Retainer Fee as a Grant Writer
Hello Everyone,
I have been working with a client on a project by project basis as their grantwriter. However they would like to have me on retainer since I am the only person that writes for them. Any suggestions on how to do this? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Derek Link on -
Hi Michelle,
Retainers are usually based on a hourly rate. Just set your rate and ask them how many hours they want to retain you for. The tricky part could be holding hours open for them unless they're pretty organized and give you adequate notification about projects coming up. I could see where overlapping projects could strain your time commitments. I don't see a conflict in terms of ethics, but would be interested in hearing what other people say about that. We all know retainers are standard practice for attorneys.
Cheers,
Derek
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Permalink Reply by Melanie R. Negrin, GPC on -
Hi, Michelle - If you have a pretty regular set of projects, and you have a good sense of how much time you are spending on this client (and how much they are spending on you), you can develop an annual contract fee that takes that into account. It would be your choice as to specify what is included (so that expectations are set up front), i.e. 20 corporation/foundation grant proposals prepared throughout the year. That's the approach I take, but I know others who leave it more open-ended. I have found that working this way for clients I have an on-going relationship with lends itself to pre-planning and works out pretty well. ~ Melanie
© 2013 Created by Melanie R. Negrin, GPC.
