Grant & proposal writing · Southbury, CT

Foundation and federal grant proposals — researched, written, budgeted and packaged for small nonprofits. One flat fee per application.

Send us the RFP Read the fee sheet
Based in
Southbury, CT
Hours
By appointment — book a call
Billing
Flat, per application
Writes for
Foundation, federal & state

01 — The packet

Three parts, one case.

Small organizations rarely lose grants on merit. They lose them on a budget that doesn’t match the narrative, a logic model in the wrong format, a page limit missed by one paragraph. The person who drafts your narrative at Pollenquill also builds your budget and your logic model, so the three documents make the same argument with the same numbers.

Every packet is assembled in Southbury, CT: paginated, labelled to the funder’s attachment list, and checked against the RFP before it reaches your portal login.

A finished grant proposal packet held with a brass binder clip, colored tabs along its edge, a budget sheet and a quill beside it on a pale green backdrop
Paginated & tabbed
Fig. 1A foundation packet as it leaves the desk: narrative on top, budget behind, attachments tabbed in the funder’s order.
  • p. 9/10 01 / 03

    The narrative

    Need statement, approach, evaluation and sustainability, written under the funder’s own headings and inside its page count. Your program’s facts, our sentence-level discipline.

    • Drafted from a recorded intake call
    • One full revision round included
    Page limit kept
  • 02 / 03

    The budget

    Line-item budget and justification that reconciles to the dollar with the narrative. Indirect rates, in-kind, cash match: each explained in a plain sentence a program officer can check.

    • Funder template or ours, your choice
    • Federal object classes where required
    Ties to the narrative
  • INPUTS ACTIVITY OUTPUTS OUTCOME 03 / 03

    The logic model

    Inputs to outcomes in the table, flow chart or theory-of-change form the RFP prefers. Measurable, and careful not to promise numbers your program can’t actually count.

    • Outcomes tied to evaluation section
    • Editable source file delivered
    Funder’s format

02 — Fees

Priced by the packet.

Every engagement is quoted flat before work starts and invoiced in two halves — at kickoff and at submission. Nothing is billed by the hour. Nothing is taken as a share of the award.

Printed budget pages, a green pencil and a vintage calculator arranged on a sage-green backdrop
Fig. 2Half on kickoff, half on submission. Check, ACH or card.

  • Research

    $340

    Prospect scan

    A sorted list of funders whose giving history and priorities actually match your mission — with deadlines and fit notes.

    • 15–25 vetted prospects
    • 990 giving reviewed
    • Delivered in 7 business days
    Order a scan
  • The usual one

    Foundation

    $1,180

    Foundation proposal

    A complete private or community foundation application, written and packaged to the funder’s format.

    • Narrative, budget, justification
    • Attachment checklist assembled
    • One full revision round
    Start a proposal

  • Federal

    $2,740

    Federal application

    Grants.gov-ready packages for federal and state pass-through programs, built against the NOFO line by line.

    • Project narrative & logic model
    • Budget justification by object class
    • SF-424 family prepared with you
    Call about a NOFO

  • Finishing

    $265

    Edit & package

    You’ve drafted it. We tighten the prose, check it against the RFP, and assemble the final packet.

    • Up to 12 pages of narrative
    • Compliance check, every requirement
    • Back within 4 business days
    Send your draft

Reworking a declined proposal for a second funder: $420. Letters of inquiry: $195. Larger federal programs are quoted after reading the NOFO.

Full service list

Before you ask

The questions that usually come up on the first call, answered here so the call can be about your program.

  • Do you take a percentage of the award?

    No. Commission-based grant writing runs against professional ethics codes, and most funders don’t allow grant dollars to pay for it. You pay the flat fee whether or not the proposal is funded, and that’s the whole bill.

  • What if we aren’t funded?

    You keep everything — narrative, budget, logic model — as editable files. Most of it carries to the next funder. If you want us to rework it for a second funder, that’s $420, not a new full fee.

  • How much of our time does this take?

    A 75-minute intake call, a document hand-off, and one review pass on the full draft. Plan on four or five hours from your executive director or program lead across the engagement.

  • Do you submit the application for us?

    We prepare the complete package; submission happens under your own Grants.gov or portal login, with us on the phone while you press the button. For federal work we confirm your SAM registration and UEI are active in week one.

  • Is our organization too small for this?

    Probably not. Much of our work is for groups with no development staff at all. If a prospect scan shows you aren’t competitive yet for a given funder, we’ll say so before you spend money on a proposal.

03 — Lead time

Bring the RFP early.

Good proposals are mostly patient ones. The calendar below is what a comfortable engagement looks like; shorter is sometimes possible, and we’ll tell you plainly on the first call.

A wooden rubber date stamp beside a rust ink pad and a stack of envelopes on a pale green backdrop
Fig. 3Final packets are stamped ready 72 hours before the portal closes.

Send before the first call

  1. Your two most recent 990s or audited financials
  2. Board list with affiliations
  3. Current operating budget
  4. Any proposal you’ve sent before, funded or not
  5. The RFP or NOFO link
Federal: eight

weeks

The comfortable runway before a foundation deadline. Federal applications want eight.

Check your deadline with us

Then, roughly

Week 1
Outline, budget skeleton, and a short list of anything missing.
Week 3
Full draft in your inbox, budget and logic model attached.
Week 4
Your edits; our second pass.
72 hours out
Packaged, paginated, checked against the RFP line by line.
A kraft document folder tied with green string and sealed in rust, a quill resting on top

“A proposal is an argument about money. We’d rather make one good argument than five vague ones.”

House rule no. 1 · Pollenquill, Southbury, CT

04 — The desk

Send the RFP over.

Tell us the funder, the deadline and what the money is for. We read the solicitation before we call you back, so the first conversation is about fit, scope and a flat quote — not a sales pitch.

256 Peach Orchard Rd
Southbury, CT 06488

Studio meetings by appointment. Most clients never need to drive out — calls and shared documents carry the work.

Find Peach Orchard Rd

Book a scoping call

Answered within one business day. Paste the RFP link in the message if you have it.