strategic planning for nonprofits

From Grant Writer to Nonprofit Consultant: Expanding Your Services to Serve the Whole Client

 
 

A few years ago, I was working with a grant writing client who clearly needed help with fundraising beyond grants. His direct mail appeals weren't working, and from time to time I'd give him pointers—pro bono, just because I could see the gap.

Eventually, he asked me directly: "Can your company provide fundraising services too?"

We couldn't. Not then. We didn't have the capacity or the expertise to take that on responsibly.

But the question stayed with me. Here was a client I understood deeply—his mission, his challenges, his community. I was already analyzing his organizational capacity for every grant proposal. I could see what he needed. And I had to send him elsewhere to get it.

I know you've been there.

You're midway through a grant proposal when you realize something: this organization needs more than grant writing help. Maybe their strategic plan is five years old and gathering dust. Maybe they're entirely grant-dependent with no individual donor program to speak of. Maybe their board doesn't understand their fundraising role—or worse, their governance role.

You see the gap. You could refer them to another consultant. But what if you could fill that gap yourself?

This is the quiet career evolution happening across our profession. Grant writers are becoming nonprofit consultants—not by abandoning grant writing, but by expanding around it. The logic is simple: we already understand these organizations deeply. Every needs statement requires us to analyze root causes. Every proposal forces us to assess organizational capacity. Every budget reveals financial health (or lack thereof).

We're already doing organizational analysis. We just don't always name it that way.

The question isn't whether you can expand your services. It's how to do it responsibly and well.

Why Grant Writers Are Uniquely Positioned for Nonprofit Consulting

Grant writing is fundamentally an analytical profession. To write a compelling proposal, you must understand:

  • Mission alignment: How programs connect to organizational purpose

  • Community insight statement: The root causes behind the problems your client addresses

  • Organizational capacity: Whether the nonprofit can actually deliver what it promises

  • Financial sustainability: How the budget reflects true costs and long-term viability

  • Outcomes and evaluation: What success looks like and how to measure it

These same competencies form the foundation of nonprofit consulting. The grant professional who can assess whether an organization is ready for a federal grant has already evaluated governance, financial systems, and programmatic capacity. The leap to offering those assessments as standalone services is shorter than it appears.

And here's what I've observed through years of hosting expert panelists in webinars: consulting firms that provide an array of services tend to perform better than those offering grant writing alone. But there's an important nuance—they typically accomplish this by hiring or partnering with experts in other areas, not by one person trying to learn everything themselves.

This points to a different model than "become an expert in everything." It might mean partnering with a strategic planning facilitator and cross-training each other. It might mean building a referral network where you can serve clients holistically through trusted colleagues. Organizations like Funding for Good have built successful models around this kind of collaborative approach.

The solopreneur who tries to master strategic planning, fund development, board governance, evaluation, and financial management all at once may be setting themselves up for mediocrity in everything rather than excellence in a few things.

The AI Factor: What Remains Uniquely Human

Let's name something that's shaping this conversation: AI is changing grant writing. Tools can now draft proposals, summarize RFPs, and generate boilerplate language faster than any human.

So what remains uniquely human in our work?

Understanding the complexities of nonprofits and meeting them where they are.

As a consultant, I've come to see my role as becoming part of each client's journey for a while. My goal is to elevate their work as best I can during our time together. I know I'm not going to be with them forever—and I don't think I should be. Part of serving clients well is knowing when to move out of the way so someone else can take them to the next level, whether that's because of my own capacity limitations, my expertise boundaries, or sometimes simply because the nonprofit needs to hear something from a fresh voice.

This relationship-based consulting—the facilitation, the organizational understanding, the ability to read a room and know what a board needs to hear—is precisely what AI cannot automate. The strategic thinking that synthesizes mission, community context, organizational culture, and funder priorities into a coherent path forward requires human judgment and human relationship.

Expanding into consulting services isn't just a business diversification strategy. It's a way to lean into what makes our work meaningful and irreplaceable.

That said, understanding AI is also valuable. Grant professionals who want to leverage AI tools effectively while maintaining the human elements that matter most might consider programs like Kellogg Executive Education's AI Portfolio at Northwestern University.

Common Client Needs That Go Beyond Grant Writing

If you've been writing grants for any length of time, you've encountered these situations:

Strategic Planning Gaps

You see the need when: The client can't articulate priorities. Everything is urgent. Programs don't connect to a cohesive mission. The strategic plan—if one exists—bears no relationship to what the organization actually does.

The service opportunity: Strategic planning facilitation, mission clarification, theory of change development, and program alignment consulting.

Fund Development Deficiencies

You see the need when: The client treats grants as their entire fundraising strategy. No individual donors. No major gift prospects. No annual fund. Just a desperate scramble from grant deadline to grant deadline.

The service opportunity: Fund development planning, fundraising diversification strategy, donor cultivation systems, and case statement development.

Board Development Challenges

You see the need when: The board is disengaged or confused about their role. They don't fundraise. They don't govern. They show up to meetings (sometimes) and approve whatever staff puts in front of them.

The service opportunity: Board governance training, board recruitment strategy, fundraising role clarity, and board self-assessment facilitation.

Evaluation and Outcomes Measurement Weaknesses

You see the need when: The client can't answer "what difference did you make?" They have no outcomes data, no evaluation system, no way to demonstrate impact beyond anecdotes.

The service opportunity: Logic model development, outcomes measurement system design, evaluation planning, and impact reporting frameworks.

Nonprofit Financial Management Issues

You see the need when: Budgets don't make sense. The client doesn't understand indirect costs. Cash flow is a mystery. They're not sure how much programs actually cost to run. The program budgets aren't itemized, but rather just a percentage of the organizational budget.

The service opportunity: Financial sustainability planning, true cost analysis, budget development training, and cash flow management consulting.

How to Build Skills for Expanded Nonprofit Consulting Services

Here's the honest truth: seeing a need and being qualified to address it are two different things. The grant writing profession has a credentialing system for a reason. If you're going to expand your services, you need to invest in building genuine competence.

Training for Strategic Planning Facilitation

The skill here isn't just knowing what goes in a strategic plan—it's facilitation. You need to learn how to guide a group through a process, manage competing voices, and help an organization reach decisions that will actually stick.

Where to get trained:

How to build experience:

  • Shadow an experienced facilitator on two or three engagements

  • Co-facilitate with a seasoned consultant who can mentor you

  • Volunteer to facilitate planning for a small nonprofit to build your skills before charging for them

Training for Fund Development Planning

This is about understanding how all the fundraising pieces fit together—grants, individual donors, major gifts, events, planned giving—and helping an organization build a realistic, diversified strategy.

Where to get trained:

Training for Board Development

Nothing teaches board dynamics like serving on boards yourself. Beyond personal experience, formal training helps you guide others.

Where to get trained:

How to build experience:

  • Serve on nonprofit boards yourself (this is invaluable firsthand experience)

  • Observe board meetings as a consultant to understand different governance styles

Training for Program Evaluation

This is increasingly essential as funders demand evidence of impact and grant proposals require stronger evaluation plans.

Where to get trained:

How to build experience:

  • Partner with an experienced evaluator on a project to learn the craft

  • Start by strengthening evaluation sections of your grant proposals, then expand from there

Training for Nonprofit Financial Management

The goal isn't to become a CPA—it's to understand nonprofit finance well enough to help organizations make better decisions and write stronger grant budgets.

Where to get trained:

When Expanding Isn't Right for You

Here's something most "grow your business" articles won't tell you: not every grant writer should become a nonprofit consultant.

Facilitation is an art in its own right, just like public speaking. An introvert who thrives behind the scenes crafting compelling narratives may not be the best person to stand in front of a board and guide them through a contentious strategic conversation. And that's okay.

Some grant professionals love the craft of writing—the research, the synthesis, the satisfaction of a well-constructed proposal. They don't want to facilitate retreats or coach executive directors or navigate board dynamics. That's a valid choice, not a limitation.

If you recognize yourself in this description, the answer isn't to force yourself into consulting. The answer is to build a strong referral network of trusted colleagues who do that work well. When your client needs strategic planning help, you connect them with your facilitator colleague. When they need board development, you know exactly who to call.

This serves your clients just as well—maybe better—than trying to do everything yourself at a mediocre level. And it keeps you doing work that energizes rather than drains you.

The grant writing profession needs excellent writers who stay excellent writers. Don't let anyone convince you that expansion is the only path to professional growth.

Ethical Considerations When Expanding Your Grant Writing Practice

For those who do want to expand, here's what keeps me up at night about this trend: how do you ethically provide a service you're still learning?

I don't have a perfect answer, but I have guidelines that have served me well.

Be Transparent About Your Experience Level

If you're building competence in a new area, tell your client. "I've facilitated three strategic planning processes, and here's what I learned" is very different from "I'm an expert in strategic planning." Clients deserve to know what they're getting.

Price Your Services Accordingly

If you're still learning, your fees should reflect that. A pilot rate while you build your portfolio is fair to everyone. As your experience grows, your rates can grow with it.

Know When to Partner or Refer

There's no shame in saying "I can help with pieces of this, but I'd like to bring in a colleague who specializes in this area." Subcontracting or partnering with experts while you learn is smart, not weak. And sometimes the most ethical choice is a referral to someone better qualified.

Start with Lower-Stakes Engagements

The complexity of a 50-person organization with a $5 million budget is very different from a startup nonprofit with a volunteer board. Build your skills where the stakes are lower before taking on high-complexity clients.

Stay in Your Lane Until You're Ready

If you've never facilitated a strategic planning process, don't pitch one to your biggest client. That's not fair to them or to you. Build competence intentionally before expanding your service offerings.

Meaningful Grant Writing and Meaningful Consulting

At Spark the Fire, we talk about meaningful grant writing—work that goes beyond mechanics to genuine impact, that serves community needs rather than just organizational budgets, that treats grant seeking as mission fulfillment rather than money chasing.

The same philosophy applies to consulting. Meaningful nonprofit consulting isn't about padding your revenue streams. It's about recognizing that the organizations we serve have interconnected needs, and that addressing root causes creates more lasting change than treating symptoms.

When you help a client develop a real strategic plan—one they actually use—you're not just adding a service line. You're helping them become the kind of organization that funders want to invest in, that staff want to work for, that communities trust to deliver on promises.

When you help a board understand their governance role, you're not just running a training. You're strengthening the foundation that everything else rests on.

This is what it means to serve the whole client. Not because it's profitable (though it can be), but because it's what nonprofits actually need to thrive.

The Business Case for Becoming a Nonprofit Consultant

Beyond the mission-driven reasons, expanding from grant writing to nonprofit consulting offers practical benefits for your career:

Diversified revenue streams: Grant writing is often project-based. Consulting services like strategic planning, board retreats, and fund development planning provide additional revenue opportunities that aren't tied to grant cycles.

Deeper client relationships: When you serve multiple needs, you become a trusted advisor rather than a vendor. This leads to longer engagements, more referrals, and more sustainable income.

Professional growth: Learning new skills keeps your work interesting and positions you as a thought leader in the nonprofit sector.

Greater impact: When you can address the root causes of organizational dysfunction—not just write a grant despite them—you help nonprofits become genuinely stronger.

Comprehensive Nonprofit Management Certificates

If you're considering a broader foundation in nonprofit management—or want a credential that signals competence across multiple areas—these university certificate programs offer comprehensive training:

Prestigious/Executive Programs

Graduate-Level Certificates

Accessible/Professional Programs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I call myself a nonprofit consultant without a specific credential?

Yes. Unlike "CPA" or "attorney," "nonprofit consultant" isn't a protected title. However, specific credentials like GPC (Grant Professional Certified), CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive), or CNP (Certified Nonprofit Professional) signal competence in particular areas and build client trust.

How do I price consulting services versus grant writing?

Consulting services like strategic planning facilitation, board retreats, and fund development planning are typically priced as flat project fees or daily rates rather than hourly. Research market rates in your region and price according to your experience level.

Should I stop offering grant writing services when I expand into consulting?

Not necessarily. Many consultants find that grant writing remains their core service, with consulting offerings complementing it. The grant writing work often surfaces the consulting needs.

How long does it take to build competence in a new service area?

This varies by service and your learning approach. Expect to invest one to two years of intentional skill-building—through training, shadowing, and lower-stakes engagements—before offering a new service confidently.

Is it better to learn new skills myself or partner with other experts?

Both models work. Firms that offer an array of services often succeed by hiring or partnering with specialists rather than having one person master everything. Consider building partnerships where you cross-train each other—you teach grant writing fundamentals, they teach facilitation techniques. This collaborative model may serve clients better than the solo generalist approach.

Moving Forward: Your Path from Grant Writer to Nonprofit Consultant

Grant writers are uniquely positioned to serve nonprofits holistically. We already understand mission, programs, finances, and capacity. We already know how to ask hard questions and synthesize complex information. We already care deeply about these organizations succeeding.

The path from grant writer to nonprofit consultant isn't about abandoning our craft. It's about recognizing that our craft has prepared us to offer more—and then doing the work to offer that "more" responsibly.

Whether you expand your own skills, build partnerships with complementary experts, or strengthen your referral network to serve clients through trusted colleagues, the goal is the same: meeting nonprofits where they are and helping them get where they need to go.

Your clients are already showing you what they need. The question is whether you're ready to meet them there.

Join the Conversation

We'd love to hear from you. What training programs or resources have helped you level up beyond grant writing? Or does the idea of branching into consulting feel scarier than exciting right now? Whether you're already offering expanded services, still building skills, or happily staying in your grant writing lane, your perspective matters. Share your experience in the comments.

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