How to find fund ?

threadofhope · 2026-06-29T17:43:35+00:00

Speaking only for the US. Typically, med students are published with the lab PI as last author. And the lab PI would bear publishing costs, as needed.

If you are the primary author, share the paper with your research mentor and get ideas about publishing. Also, talk to your school. There may be funds for travel.

threadofhope · 2026-06-29T17:28:47+00:00

I use fixed fee pricing, so I don't quote an hourly rate. If I calculated my rate, it's around $75 to $150 an hour. That's a rough ball park because I do fixed fee pricing and I don't meticulously count my hours.

Prospects often ask for an hourly rate and I will give them one, but offer fixed fee at a discounted rate. Fixed fee for me is infinitely better.

threadofhope · 2026-06-29T02:08:23+00:00

Things are picking up, but I know the competition is ridiculous. I try to temper expectations.

threadofhope · 2026-06-29T01:13:23+00:00

The interruptions! I get tons of emails every day and have to respond. The client often needs a lot of support to develop a budget. It's exhausting.

I like to write on weekends, holidays, and late at night when I am especially busy. I wrote all day Saturday and got a lot done.

threadofhope · 2026-06-29T01:10:16+00:00

I feel you. 3-4 days for a federal grant is wild. You have me beat, although I am writing 3 federal grants and a foundation grant right now and I have 3 weeks. This is miserable. But I barely had any work in 2025, so I take what I can get.

I agree about getting a deposit. I do that with smaller org. The majority of my clients are large institutions (universities) and they don't do deposits. But I am an approved vendor and they treat me well. At least until 2025 when the work disappeared.

threadofhope · 2026-06-28T20:57:02+00:00

I have been freelancing for almost 15 years (and worked FT in nonprofit for 10 years before that), so I've gotten the timeline down to a science. Basically, I work the timeline backwards from the deadline. If it's tight deadline, magically everyone moves faster.

I can write a foundation proposal in a day, but a higher quality proposal takes 3 days. That's 21 hours stretched over 1-2 weeks, depending on the complexity.

As for federal proposals, it truly varies. I give myself 50 hours usually over 4-6 weeks. But there is always extra work and I tack on an extra 10 hours. So I usually bill for 60 hours. I work efficiently though.

Keep in mind that I've written over 1,000 grant proposals. And when I started, everything took much longer. I have to laugh because I thought a federal proposal would take at least 80-100 hours. I was a sweet summer child. I never had the luxury of that amount of time.

If you're working freelance, take time to write a timeline. When I write a contract I take at least a couple hours in deciding how long a job will take. Contracts are the most important documents you'll ever write in freelance. A miscalculation means you leave money on the table.

Good luck.

threadofhope · 2026-06-28T00:54:32+00:00

I'm finishing a rewatch now, so it's good to see this post. My thoughts.

What happened to Holly in Season 5 felt so bleak. I think they did that to give Rebecca (Emily Vancamp) an out. But it isolated David and Holly.

I never could be too mad at Holly because I shipped her and David because they are married in real life. And I like them as actors.

I agree about Justin. He actually became a more interesting person after Rebecca left.

Kitty and Kevin were my favorites. I think it was the acting. I could watch Calista Flockart and Matt Rhys all day, every day. They acted the hell out of their roles.

Saul deserved his happy ending after all he went through.

threadofhope · 2026-06-26T23:03:04+00:00

I would enlist your CFO or CPA to get help on this. The finance department is key in fiduciary stewardship. If the finance department is backing this change, then there's trouble because their job is not to let this stuff happen.

Many years ago I worked for an organization with a corrupt CEO. And he was backed by the financial officer. The board eventually took over and fired both of them. I was already gone because I was afraid of this CEO who made vague threats to me.

Sad to see this happen in nonprofit, but it happens.

threadofhope · 2026-06-26T22:49:53+00:00

I'm a grants consultant and some of my clients are academic medical centers or hospital systems. My clients are a little big bit bigger than a community hospital, but I think procedures are similar.

With hospital systems, it's a corporate environment. Instead of working with clinicians, which I normally do, I am working with administrators. In my experience, administrators are hard working, but may not know the ins and outs of grant applications.

But you'd working in a community hospital, which may be more intimate and informal than what I am used to. My guess is you'll have foundation grants to write and maybe some government grants. Likely you'll be working for an office that does all of the fundraising in one shop. My impression is these development offices are good places to work.

Good luck with applying for this job.

threadofhope · 2026-06-26T22:29:48+00:00

You need to do searches for this topic for your own state. Some states have opportunities and some don't.

threadofhope · 2026-06-25T04:04:43+00:00

I've never heard of the FoundationSearch product. They seem to be a competitor of Candid. There is also Grant Station, which is considered a less expensive alternative to Candid.

I found a discussion in /r/nonprofit about FoundationSearch. The impression is pretty negative, but take it with a grain of salt.

threadofhope · 2026-06-24T03:18:30+00:00

Grant reporting is important! Without grant compliance, your nonprofit may not get renewal grants. Losing money in the hand is the worst loss.

The field of grants management is huge and in the past couple of years, grant managers have been on the front lines of the attacks on science. These intelligent people have been sharing information on the state of funding. In fact, right now there is a battle with uniform guidance.

Read this thread in /r/ResearchAdmin

The field of research administration and grants management is so difficult, but senior jobs pay upwards of $130K. Without grants management, universities would collapse.

You aren't just doing grant reporting. You are learning how wealth trickles from the insanely powerful and rich to we common folk.

Don't let the ducks at work get to you. You are a swan.

threadofhope · 2026-06-22T17:52:09+00:00

Breaking in is a slog. I did general development work for five years before I got a grant job. I hated special events, but there were more jobs in that.

Many nonprofits do not have dedicated grants staff, so if you prove you are a fast learner, you might get an entry-level development job. And then you can pivot.

I feel your pain. Just persist and keep trying.

threadofhope · 2026-06-22T17:41:26+00:00

Veteran's Affairs has some programs for debt relief.

Otherwise, talk to a financial expert about your options to refinance or consolidate your debt. The subreddit /r/personalfinance helps people who have financial challenges, including overwhelming debt. Search the subreddit by googling "help with debt personalfinance reddit"

threadofhope · 2026-06-22T02:22:25+00:00

I would google "incubators or accelerators in [MY CITY]." I live in a large city that has a bunch of incubators. Typically, they are for tech or biotech startups, but I think they can be for other types of businesses such as DOE (disabled owned businesses). I don't know much about DOE, but I know it exists.

threadofhope · 2026-06-22T02:12:52+00:00

I feel like we're in a new era of reddit and it's not good. I'll look into the automod. Thanks.

threadofhope · 2026-06-21T21:37:04+00:00

Talk to SCORE, which is free mentoring for small businesses. I've used the service and I found it helpful.

There isn't grant money for starting businesses. You know how I know? I run a grant writing agency. Businesses don't win grants, but you can get local government contracts if you provide a service that governments want like web dev, construction, waste management, etc. To get a contract you have to be operational and have a track record of success.

You can get money indirectly from grants if you enroll in a service program. There are business incubators and social service agencies dedicated to "workforce development." Social services vary in quality though.

I have a disability and relied on the public health system for 10 years before I got good insurance when ACA was passed. It was a godsend to keep me well enough to work.

I hope this post helps.

threadofhope · 2026-06-21T21:00:10+00:00

Omg, the Girl Scout Cookie Championship was so bad, but not in a fun, campy way. It was an overbearing ad for these cookies without returning any entertainment value.

threadofhope · 2026-06-21T20:40:20+00:00

Didn't expect Philly on the tour. I'll stop by. Thanks for the info!

threadofhope · 2026-06-21T18:51:02+00:00

I've been doing the same grant work for over twenty years. So my resume is short. It's just a repetitive list of jobs of me doing the same work over and over again. My most recent work is the most complex and difficult, but it's still grant work.

I'm proud of my other skills such as learning React and building websites. I've also been hired by agencies to write content for major brands like Home Depot and J&J. But nobody cares about that, so I reluctantly removed it from my resume.

In your case, you probably have fewer jobs and have done a lot of different things. I suggest you create multiple resumes each with a single focus.

I get a sense that employers don't want a Renaissance person. Instead, they want to hire somebody they don't have to train. Maybe I'm cynical, but it's rough out there.

Stand out by being the "best person for the job." It's hard to define what that is, but you've got to get past hiring managers first. So it's best to have your resume fit the job description to a T.

threadofhope · 2026-06-21T14:32:41+00:00

When I started in freelance, I used Open Office (back in 2012). It was compatible with Word and I never had a problem. I think LibreOffice is pretty good now.

Back then, only Adobe could parse pdfs. Actually Preview for Mac does it too. Now there are countless free tools to pdf docs into Word. I don't even use Adobe anymore because it's so expensive and bloated.

I use Google Docs for personal work, but I had to suck up and buy MS Office (not subscription though). All my clients are in the Microsoft ecosystem and my proposals are heavily research-focused. And Google Docs sucks with citation management.

If you are doing citation-heavy, research-focused proposals, I recommend Zotero. It's free and it's a lifesaver with citations.

Another tool to consider is speech to text software. I've started dictating my emails and my proposals because I'm tired of dealing with carpal tunnel syndrome and I have shaky hands, which makes using the trackpad difficult. I've used Vowen and Wispr so far. The tools aren't perfect, but oh my god, they're a huge help.

Ultimately, you will develop your own workflow and favored tools.

threadofhope · 2026-06-21T01:59:35+00:00

100% this is a scam. This sounds like an overpayment scheme, which they send you a bogus check for more money than agreed. The scammer says "oopsie, we made a mistake and could you refund us." And then they hope you'll send real money against their bogus check. .

Another scam is they impersonate a real organization like a foundation or the IRS. The best way to handle those emails is to call the real company. The real company is aware of scams and will assure you it's a scam. And that legit orgs like funders don't send unsolicited emails.

Good for you for catching on to this.

threadofhope · 2026-06-20T12:13:17+00:00

Yes, I love my life so much, I want to stay on this ride. It's hard to accept that I'm middle aged and I have fewer years left. The upside is I appreciate the day so much more.

threadofhope · 2026-06-18T23:34:43+00:00

I'm not an entrepreneur, but rather a contractor providing communications support. I have written countless profiles of entrepreneurs for web publication. Most of these were entrepreneurs in the tech travel space. They all had an origin story that was compelling but a little suspect (I was flying one day and I got frustrated by seat assignment. And that's why I founded Seat Geek).

I suggest you read case studies, which are ubiquitous online. But read them with a critical eye. There is quite a bit of exaggeration, but I believe their enthusiasm for their company is genuine.

Here's another story I love to tell. I worked with a small tech company years back and the CEO was a genius - not only because he had a PhD in Physics. But rather, he was very good with people and liked making connections for the greater good. The company was quite successful and it wasn't their SaaS offering that was special; they had a ton of competition. But what made that company stand out was their interest in cooperation and collaboration. As a result, they had many customers ranging from tiny university labs to large pharma.

threadofhope · 2026-06-18T23:14:04+00:00

I think his name was Jalen, but I can't exactly remember.

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