Question 1

What does a grant consultant do?

Accepted Answer

A grant consultant helps a nonprofit find, pursue, and win the funding that sustains its work. In this practice that is broader than writing. It begins with research, mapping the funders whose priorities genuinely match the mission rather than chasing every open opportunity. It moves through strategy, building a multi-year funding plan aligned to organizational goals, not just the next deadline. Then comes the writing itself, the budgets, the logic models, the submission. And it continues past the award through reporting, compliance, and the cultivation that turns a single grant into a lasting funder relationship. The proposal is the deliverable; the strategy around it is the actual work.

Question 2

Are you a firm, or is it just you?

Accepted Answer

It is me. Kristy Randolph is a private practice, not a firm. A small number of clients are taken on at a time, and every engagement is handled personally, with no junior writers, no subcontractors, and no offshore editing. This is a structural choice, not a stage of growth. A larger operation would mean less rigor per client, which is not the practice being run here.

Question 3

What kinds of nonprofits do you work with?

Accepted Answer

Small to midsize nonprofits, typically with annual budgets between $125K and $5M, concentrated in education and youth development, social services and family support, and the arts. The strongest work is done with women-led organizations and nonprofits led by founders of color, whose missions are too often underestimated by traditional funders. When a prospective client's sector sits outside these areas of focus, the engagement is declined, often with a referral to a colleague whose expertise is better matched.

Question 4

Do you write grants for individuals or for-profit businesses?

Accepted Answer

No. The practice is exclusive to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations and a small number of fiscally sponsored nonprofit initiatives.

Question 5

What types of funders and grants do you work on?

Accepted Answer

Foundation, corporate, and government, the full range. On the private side that means family and community foundations, corporate giving programs, and the letters of inquiry and full proposals each requires. On the government side it means federal, state, and local grants, including agencies such as the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor, along with California state agencies and municipal funding streams. Government grants demand procedural fluency most private-sector writers never develop, and they are often where a nonprofit funds an entire program for several years at once. The full engagement is handled in either case, from registration and narrative through budget forms and submission in the correct portal.

Question 6

How does an engagement begin?

Accepted Answer

Every engagement begins with a thirty-minute discovery call. There is no fee and no pitch. The call is a mutual conversation to assess fit on both sides. If it is a fit, a scoped proposal follows within 48 hours. If it is not, you will be told directly, often with a referral to a colleague whose practice is better suited to your work.

Question 7

Why don't you publicly name your clients?

Accepted Answer

Client discretion is a standard held with funders, with peers, and with every engagement. Public naming exposes clients to scrutiny from their other funders, their competitors, and the broader nonprofit sector without their control. Many of the nonprofits served have said this discretion is among the reasons they chose the practice. References are available upon request to qualified prospective clients.

Question 8

What does a typical engagement look like?

Accepted Answer

Engagements vary by scope, but the shape is consistent. The first two weeks are intake: reading everything, mapping the funder landscape, reviewing existing materials, and aligning on priorities. Drafting begins only after intake is complete. For a single proposal, the work runs four to eight weeks depending on complexity. For retainer engagements, the work is continuous and structured around a grants calendar built together at the start. Capacity-building advisory engagements typically run six to twelve months.

Question 9

How do you price your work?

Accepted Answer

Engagements are priced by scope, not by volume or by outcome. Project-based work is priced per proposal or per deliverable. Retainer engagements are priced monthly based on the grants calendar built together. Advisory engagements are priced at a senior practitioner rate reflective of the work. Specific pricing is discussed during the discovery call once the scope is understood.

Question 10

Do you charge contingency fees or percentage of award compensation?

Accepted Answer

The default engagement structure is flat fee or retainer based, and for most clients that is the appropriate model because it aligns incentives with the mission rather than with any single award. A selective mission-access track also exists for nonprofits that meet specific criteria, with a modified compensation model that makes senior-level grant writing accessible to organizations that would otherwise be priced out. That track is by application or invitation only, excludes federal grants, and requires disclosure of the compensation structure to any funder that asks. In every case, no proposal is written for a program that is not ready, regardless of how it is priced.

Question 11

Do you guarantee a grant will be funded?

Accepted Answer

No, and any grant writer who makes that guarantee is either not being honest or is inexperienced. Grant awards depend on factors no writer controls: the funder's internal politics, the strength of competing proposals, shifts in foundation priorities. What is guaranteed is that your proposal will be the strongest possible version of your case, calibrated to that funder and written to the standards their reviewers apply. That is the work. The outcome belongs to the funder.

Question 12

If I hire you, will you disclose that you're working with me?

Accepted Answer

Only with your explicit permission, and only in contexts you approve. By default, the engagement is private. Some clients prefer to credit the work publicly in their annual reports or on their websites; others prefer not to. That choice belongs to you.

Question 13

What happens to my documents and information after our engagement ends?

Accepted Answer

Your materials remain your materials. Working files are retained for a defined retention period in case you return for additional work or request a reference document, after which they are securely deleted. Nothing you share is reused in another client's engagement. Your funder research, budget templates, and program narratives are yours. There is no shared knowledge base across clients, because every nonprofit's story is its own.

Question 14

Where are you based, and do you work with clients outside California?

Accepted Answer

The practice is based in Irvine, California, but the work is not bound by geography. Engagements are conducted remotely, and clients are served across the country. Government grant work in particular spans federal agencies and the funding streams of multiple states and municipalities. Where a client is located matters far less than whether their mission and readiness are a fit for the work.

Shared with permission. Kept anonymous.

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