Managing Other Grant Professionals

Writing a strong proposal yourself is one skill. Getting someone else to write a strong proposal — with your quality standards, your client’s voice, and your practice’s reputation behind it — is an entirely different skill. Most consultants who hire discover this the hard way.

The Bottleneck Problem

The most common pattern: you hire a writer to increase capacity, and then spend so much time reviewing, revising, and redirecting their work that you have less capacity than before. You’ve created a bottleneck — yourself — and now two people are waiting on your input instead of one.

This happens because the new person doesn’t have access to what’s in your head: the client context, the quality standards, the strategic reasoning behind each proposal’s approach. Fixing this isn’t about finding a better writer. It’s about making your knowledge transferable.

What Transferable Knowledge Looks Like

Written Style Standards

What does 'good' look like in your practice? Document it. Active voice. Data-supported claims. No jargon unless the funder uses it. Specific examples over abstract statements. Give your writers the rubric you use in your own head.

Client Briefs

For each client, a one-page brief: mission, key programs, writing preferences, funder relationships, and any landmines to avoid. This is the minimum context someone needs to write for this client without sounding like a stranger.

Annotated Examples

Take a funded proposal and annotate why it works. 'This opening paragraph works because it leads with the funder's stated priority.' 'This budget justification works because it connects each cost to a specific activity.' Examples teach faster than rules.

Review Criteria

What do you check when you review a draft? Write it down. Your review process is a quality standard — make it explicit so writers can self-check before submitting to you.

Setting Up the Workflow

A clear workflow prevents the chaos of ad hoc collaboration:

Kickoff brief. Before the writer starts, provide: the RFP, the client brief, relevant past proposals, the approach you’ve agreed on with the client, and the deadline for each phase.

First-draft checkpoint. Review the first section or the opening narrative before the writer completes the full draft. Catching a direction problem early saves both of you time.

Full draft review. You review the complete draft against your quality standards. Use tracked changes and comments — not rewrites. If you rewrite more than 20% of a draft, the brief wasn’t clear enough.

Final review. You do the final pass before the client sees it. This is your quality gate. Nothing leaves your practice without your sign-off.

If you’re rewriting more than 20% of a writer’s drafts consistently, the problem isn’t the writer — it’s the brief. Invest more time upfront in kickoff materials and you’ll spend less time on the back end in revisions.

Feedback That Builds Skill

The way you give feedback determines whether your team improves over time or stays dependent on your corrections:

Explain the why, not just the what. Instead of “Change this paragraph,” try “This paragraph leads with our capabilities. The funder’s RFP emphasizes community need — flip the order so we lead with the problem.”

Be specific about what works, not just what doesn’t. Writers who only hear about mistakes become cautious and safe. Calling out what’s strong reinforces the behaviors you want to see.

Batch your feedback. A draft covered in 47 comments is demoralizing and hard to act on. Group feedback into themes: “The structure is solid. The main areas to strengthen are data specificity and funder alignment.”

Pro tip

Hold a brief debrief after each completed project — 15 minutes to discuss what went well, what was difficult, and what to do differently next time. These compound over months into a writer who understands your standards deeply.

Common Management Mistakes

Micromanaging the draft. If you dictate every sentence, you haven’t delegated — you’ve added a middleman between your brain and the document. Trust the brief and the process.

Skipping the brief to save time. Every hour you save by not writing a proper brief, you’ll spend three hours in revisions.

Not matching writer to client. A writer who excels at foundation letters may struggle with federal applications. Know your team’s strengths and assign accordingly.

Assuming everyone works like you. Your process isn’t the only valid one. If the output meets your standards, give your team latitude on how they get there.

Check your understanding

You hired a subcontractor to write a proposal. Their first draft is competent but generic — it could be about any organization. What's the most productive response?

Key Takeaways

Make your knowledge transferable — written standards, client briefs, annotated examples, and review criteria
If you're rewriting more than 20% of drafts, the brief needs improvement, not the writer
Give feedback that explains the why, highlights strengths, and groups issues into themes
Clear workflows with defined checkpoints prevent bottlenecks and protect quality

Next Lesson

People come and go. What stays? The systems. Let’s look at how to build processes that survive staff changes — so your practice isn’t fragile.