Grant research & writing for small nonprofits
Most small nonprofits aren't missing out on grants. They're missing someone with time to find them.
Ind Grants finds the funding your organization is actually eligible for, then writes the applications. We do the research first, at no cost, so you can see the quality of the work before you pay for any of it.
Historical societies, museums & community nonprofits Flat fees, never a percentage of your grant
Grant research report
Ranked opportunities
Every listing includes eligibility notes, what the funder has actually funded, and why we ranked it where we did.
Who we work with
Built for organizations that were never going to hire a grant writer
If your development department is three volunteers and a board member who already has a day job, you are exactly who we built this for.
No development staff
Nobody on your team has "find funding" in their job description, because nobody's job description is longer than one line.
A board doing the fundraising
Your trustees are already running the annual appeal, the gala and the membership drive. Grant research keeps sliding to next month.
Real work, small budget
You preserve a building, run a museum, feed a town, teach adults to read. The money exists. Finding it is a research job nobody has time for.
How it works
You see the work before you spend anything
Four steps. You can stop after the second one and keep everything we've given you.
A short call
Fifteen minutes. What your organization does, roughly what your budget looks like, and what you'd fund tomorrow if the money appeared. That's enough for us to start.
A free research report
We come back with the grants you're eligible for, ranked by fit, deadline and award size, with notes on what each funder has actually paid for before. There is no charge for this and no obligation. It's a document you can hand straight to your board.
A written quote
If you want us to write the applications, you get a flat fee in writing, with the scope and the dates spelled out, before any writing starts. No hourly billing, no surprises, nothing begins until you say yes.
We write, you review
Full proposals and letters of inquiry, written around what each funder is looking to fund rather than a template with your name pasted in. You review every word before anything is submitted.
What we do
Three ways organizations use us
Most start with the research and decide from there. Some only ever need one big application written. Others hand us the whole grant calendar.
Grant research
A ranked, sourced list of funders you genuinely qualify for, with deadlines, award ranges, eligibility notes and the reasoning behind the ranking. Useful on its own even if we never work together again.
Application writing
Letters of inquiry and full proposals, drafted for your review and revised until your board is comfortable putting the organization's name on them. Flat fee, quoted before we start.
Ongoing support
For organizations that apply throughout the year: a running grant calendar, deadlines tracked, applications drafted month to month, so nothing is discovered three days before it closes.
What does it cost? It depends on how much writing you want and how often, so we quote it on the call rather than pretending one number fits a village historical society and a regional museum. What's always true: it's a flat fee, it's in writing before work starts, and the research that comes first is free.
Our approach
How we work, and what we won't do
Grant consulting has a reputation problem. Here is exactly where we stand, so you can hold us to it.
Never a percentage of your award
Contingency fees are considered unethical across the professional fundraising field, and sophisticated funders notice when a grant budget contains one. We charge flat fees, full stop.
The research comes before the invoice
You see a real deliverable, built for your organization, before any money changes hands. If it isn't useful, you've lost nothing but a fifteen minute call.
No software for you to learn
We don't sell you a database subscription and call it a service. You get documents your board can read, in a meeting, on paper, without a login.
We tell you when it's a stretch
Some funders are a long shot and some are simply not open to you. We say so and rank accordingly, rather than padding a list to make it look impressive.
A small number of clients at a time
This is deliberate. Applications written at volume read like they were written at volume, and reviewers have seen thousands of them.
It works
We've done this for historical societies, museums and community organizations, and it does what it's supposed to do: boards get a document they can act on, and applications get out the door instead of sitting on somebody's list for another year.
The funding is out there. The bandwidth to go get it usually isn't.
That gap is the entire reason Ind Grants exists. We're the person your organization would hire if your organization could afford to hire someone.
Questions
The things people ask on the first call
Is the research really free, or is there a catch?
It's really free, and the report is yours to keep whether or not you hire us. The reasoning isn't charitable, it's practical: a small organization has no way to judge a grant consultant from a sales pitch, so we'd rather show you the work. Some organizations take the report, apply themselves and we never hear from them again. That's a fine outcome.
Will you guarantee we get the grant?
No, and be careful with anyone who does. Funding decisions sit with the funder, and plenty of excellent applications lose to an equally good one. What we can control is that you're applying for the right things, before they close, with a case that answers what the funder actually asked. Organizations that do that consistently get funded. Organizations that apply to nothing never do.
We're tiny and all volunteer. Are we too small for this?
That's who this is built for. Larger organizations already have development staff and don't need us. The small, volunteer-run historical society with a leaking roof and a 501(c)(3) letter from 1974 is precisely the case where a few hours of real research changes what's possible.
What do you need from us to get started?
Very little at first. A fifteen minute call, then your EIN, a rough operating budget and a sense of your top two or three priorities. If we move to writing, we'll need one person who can answer questions by email, and your board's sign-off before anything is submitted.
Do you only work with historical societies?
No. A lot of our work is with historical societies and small museums because that's a world where the need is obvious and the funding is genuinely available. But community nonprofits of every kind, literacy programs, food programs, youth services, animal welfare, land trusts, all run into the same problem, and the process is the same.
Who is actually doing the work?
Ind Grants is run by Graham Alban out of Los Angeles, working with a small number of organizations at a time. When you email, you get him, not an account manager. You can reach him directly at graham@indgrants.com or 914-400-8195.
How long does it take?
The research report usually comes back within a few business days of the call. Writing depends on the application, some LOIs are a page and some federal forms are a month of work, which is why the quote always carries dates as well as a number.
Get started
Tell us what you'd fund if the money showed up
Send a few lines about your organization and we'll come back with whether there's real funding available for it. If there is, the research report is free and the call is fifteen minutes.
Based in Los Angeles. We work with organizations anywhere in the United States, by phone and email.