Reclaiming Your Worth — What Money Mindset Has to Do with Grant Writing
Download MP3Welcome to the grant writing and funding podcast, the world's top ranked podcast since 2017 on grant writing and, you guessed it, funding. I'm your host, Holly Rustick. And here at GWF, we have a movement for grant writers to secure $1,000,000,000 in grants for amazing causes in the world and 25 to $30,000,000 in their grant writing businesses. We are well on our way there with hundreds of millions of of grants already secured and millions of dollars secured in client contracts through our two signature programs, the Freelance Grant Writer Academy and the Grant Professional Mentorship, where hundreds of students at any given time are working on replacing their full time income on flexible hours, writing grants from home for causes and missions they are passionate about. To learn more about our movement, be sure to check out our newsletter, write grants, get paid, and go to grantwritingandfunding.com to check out our free grant class and resources.
Holly Rustick:Now let's get into our podcast episode so you can learn how to win grants and advance impact in the world. Hello. Hello. Hello. It's Holly Rustic here with Grant Writing and Funding, and welcome to the Grant Writing and Funding podcast.
Holly Rustick:Today, we're gonna talk about reclaiming your worth, what money mindset has to do with grant writing. This is so, so good, so stay tuned. And for all of our episode show notes, go to grantwritingandfunding.com. Alright. So let's get into this.
Holly Rustick:I wanna talk about something we don't talk about enough in the nonprofit world, and that is money mindset. Because let's be honest, a lot of us grew up believing that meaningful work and financial stability couldn't exist in the same sentence. I grew up in poverty. My mom worked long hours as a teacher and barely made ends meet with three kids as a single mom. I remember having food donated by nuns, and for years I thought that's what doing good looked like, sacrificing yourself for the cause.
Holly Rustick:When I started my freelance grant writing business, I carried that guilt with me and that narrative with me. It showed up in how I priced my services, how I negotiated contracts, and how I viewed my own value. And even being and working inside of nonprofits, I saw this all the time. This type of systemic narrative really does exist within nonprofits, especially with it being very a very much a female dominated field, at least for the non CEOs, where a lot of females are expected to volunteer or maybe they have, you know, high income husbands and this is their place on how they can do their philanthropy, where many women now in 2025 and 2026, we are working. Right?
Holly Rustick:We're working in nonprofits. So we're not there just to volunteer, but we have this sense of like we should though for some reason. Right? It's like this very much intrinsic kind of, systemic feeling even and the way everything is portrayed. So even coming into nonprofits and just like the whole viewpoint behind nonprofits is that feeling of, oh, we don't have any money.
Holly Rustick:We don't you know, we're just having peanuts and da da da. And a lot of that is valid then because that's how they operate. So it's it's, you know, this cycle. So how can you make money as a freelance grant writer while also being fair to the nonprofit? And I just recorded a podcast with a Shilpa Alba, and we were talking about this exactly.
Holly Rustick:And it was talked about like, well, actually a freelance grant writer can save the nonprofit a ton of money because they're not a staff grant writer. And that can be very helpful. While on the same end, like, the freelance grant writer can have multiple clients so they can actually make a lot more money than just being a staff grant writer. So there are ways to win. But even as a freelance grant writer, you might find yourself between a rock and a hard place because you're carrying some of this money trauma with you.
Holly Rustick:Right? You're carrying some of this nonprofit trauma with you. And you're thinking, like, can I even you know, my heartstrings are getting pulled? I just wanna, like, you know, do the good, you know, of course. Like, you love the nonprofits.
Holly Rustick:You love all the things that they're doing. You want to see their mission succeed, and you feel like maybe you need to discount yourself. But you don't have to do that. As I mentioned, it can be a win win scenario. And it wasn't until I started applying my own value based pricing method that I realized my work created impact and income.
Holly Rustick:I wasn't just writing grants. I was helping nonprofits get funding, grow their reach, and serve their missions sustainably. And that has a real value. When Jill, one of my students in the academy, switched to value based pricing, she tripled her income and started working fewer hours. Deb, who works with arts nonprofits, did the same and finally had time to pursue her own creative work again.
Holly Rustick:They all did one key thing. They stopped charging for time and started charging for transformation. And thank you to Grant Easy Management Software for sponsoring today's podcast episode. We love GEMS, Grant Easy Management Software, because GEMS is a software tool that organizes all of your grants. It also gives you an opportunity to invite your nonprofit clients into the software, and you can put every single grant you submitted.
Holly Rustick:You can also put every single note with funding sources that you've connected to. At a click of a button, you can see everything that's pending, everything that's been secured, everything that's been denied, and your clients can see that as well. We love that GEMS actually says, hey. Bring GEMS into your meeting with your nonprofit clients so you can show them exactly where you're at with all of the grant writing strategy as you are working with them. And there's even a time tracker inside of GEMS so you can track your time with all of your clients.
Holly Rustick:Never miss a deadline again. Never miss a document again. Go ahead and join GEMS, grant easy management software. Sign up for a free demo today, and you can also get a $50 off coupon code when you mention g w f, Holly, h o l l y. Go to grantwritingandfunding.com/gemsgems.
Holly Rustick:Here's your takeaway today. If you're stuck in a scarcity mindset, start by reframing your worth. Ask yourself, what results do I help create? How much time, stress, or money do I save my clients? And what's the worth in real terms?
Holly Rustick:When you start thinking this way, you don't just raise your rates, you raise your standards. And here's the beautiful part. When we model that kind of confidence, we give other women permission to do the same. Financial empowerment is a ripple effect and it starts with you. So if you're wondering, how do I actually get out of this, like, giving discounts right away or, like, feeling like my heartstrings are getting pulled, so I just wanna help or just, you know, all the things that happen, go back and ask yourself those three questions.
Holly Rustick:What results do I help create? How much time, stress, or money do I help save my clients? And what's that worth in real time? Now, if you're serving a lot of really baby nonprofits, you might not be able to charge high rates. It doesn't mean discounting everything and just give them a a deep discount though.
Holly Rustick:You could rethink this and say, what would take the least amount of my time to help these nonprofits and really give them what they need? So they might actually just need a checklist on how to get organized to get grant ready. That's not something you would have to do for them. You could create a checklist and then you could sell this, you know, every time, like, the time. You could sell this as part of your services for a very low entry rate.
Holly Rustick:That's actually one of the reasons I wrote my book, The Beginner's Guide to Grant Writing, is because so many people were asking me on grant writing, and then they said, but we don't have any money to hire you, Holly. And I'd be like, yeah, but you got $25 to go buy the book. You can still have that resource, right, available. So you can create something that's a little low hanging for you. And even if you can create something then that can be watched again and again, like a video that then you can sell or create a checklist or create something that can give them and support them with what they need until they can actually hire you for your services.
Holly Rustick:So the way I like to always differentiate this is if the nonprofit can't afford my grant writing services or only a portion of them, then what is a portion that I can give to them that will get them some result that they want. Right? So of course they all want a million dollars in grants, but how what is what is the immediate thing for that nonprofit? What is the immediate thing that they actually need? What is the biggest ROI for them?
Holly Rustick:Can I do that? And I also think when you're charging less, you can also think about, like, what's less of me and more of them that they need to be invested for that as well. Right? Of course, your higher rates are all gonna be done by you. Right?
Holly Rustick:There that's where you have, like, I'll do all the grant writing, you know, communicate with a nonprofit, but you're doing most of it. And that's gonna cost more because it's more of your time. But if it takes you less time, like, if you create a template, yes, you're gonna have to invest your time to do that one time, but then multiple people can buy it so the cost overall comes down because it's not taking your time anymore and the more people that buy it kinda negates the time that you put in it. Right? So that can be something that you can sell to a lot.
Holly Rustick:So think of like bulk selling versus selling selling one on one services directly, which would be higher. So don't just give away your services and give deep discounts, but you can think of this as like there's still value, there's still worth in this, and it can still be an amazing thing for them. So even if you created a video on how to get grant ready and you gave a template with it and all of that, it could still be worth, you know, $500 because of the value in that. Even if you sold it a 100 times and you never recorded it again, it's still worth the value for that because of what you're the the promise that you're giving, get grant ready, that you actually have a training for that, that you have an opportunity for them to get to that goal of what they want. So what's that worth in real terms?
Holly Rustick:Well, what is that worth? Right? You have to look at that and think about, I don't like thinking what is what would nonprofits pay for this, but what is the value that they get for this and what would that be worth? Alright. So I hope this helps you today to remember thinking about your value in different ways.
Holly Rustick:It's not just an hourly kind of service, but it's really thinking about the result and what that is worth. And if this episode resonated with you today, please share it with somebody else there that needs a reminder that they can do amazing work and be well compensated by doing it. Alright. I'm Holly Rustic. I'll see you next week.
Holly Rustick:I hope you enjoyed today's podcast episode. And if you are still struggling with how to write a grant, it still feels overwhelming. Maybe you're new to it or maybe you're a seasoned grant writer with no processes in place on how to write grants. So every time you onboard a client, it is a lot of work. Make sure you subscribe to our private podcast on how to write a master grant template.
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