dr. Drew is honored to help individuals draft their scholarship, art project, or research grant applications and charges the same rates as his normal work, dependent on the number of hours required to create the relevant individual grant documents. A lot of the techniques Dr. Drew uses in working with individuals are like the techniques he uses to assist non-profit or education organizations in obtaining grants.

Dr. Drew tries to work with at least one or two new clients every month while maintaining his commitment to assist his existing clients. He is the last person to review and sign off on each grant application submitted for the client charity.

Simply give Lightning Fast a call right now at (949) 338-5921 or send us an e-mail at john.drew@drdrewguaranteedgrants.com. We will work with you to promptly schedule a one hour appointment to see if Lightning Fast can be useful to you and your key charitable project.

Dr. Drew provides access to his ideas for producing winning grant proposals through a wide variety of communication channels including the following resources:

To buy one of Dr. Drew’s booklets, order through http://johndrew25.blogspot.com/

To sign-up for his e-newsletter, Dr. Drew on Grants, go to http://johndrew25.blogspot.com