Grant Writing Rates: How Much Grant Writers Charge, Grant Writer Fees, Grant Writer Hourly Rate and Percentage Fees
Price from what it takes to earn a US fundraiser's wage, not from a marketplace median built on every country. Put in your hourly floor and the hours each submission takes, and the builder prices a letter of inquiry, a foundation proposal, a federal application and a research report as flat fees, then shows what you keep after the platform's cut.
BLS May 2025 wages, Upwork's own bands, GPA ethics rules.
| Deliverable | Flat fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|
The short answer
Grant writing rates on Upwork run $35 to $60 an hour at the median, with beginners at $35, intermediate writers at $60 and advanced writers at $125. Employed fundraisers, the federal category grant writers belong to, earn a median of $72,550 a year, $34.88 an hour (BLS, May 2025). A US freelancer who wants to take that home has to bill about $97 an hour on an 8% platform, or $111 on Fiverr. Grant writers charge flat fees, hourly rates or retainers, never a percentage of the award: the Grant Professionals Association code of ethics bars commission and percentage pay. At $97, a 20 to 40 hour foundation proposal is $1,940 to $3,880.
Grant writer hourly rate
Grant writer rates, by source and sample
Every row names where the number came from and what sits behind it. Federal and Indeed figures are employed wages; the Upwork rows are what freelancers on that platform list, across every country.
| Source | Rate | What it measures | Sample and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| BLS, fundraisers, lowest 10% | Under $22.42/hr | Employed, under $46,630 a year | Federal survey, May 2025 |
| BLS, fundraisers, median | $34.88/hr | Employed, $72,550 a year | Federal survey, 140,900 jobs |
| BLS, fundraisers, highest 10% | Over $55.68/hr | Employed, over $115,820 a year | Federal survey, May 2025 |
| O*NET, writers and authors | $36.98/hr | Employed, $76,910 a year | Federal survey, 2025 |
| Indeed, grant writer | About $30.63/hr | Average of job postings, $63,709 a year | 947 US postings, Aug 2026 |
| Upwork, grant writers | $35 to $60/hr | Median band of freelance rates, all countries | Upwork cost page, Apr 2025 |
| Upwork, beginner | $35/hr | Upwork's own tier guidance | Upwork cost page, Apr 2025 |
| Upwork, intermediate | $60/hr | Upwork's own tier guidance | Upwork cost page, Apr 2025 |
| Upwork, advanced | $125/hr | Upwork's own tier guidance | Upwork cost page, Apr 2025 |
BLS hourly figures are annual wages divided by 2,080 hours. The Bureau places 41% of fundraiser jobs in religious, grantmaking, civic and professional organizations, where the median is $75,070, against $80,840 in professional, scientific and technical services. Notice where the grant-writer-specific number lands: Indeed's $63,709 average sits below both federal categories, because grant writing jobs cluster in nonprofits with tight budgets. That is the salary a freelancer is competing against, and it is the reason a freelance rate has to be argued from outcomes and deadlines, not from the wage table.
Grant writing rates per hour
What you have to charge to earn a US fundraiser's wage
The employed median is a salary. As a freelancer you pay both halves of payroll tax, your own health cover and database subscriptions, and you only bill part of the hours you work. These are the hourly rates that close that gap.
$67 / hr at 8%
$77 an hour if you sell on Fiverr, where 20% comes off every order before you see it.
$97 / hr at 8%
$111 an hour if you sell on Fiverr, where 20% comes off every order before you see it.
$146 / hr at 8%
$168 an hour if you sell on Fiverr, where 20% comes off every order before you see it.
How those numbers are built
A 40-hour week with six weeks off is 1,840 working hours. At 60% billable, which is realistic once you count prospecting, reading funder guidelines for opportunities you decide not to chase, and chasing a program director for a budget narrative, that is 1,104 hours you can charge for. Add $6,000 of expenses (a funder database subscription alone can take a big share of that) and $7,200 of health cover, then self-employment tax at 15.3% on 92.35% of profit. Divide by the billable hours and gross up for the platform fee. Change any input on the freelance rate calculator.
What Upwork's bands actually pay a US freelancer
Bill Upwork's $35 beginner rate across the same 1,104 hours with a 10% talent fee and overhead, and you keep about $18,500 a year before income tax. The $60 intermediate rate keeps about $39,900, still well under the $46,630 that the lowest-paid tenth of employed fundraisers earn. Only the $125 advanced tier, about $95,300 kept, clears the $72,550 median. The bands are global, so they are pulled down by writers outside the US; a US writer pricing to them is subsidizing the comparison.
Grant writer fees per proposal
A grant writing price list at three rates
Hours are sample ranges for a typical US submission, not survey data; no survey publishes hours per proposal, so log your own and replace them. Prices are those hours at Upwork's $35 beginner rate, the $97 median-wage break-even and the $146 top-10% break-even, rounded to the nearest $5.
| Deliverable | Sample hours | At $35/hr | At $97/hr | At $146/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letter of inquiry | 6 to 10 | $210 to $350 | $580 to $970 | $875 to $1,460 |
| Foundation or corporate proposal | 20 to 40 | $700 to $1,400 | $1,940 to $3,880 | $2,920 to $5,840 |
| Federal application | 60 to 120 | $2,100 to $4,200 | $5,820 to $11,640 | $8,760 to $17,520 |
| Funder research report | 8 to 15 | $280 to $525 | $775 to $1,455 | $1,170 to $2,190 |
Why a federal application costs three times a foundation proposal
A family foundation may want a two-page letter, a one-page budget and a board list. A federal notice of funding opportunity comes with its own required narrative sections, page limits, a detailed budget and budget justification, logic models, letters of support and registration steps the applicant has to finish before it can submit at all. The writing is a fraction of the work. Coordinating a finance officer, a program lead and three partner letters on a fixed federal deadline is where the other hours go.
That is the case for pricing each type separately rather than quoting one rate for "a grant". Put what the client must supply (budget figures, program data, partner contacts) and the delivery date for each input into the scope, and the federal price stops absorbing their delays.
Why you cannot price on the award
The Grant Professionals Association code of ethics is direct: members "shall not accept or pay a finder's fee, commission, or percentage compensation based on grants". The association's own statement to organizations that request it explains why: a funder awards money for the need, the project and the applicant's capacity to deliver it, not for the writing alone.
A request for proposals that offers 10% of the award is a warning, not an opportunity. The builder above shows your flat fee as a share of the award only so you can explain it to a board that asks: a $2,910 midpoint proposal on a $50,000 grant is 5.8%, and it is paid whether the grant is funded or not.
How to price
Build a grant writing price list in four steps
Find your floor
Work out the hourly rate that clears the take-home you need. For the US fundraiser median that is about $97 an hour on an 8% platform. Keep it private; it is your floor, not your headline.
Log your last five submissions
Record real hours from kickoff call to submission for each type: letters of inquiry, foundation proposals, federal applications. Your numbers replace the sample hours in the builder.
Quote flat, scope tightly
Multiply hours by your floor and round up. Write what the fee covers: one funder, one draft plus a revision round, the budget narrative, and the date the client must deliver their figures.
Publish as packages
Group the list into a letter of inquiry package, a foundation proposal package and a federal package so an executive director can approve one without a call. Put research and retainers alongside.
For the tier structure itself, the guide to packaging a service into Basic, Standard and Premium walks through what goes in each level and how far apart to price them. A retainer is the same math: your floor times the hours the client reserves each month, $1,940 for 20 hours at $97, with the number of submissions it covers written into the agreement.
What the platform keeps
One $2,500 foundation proposal, seven places to sell it
Spread is the platform's total cut from both sides as a share of what the client paid, so a platform that charges the buyer cannot hide half of it.
| Platform | Writer keeps | Client pays | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contra, free plan | $2,500.00 | $2,529.00 | 1.1% |
| FreelanceNation Studio | $2,425.00 | $2,500.00 | 3.0% |
| FreelanceNation Pro | $2,375.00 | $2,500.00 | 5.0% |
| FreelanceNation Starter | $2,300.00 | $2,500.00 | 8.0% |
| Guru, Basic plan | $2,275.00 | $2,500.00 | 9.0% |
| Upwork, 10% talent fee | $2,250.00 | $2,625.00 | 14.3% |
| Fiverr | $2,000.00 | $2,637.50 | 24.2% |
The honest read: on proposal-sized orders Contra's flat $29 client fee is the cheapest spread of any venue, ours included, and it beats Studio on every order above roughly $940. Where a gig page here earns its fee is in what the client sees: published packages a nonprofit can order and pay for without a sales call, no buyer fee added at checkout, and a page built to be found in search. Fiverr is the most expensive at every size. To run your own order value through all of them, use the freelance fee calculator, or compare venues in the roundup of the best platforms for freelance grant writing.
Who uses this
Three grant writers who need a price list this week
Leaving a development office
You earned around the $34.88 median on staff. Quoting that as a freelance rate is a pay cut of roughly two thirds once tax, health cover and unbilled research are counted. Start from $97 and adjust from your logged hours.
Answering an RFP that offers a percentage
A city or school district wants a grant writer paid from the award. Reply with flat fees per submission and the GPA code language. A price list you can attach turns an awkward refusal into a counteroffer.
Adding grants to a writing practice
You already sell copy or reports and a nonprofit client asks for a foundation proposal. Price it from your floor and the funder's requirements, not from your per-word copy rate, which undercharges the coordination.
If you write more than grants, the roundup of the best platforms to sell writing services compares every venue on its seller fee, and the sell freelance writing services page shows what a tiered writing gig looks like once the list is published.
Questions grant writers ask
Grant writing rates: common questions
The questions grant writers type before they set a price, answered first sentence first.
How much do grant writers charge?
Freelance grant writers on Upwork list $35 to $60 an hour as the median band, with beginners at $35, intermediate writers at $60 and advanced writers at $125. Employed fundraisers, the federal category grant writers fall under, earn a median of $34.88 an hour (BLS, May 2025). A US freelancer who wants to take home that median has to bill about $97 an hour on an 8% platform.
What is the hourly rate for a grant writer?
Between $35 and $125 an hour on Upwork, depending on the tier, and about $30.63 an hour for salaried grant writers on Indeed (947 US postings). Those are employed or global figures. The rate a US freelancer needs is higher, because it has to cover self-employment tax, health cover and the hours spent on research nobody bills for: $67 an hour for the low end of the federal range, $97 for the median.
Do grant writers get a percentage of the grant?
Not ethical ones. The Grant Professionals Association code of ethics says members "shall not accept or pay a finder's fee, commission, or percentage compensation based on grants", and the Association of Fundraising Professionals code says the same. Grant writers charge flat project fees, hourly rates or retainers instead.
How much should I charge for grant writing?
Charge the hourly rate that clears the income you need, then quote each proposal as a flat fee. For the $72,550 fundraiser median that floor is about $97 an hour on an 8% platform or $111 on Fiverr. Multiply it by the hours your last few proposals actually took: at $97, a 20 to 40 hour foundation proposal is $1,940 to $3,880.
How much do grant writers charge per proposal?
It depends on the hours, which depend on the funder. At the $97 an hour a US freelancer needs to match the median wage, a letter of inquiry that takes 6 to 10 hours is $580 to $970, a 20 to 40 hour foundation proposal is $1,940 to $3,880, and a 60 to 120 hour federal application is $5,820 to $11,640. The hours are illustrative; use your own logs.
What is a typical grant writer retainer fee?
A retainer is your hourly floor times the hours the client reserves each month. At $97 an hour, 20 reserved hours is $1,940 a month and 40 is $3,880. Retainers suit organizations with a steady calendar of foundation deadlines and reports; write down how many submissions the hours cover, and what happens to unused hours, before the first invoice.
How much does a freelance grant writer make?
There is no federal figure for freelancers alone. What a freelancer keeps depends on billable hours and the platform fee: billed across 1,104 hours on Upwork with a 10% fee, $35 an hour nets about $18,500 after overhead and self-employment tax, $60 nets about $39,900, and $125 nets about $95,300. Only the advanced tier clears the $72,550 employed median.
Is it ethical to charge a success fee for grant writing?
A fee contingent on the award is treated as commission and is off limits under the GPA code. The same code does allow performance bonuses that follow the client's normal practice and are not tied to a percentage of grant money. The clean structure is a flat fee for the proposal, paid whether or not it is funded.
Do platform fees change what I should charge as a grant writer?
Yes. On a $2,500 foundation proposal, Fiverr's 20% leaves the writer $2,000 while the client pays $2,637.50, an 8% plan leaves $2,300 with the client paying $2,500, and Contra leaves $2,500 with the client paying $2,529. To clear the median wage you need about $97 an hour on an 8% platform and $111 on a 20% one.
Should grant writers charge hourly or per project?
Per project for a defined submission, hourly or retainer for open-ended work. A nonprofit budgets a fixed number more easily than an estimate, and a flat fee stops an experienced writer being paid less for being fast. Build the flat fee from your hourly floor and your logged hours, and bill hourly only for research or revisions the scope did not cover.
Put your proposal packages where nonprofits can order them
Turn the list into letter of inquiry, foundation and federal packages on a shareable gig page. Clients see the flat fee for each, pick one and pay without a call, pay no buyer fee, and you keep 92% on Starter, 95% on Pro and 97% on Studio.
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