Academy FAQ Series #2: Is Now a Good Time to Become a Grant Writer?
Download MP3It's Holly Rustick here with Grant Writing and Funding, and we
Holly Rustick:are doing our quick frequently asked question series about joining the Freelance Grant Writer Academy since we are closing the doors this Friday, 10/24/2025 for the final time to the public in 2025. All right, so we've already been talking about what the Academy is. The Freelance Grant Writer Academy is our signature twelve month program for coaching, curriculum, and community for aspiring and seasoned grant writers to replace their full time income working flexible hours writing grants from home. All right, so let's go ahead and talk about what we're going to ask today. A frequently asked question is, is now a good time to be a grant writer in 2025?
Holly Rustick:All right, let's get into it. All right, so let's first talk real. There's a lot of change happening in the world right now. We're in 2025, October 2025, and many people are feeling insecure about their think government workers, teachers, environmental justice contractors, FEMA employees, and more. But when you have a professional skill that is not trendy like grant writing and you know how to run a business, you will always be able to rely on yourself to make a living.
Holly Rustick:Even with the things going on with federal grants in 2025, now is the best time to become a grant writer because in the Academy we teach you how to build a solid business. Our grant writing process is helping students win grants, 48,000,000 just in 2025. We teach you how to get results for your clients even if you need to pivot with strategic planning. And, yes, we include that inside the academy. We've already been able to get more than $3,500,000 and counting in 2025 for our students businesses.
Holly Rustick:And I even share with you what I'm doing inside my grant writing agency this Yes, I've relaunched my freelance grant writing business in 2025 because I have so many nonprofits coming to me asking for support this year. Because of how we are helping our students in 2025, they are actually have are they're earning more money in their grant writing businesses versus 2024. That is crazy. But it's because we've been doing this for more than twenty years. We know the industry.
Holly Rustick:We know how to pivot. Understanding how to serve your clients no matter what they face, is going to teach you how to build a solid grant writing business in any season. When you build a grant writing business in 2025, you'll be able to sustain during any economy in any administration. This is the best time for you to become the best grant writer ever and we can help you get there. Plus, nonprofits are hiring freelancers in Q4 twenty twenty in general.
Holly Rustick:Here's the thing I want you to think about. Nonprofits this year and over the next several years are streamlining their budgets. Right? They're streamlining their budgets. They're streamlining their operations.
Holly Rustick:They're streamlining their programs. And what they're doing is a lot of times not hiring in house grant writers right now, not hiring in house people right now. They're actually transitioning out to hire freelancers and consultants. Why? Because this can actually streamline their budget.
Holly Rustick:If they're only hiring you to write grants, pay attention to grant strategy, all of that, they can actually pay you less than paying a full time salary. They're not paying your fringe benefits. They're not paying for your office. They're not paying for technology that you have. They're not paying for managing you.
Holly Rustick:They're not paying for any of your travel. They're not paying for any of that. Right? And they don't have to manage you. Like that's a huge thing.
Holly Rustick:They don't have to think about you and think, oh my gosh how do I keep this person on forever payroll? How do I pay for the maternity? How do I pay for all of this? Like they're not doing that. All they have to think is, okay what what do I have to pay you?
Holly Rustick:We can budget for that and it's gonna be less than a full time person. Now you might call kinda push back at me and go, well, Holly, but I wanna get paid. You said replace my full time income. How can I replace it? Because you're not doing all the other stuff.
Holly Rustick:You're only doing grant prospecting, grant research, right, which is grant research, grant writing, and maybe some managing some grants and paying attention to strategy and meeting with them every month. That's it. So all of the all other jobs or duties as necessary, you're not doing. You're not doing all the staff meetings. You're not doing all the stuff.
Holly Rustick:You're not having to come in. We have people in the academy spend anywhere between five to forty hours per month per client, not per week, per month, which means, guess what, if you have one client, let's say they're paying you 3,000 a month. Right? $3,000 a month. That's less they'd have to pay a staff member, and you're able to get 3,000.
Holly Rustick:But guess what? If you're only working forty hours, let's go maximum time. You're working forty hours a month for this client, how many clients do you think you can have them? Let's say you still wanna work part time hours. Okay.
Holly Rustick:Let's get you to two clients. And even if you just kept your and you can charge more than your retainers. I'm just giving you let's be very conservative here. $3,000 a month for two clients at $6,000, and let's be very like, let's feel like we're using a lot of our time here. Let's go to eighty hours.
Holly Rustick:Even if you're spending eighty hours a month and you're gonna need $6,000, that's still $75 an hour. And you can charge more and you can work less because the more longer you work with a client you actually start reducing your time very rapidly and we want you to be on at least twelve month retainers with these clients. So you can very much reduce that time so you can actually earn more per hour quote unquote with these clients without overworking and without overcharging so you can take two three four clients and you can still work way less than working full time and make way more money. So that's ethical and fair for nonprofits right now who are streamlining their budgets and it's ethical and fair for you. And in fact, it's interesting because even before the pandemic I saw this quote and this forecast and it was was actually some research that this freelance organization was doing and they said by 2030 they and they said something like 80% was really high and I was like there's no way, 80% of it might have been like Gen z will become freelancers and I was like, there's no way.
Holly Rustick:Like, I see the way the world's going and I get it like, yes, we're moving in that direction but that's fast and that's a lot. And then COVID hit and I was like, yeah, this is totally a point for that generation. And I'm really seeing that and now with this administration, now with everything that's happened in 2025 for freelance grant writers, I was like, yeah, we're definitely moving there. So the nonprofits have finally caught up with us who have been freelance grant writers and now we're able to get even more clients because it's the norm. Right?
Holly Rustick:It's becoming the norm. Even, LinkedIn had this, They did, you know, every year they do their surveys about the top jobs coming up and they said freelance grant writer was, number 15 for twenty twenty five jobs. So, yeah, they have the world has finally caught up with us. Like, I've been freelance grant writing since 2004, 2005, like, around then. So and that was not a norm back in the day.
Holly Rustick:That was, like, pre Skype. Right? So whatever. Pre pre Skype mainstream. So, yeah.
Holly Rustick:I mean, the world has changed a lot, but it this is something that you can definitely can do because it's, you know, behind the screen kinda job, and all you need is Internet and a computer, like, literally. So this is the time to do it. Is now a good time to start grant writing? Now is the best time to start grant writing. I think a lot of people that started writing grants during the pandemic, they're feeling it right now.
Holly Rustick:They're like, oh my gosh, and they're really freaking out, and I get it. I get it. But I also I'm like, yeah. The you know, after the pandemic or, like, during the pandemic times, especially if you were starting to get clients in education or health care, like, was just a lot of grants. Like, it was it was a crazy amount of money that was going out for grants during that time.
Holly Rustick:So it was super easy just left and right. It's still there's still more money even in the budget right now coming out, right, for grants than pre COVID times, like so it's okay. Now is the best time when nonprofits really do need you a lot, maybe may want to pivot from federal foundation grants and they need to find new sources, like they need you right now. They need that consistency. They need to focus on their mission.
Holly Rustick:They need somebody spending time to find funding for them. They absolutely need you right now, 100%. So now is the best time to become a grant writer. Alright. So inside the academy, we teach you how to do that.
Holly Rustick:If you've never written a grant before, we teach you how to write a grant. If you've been writing grants for twenty years, but you've never opened a business, we teach you how to open a business. And if you've had a business, we have a lot of people who've had a business for one to three years about, some a lot more than that, and it's still a hot mess and they need to get some systems, they need to have better sales conversions, that's what we teach you. Alright. So I'll see you aside the grant writer academy.
Holly Rustick:Go ahead to go to grantwritingandfunding.com/academy.
