Jeff Schreifels

Hey, welcome to the podcast. This one's going to be a little different today. We are going to be discussing grant writing and grant writers specifically. They're absolutely crucial to the complete fundraising operation and provide a great revenue stream for foundations, corporations, and government sources for your non-profit. And to talk about this, I've invited Holly Rustick. Holly has over 20 years of experience with grant writing, she has a very popular podcast on the subject, and she's the author of four books. She's been all over the world helping non-profits through her grant writing, and now she's teaching other grant writers how to be effective and even start their own business. Plus, she lives in Guam. I mean, how awesome is that? So let's bring her in and have some real talk. Holly.

Holly Rustick

Hello! I forgot I was on half a day from Guam. So hello, thank you for having me on the podcast today.

Jeff Schreifels

Yeah. So like you're the next day, right? You're in the morning right now. I'm calling in from the East Coast and when we're recording this, it's a Thursday, but you're Friday morning.

Holly Rustick

I am, yes. Friday morning and the world is okay. I got you. So if you guys ever need to know it, feel safe. Just give me a ring. There's a huge time difference, obviously. So thank you for doing this in your evening as well so I can do it in my morning and not at two in the morning or something. I appreciate that.

Jeff Schreifels

I love it. I'm sure you probably have had to do that too sometimes.

Holly Rustick

I had to teach webinars online and you know how much energy it goes into being on, right? And I'm like, lights on. And then when we have power outages — because we do have power shortages sometimes here in Guam, especially after we had a big typhoon a couple of years ago — I would just be praying the power stays on. My data will run on my phone, but if the lights go out, no one can see me. So I've literally had battery-powered lights near me just in case the power goes out at two in the morning webinars. I don't do that anymore. Now I say no, but yeah.

Jeff Schreifels

Well, it's awesome that you're here. Why don't you tell our audience your story. How did you get to be a grant writer? What are you doing now? All of that good stuff.

Holly Rustick

Sure, yeah. So as you mentioned in the intro, I've been doing this for a couple of decades. I began really after the Asian tsunami in Indonesia. It hit around the Pacific and the oceans — India, Sri Lanka, a lot of Thailand — but Indonesia was one of the worst hit places, unfortunately, during that time in 2004. Many people lost their lives. There was a huge earthquake and then a massive tsunami after that.

I was living in Kuwait at the time, teaching there, and I saw a job posting shortly after that happened for community development work. I applied, got the job, moved to Indonesia, and got a one-year contract with a new non-profit that had come together through a grant firm — it was Mercy Corps. We were now an international NGO doing a lot of community development work.

The city I was living in, Meulaboh, was the second worst hit after Banda Aceh. Basically one in three people had lost somebody. It was devastating. A lot of people had also lost their homes, so they were living in tent cities. They couldn't live within 100 meters of the shore anymore. We had an after-school program where all these different villages suddenly living together could participate in art, English lessons, sports, dance, fitness — all different things.

As we got into the community and really started connecting with people, I met a friend there who had been a business owner before the tsunami. She ran a little water and snacks cart in the village, and she had lost that because it got wiped away. She just needed some money to start it back up, but she said, "There's money with the big United Nations organizations, but they drove around in armored cars and we rode bikes." We were in the community, talking to community members like her, and she said, "What I really need is just my cart again, but I don't know how to ask for that because you have to write and do all these things."

I said, "I'll just help you." I was already attending meetings once a month with those people, so I helped her. We also did some fundraising for some of the kids back in Kuwait who wanted to give to this area. We were able to get her some money and start her cart again — and I didn't even realize that was a grant. I didn't even know what that was.

When I did that, I thought, "This is really cool." I felt like I was just a liaison — in a privileged place where I could reach out to people who have funds and connect them with people who need it to fulfill a mission. Money meeting mission. I was like, "This is really cool."

Once my contract ended, I went back to the States outside of DC, and my sister-in-law mentioned her friend who runs a grant writing agency — mind you, this is 2006 — with clients all over the world. He needed a grant writer. I was like, "That sounds like kind of what I was doing." I got hired, he trained me up, and we had clients all over the world. It was so interesting, and I really got trained in how to write grants.

He ran a faith-based organization, so even back then he was super niche — he still is today, serving churches and faith-based organizations all over the world. After a few years of getting that training, I loved what I was doing but wanted to go work abroad again. I also wanted to go back to school — of course, I wanted to do my master's in Europe. So I asked if I could still work for him as a consultant, and without even knowing what freelance was, that's exactly what I became. I did that from 2007 to 2009.

From there, I continued moving around. I came to Guam in 2011, worked inside a non-profit writing grants, doing all the grant management. Then I quit that job in 2014 and have been running my own agency and training programs since. We've coached and trained thousands of people, and just in the last few years, the people in my programs have raised over $266 million in grants. We're on a movement to reach $1 billion by 2030. We've also helped people start freelance grant writing businesses — primarily women — who are now at about $8.6 million in their businesses, with a goal to reach $30 million by 2030.

I also just reopened my agency in 2025 because people were coming knocking wanting more help with direct services. So yeah, I've been doing it for 20 years — 20 years and 10 minutes.

Jeff Schreifels

You know, when you were first talking about Indonesia and Mercy Corps — Mercy Corps was a client of mine at that time. I remember this very specifically because I worked for a direct response agency. When we heard about the tsunami, it was Boxing Day, the day after Christmas.

Holly Rustick

Yes, 2004.

Jeff Schreifels

I remember hearing the terrible news, and the death toll kept going up and up. We immediately put up ads on the radio for Mercy Corps for people to help, and within about a week it raised almost a million dollars just from putting it out on the airwaves. It was just one of those times where you're up all night writing scripts, getting everything together. So we're connected that way — we raised money and you used it.

Holly Rustick

I wonder if that's how they opened up that project. Who knows! It was a new project. And those funds could have helped pay for the program that I was a part of. Yeah, that's amazing. That's just the way the world works.

Jeff Schreifels

Very cool. Alright, tell me — besides writing grants, what does an effective grant writer do for a non-profit? What should non-profit leaders expect from grant writers?

Holly Rustick

Yeah, so much. We've really been leaning into this, especially in the last year — we're recording this in early 2026 — the idea of: stop calling yourself a grant writer, start calling yourself a grant strategist. Because there is so much grant strategy involved.

I even just got off a call with a good friend who coaches non-profits, and he was talking about what he loved about hiring grant writers for his organizations: "I know they're project managers too, because you have to project manage your grants, the deadlines, the turn-ins." And that's so true. There are so many more skills than just the actual writing.

Even if you want to get a little controversial here — let's talk about AI. A lot of people ask, "Is AI going to take away my grant writing job?" because AI does an excellent job at writing. And I say, no, it can support you, but it doesn't have to take away your job. Because even if you're new to grants, don't jump into AI first — first understand program design. You have to understand how a program is meeting the need, how it's being evaluated, who needs to be involved, how the budget relates to it all. It's not just writing the grant, it's really understanding project design and implementation.

Jeff Schreifels

You make a good point. Grant writer really isn't the right term. Grant strategist — I love that, because it encompasses everything you have to do.

Holly Rustick

Yes! You have to think strategically from how a grant is being awarded, to relationships, to whether you should apply for a $5,000 grant or only go after $500,000 grants. A grant isn't just a grant — there are foundation grants, state grants, federal grants, government grants, so many different types of opportunities. And with that comes different nuances and different readiness levels. I see people starting a non-profit right away saying, "I want to write a million dollar grant," and the reality is you're not grant-ready for that. It takes time. Certain grants only open at certain times of the year. Maybe you have to write to the same foundation and get three no's before you get a yes. That's just part of the strategy. The writing is actually just a portion of what we do. There's also finding the grants, prospecting, understanding go or no-go decisions.

Jeff Schreifels

Yeah — finding the grants, attending the webinars, figuring out eligibility...

Holly Rustick

Exactly. Figuring out: is it eligible? Is this a go or no-go? Does it make sense for us? Do we have the capacity? There's so much thought processing before you even write a word.

Jeff Schreifels

So to be an effective grant strategist — and I'm going to use that word now — what are some of the characteristics that really make up a good one?

Holly Rustick

Great question. Here's something I want to address, both for people who are interviewing grant writers and for grant writers themselves: What's your ROI? Do you have a certification? These are questions people ask, but they're not really getting at what you actually want to know.

For example — "What's your grant success rate?" I hate that question. Nobody even knows what a good grant success rate is. If someone says they have a 100% success rate, what if they only ever wrote one grant for $200? Now it's 100%. Meanwhile, someone else wrote 100 grants and won $10 million but only got 80 awarded — that's an 80% success rate. So that metric is misleading.

What you're really looking for is someone who knows how to answer these questions maturely. If you ask me about my success rate, I'd say, "Here's how much money I've actually won. Here are the funders I've won grants from and why that matters for you specifically." That's what you want.

You also want someone who is open to learning, has attention to detail, and can think analytically. Writing skills are helpful, but honestly my grammar is not the best and I've helped win millions of dollars in grants — because I know how to write to criteria.

If you're looking to hire either a freelance or staff grant writer, don't be afraid to do a test project. Instead of just asking for a writing sample, give them a real or possible RFP and ask: "Is this a go or no-go based on what you know about us?" That will tell you much more because they have to think through the entire process.

Jeff Schreifels

I'd also add that connected to the learner mindset — you have to be a very curious person, because you're always asking the next question of program staff or finance folks. You've got to keep asking for what you need.

Holly Rustick

Yes, communication is key.

Jeff Schreifels

And I guess that goes along with the whole learner thing — wanting to learn more about the programs so you can actually paint that picture for the funder.

Holly Rustick

Absolutely. And I always tell people who are interested in writing grants: you don't need a degree, you don't need 10,000 hours, you don't need to have been told you're a great writer. You don't need to be great at math. Grant writing is formulaic. You need to understand the formula, get really good at it, be curious, be a learner, have attention to detail, and know how to organize. Those qualities matter far more than having a master's in English.

Jeff Schreifels

So I know there are probably a lot of executive directors weighing this question: should I hire a grant writer in-house, or hire an outside grant strategist? What are the pros and cons of each?

Holly Rustick

That's such a good question — and one that EDs and boards really have to weigh, even more so in today's environment with tighter budgets and so many changes in the world. The rise of AI, shifts in funding, budget cuts — there's a lot of pressure right now to look at every position and ask: what are we going to eliminate, keep, grow, or supplement? So this is an excellent conversation to be having.

Let me start with the pros of having an in-house grant writer. You do get a little more flexibility with their role. If you have in-person fundraising events or a culture where everyone is together in the office, having someone on the ground can be useful. That said, consultants can do that too — they can come do site visits and be present when it matters.

Some people might bring up loyalty as a reason to hire in-house, but I don't really buy that. Consultants can be just as loyal. I was talking to one of my students the other day who said she's been with the same organization on retainer for ten years — she's outlasted multiple EDs and entire staff turnovers. She's loyal because she believes in the work and they're a paying client. There's actually sometimes less toxicity with a consultant too, because you're a bit more neutral.

Now, the benefits of a freelance grant strategist. First, they come in with experience already. When you hire an in-house person, you might have to train them, and you might not even have the resources or time to do that properly. You might end up making them wear three hats and they never actually get to the grant writing. A consultant is focused on your grants.

They may also bring niche cause area experience — they may know your funders well, have already won similar grants, and have relationships with people inside those foundations. They're bringing expertise, grant prospecting and management software you don't have to pay for, training you don't have to pay for, and — this is huge — no fringe benefits. You're not paying for their health insurance, their holidays, their office space, their tech support. You're usually paying a set monthly rate for clearly defined deliverables. And often it ends up being less overall than a full-time staff salary when you factor in all the indirect costs.

There's also less emotional weight. Executive directors often feel real stress about staff livelihoods — "I know their kids, if I don't pay them, what happens to their family?" With a consultant, the contract is clear. If you renew, great. If you don't, they have other clients. That's a very different relationship.

But here's the biggest benefit in my opinion: you don't have to manage them. With an employee, you're always wondering, are they doing their work? With a good consultant, they come to meetings with an agenda, they facilitate, they tell you: here's what we've done, here's where we are in the contract, here's what's next. That is a completely different conversation than micromanaging a staff member.

Jeff Schreifels

Tell me if I'm wrong, but I would think the outside grant strategist comes in with a plan — this is what I'm going to do over the year, these are the opportunities we've identified, we've all agreed to this — and then they run it. If you're managing that relationship, all you're doing is checking in occasionally to ask, "Where are you to plan?"

Holly Rustick

Exactly. You just show up as the ED and ask, "Where are we?" And they've got it together. That's a huge, huge thing. And there are other options too — like working with interns or new grant writers who are just starting out and want experience. Some of my students will intern with an organization for three months while having the support of our training program, and then have a conversation about transitioning to a paid freelance relationship after that.

But whatever you do — if you're going to bring in an intern or volunteer to write grants, please give them training. Grant writing is not something you just figure out on your own. It's a formulaic process. Without proper training, your expectations will be here and their output will be there, and that's frustrating for everyone. Give them the support to meet your expectations.

Jeff Schreifels

How have you seen grant strategists bring the entire development team together and create more collaboration?

Holly Rustick

Yes! Because now you have a central point of contact. We actually have a checklist we teach — here's the team you're going to need, these are the people on speed dial when you're writing grants. And I always recommend having the ED involved in a kickoff meeting with everyone the grant strategist will be working with in the room. Because otherwise you get pushback — "I've never heard from this person, they're asking for budget information, that feels confidential, I don't know if I should send it." A kickoff meeting solves all of that. You introduce the grant strategist, set expectations, establish timelines, and go. Then the grant strategist can work well with all those people, everybody knows the deadlines, and nobody's herding kittens. You just follow the plan.

Jeff Schreifels

One of the things we've seen on the major gift side is that we're always trying to find compelling offers for major gift officers to take to donors. What we find many times when there's a grant writer on staff or as a consultant — they are incredibly in tune with all the different programs and projects the organization is running. They've already done so much research that hasn't necessarily translated over to the individual giving side.

So we've seen situations where the grant strategist says, "Let me tell you about everything that's out there," and it becomes eye-opening for major gift officers. The grant strategist understands program costs, the financials, the impact — that's gold for major gift officers.

Holly Rustick

Absolutely. If you want to know what's going on at a non-profit, ask the grant writer — they know everything. And that's such a great point, because we teach people to create a Master Grant Application every year with all the priority projects. The idea is: if you're running a crowdfunding campaign, planning a fundraising event, anything — just go to that document. You don't need to create something new. There's already copy there, stats you can repurpose for social media, content you can use for campaigns. Everyone's always starting from scratch when they don't need to. Just go to the grant writer and say, "Give me some copy," and you can repurpose it completely and stay aligned in your messaging.

Jeff Schreifels

Well, Holly, tell me — how do you specifically work with grant writers? What do you do?

Holly Rustick

We've been training grant writers since I opened my podcast in 2017, and we've built two main programs in our ecosystem.

We have our Freelance Grant Writer Academy, which is for aspiring and seasoned grant writers looking to replace their full-time income by writing grants from home on flexible hours. We teach everything about the writing itself, but also business acumen — how to set up your business, how to get your first clients, and so on.

We also have our Grant Professional Mentorship Program, which is for more seasoned grant writers who have been in business a while, have earned around $50K in their business, and are looking to scale up — maybe hiring internal grant writers, starting a training program, or building additional offerings aligned with grant writing.

Jeff Schreifels

We'll have all those connections in our show notes, but do you have any other resources you want to share?

Holly Rustick

We have a private podcast as well. You can find it at grantwritingandfunding.com/private-podcast. It's a five-part series, and it also includes a downloadable template of the Master Grant Application I mentioned. And if you're watching on YouTube, we have a YouTube channel — everything is under "grant writing and funding." I also have a book, which is really a workbook that walks you through our formulaic process step by step.

We are everywhere, and we'd love to connect. If you're looking to hire a grant writer, we also have a Grant Writing Directory on our website at grantwritingandfunding.com. Everyone in it is vetted — we've reviewed their work, they've gone through our programs. You can filter by cause area and location, so if you need someone in Colorado who focuses on animal welfare, you can find exactly that.

There are 1.9 million non-profits in the U.S. as of 2026. There's not enough grant writing to go around, especially with everything happening right now — executive orders, trigger word concerns in grant language — you need a strategist. But I want to be clear: there are still grants out there. It is a huge part of our economy. Foundations are still giving. Individual philanthropists are still giving. I just had someone from the Melinda French Gates Foundation on my podcast talking about all the money she's distributing to grant programs. The money is there.

Yes, it's gotten more competitive. Yes, you may get a no your first time. But funders remember consistent applicants. They think, "Oh, them again — what are they doing now?" And eventually, you get funded.

Jeff Schreifels

Exactly. Well, I think that's really inspiring for anyone listening. Look, get going on the grant stuff!

Holly Rustick

I mean, you heard how much grant money we've won. Even in 2025, we brought in almost $70 million in grants — in a year where people were saying "whoa, everything's changing." Even during the government shutdown, people in our community were saying, "This grant just came in, this grant just came in." There's still money out there. Keep doing your individual giving programs, keep doing your fundraising, diversify your funding — but don't leave out grants. It is a part of your overall non-profit financial health.

Jeff Schreifels

Absolutely. Well Holly, thanks for joining us. I loved your energy and your passion for this. I'm hoping a lot of folks go check out your resources and start bringing in some great money for their missions and their causes. Thank you so much. And for everyone listening, we'll see you next time.

Holly Rustick

Thank you so much for having me, Jeff.