Grant Writing & Funding
Holly Rustick
Quit your toxic nonprofit job and replace your full-time income while writing grants part-time, from home! Join our students in the Freelance Grant Writer Academy to create Financial Stability and Flexibility through writing grants for causes you are passionate about: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy
World-renowned grant writing expert and Amazon bestselling author Holly Rustick provides coaching that helps new and experienced grant writers replace their full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or anywhere they want to live or travel in the world).
She coaches changemakers to master grant writing and start to grow 6-figure+ grant writing businesses on part-time hours via her signature group program, “Freelance Grant Writer Academy."
As an unapologetic feminist, Holly’s work in coaching female grant writers to master grant writing, find their cause-area niche, and navigate value-based pricing and nonprofit sales is breaking glass ceilings for women all over the world.
Every week, she coaches thousands of people through the top-ranking podcast, Grant Writing & Funding, books on grant writing, and inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy.
Holly has 20 years of experience in grant writing, and began her freelance grant writing journey back in 2005. While teaching in Kuwait and Indonesia, and then earning a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy in Belgium, Holly saw the light of setting up a virtual-based business in grant writing back in the mid-2000s. Having secured more than $45 million of dollars for nonprofit organizations, and then setting up a multi 6-figure freelance business, Holly has a mission to help female grant writers break out of toxic nonprofit J-O-B-S and create high-level income while freelance grant writing.
Inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy, students have secured more than $225+ million in grant funding and $4+ million in revenue in their grant writing businesses within two years.
To amplify this work, she is past-president of the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce and was appointed to the Guam Business Advisory Task Force as an advisor to the first female governor of Guam. Holly lives on the island of Guam with her beautiful daughter, Isabella.
If you are interested in replacing your full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or from anywhere in the world!) join the Freelance Grant Writer Academy!
www.grantwritingandfunding.com.
World-renowned grant writing expert and Amazon bestselling author Holly Rustick provides coaching that helps new and experienced grant writers replace their full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or anywhere they want to live or travel in the world).
She coaches changemakers to master grant writing and start to grow 6-figure+ grant writing businesses on part-time hours via her signature group program, “Freelance Grant Writer Academy."
As an unapologetic feminist, Holly’s work in coaching female grant writers to master grant writing, find their cause-area niche, and navigate value-based pricing and nonprofit sales is breaking glass ceilings for women all over the world.
Every week, she coaches thousands of people through the top-ranking podcast, Grant Writing & Funding, books on grant writing, and inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy.
Holly has 20 years of experience in grant writing, and began her freelance grant writing journey back in 2005. While teaching in Kuwait and Indonesia, and then earning a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy in Belgium, Holly saw the light of setting up a virtual-based business in grant writing back in the mid-2000s. Having secured more than $45 million of dollars for nonprofit organizations, and then setting up a multi 6-figure freelance business, Holly has a mission to help female grant writers break out of toxic nonprofit J-O-B-S and create high-level income while freelance grant writing.
Inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy, students have secured more than $225+ million in grant funding and $4+ million in revenue in their grant writing businesses within two years.
To amplify this work, she is past-president of the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce and was appointed to the Guam Business Advisory Task Force as an advisor to the first female governor of Guam. Holly lives on the island of Guam with her beautiful daughter, Isabella.
If you are interested in replacing your full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or from anywhere in the world!) join the Freelance Grant Writer Academy!
www.grantwritingandfunding.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 9, 2025 • 9min
Get Clients as a Grant Writer 5-Part Series: #3 Stop Overworking
You may be thinking about learning how to write grants and you think it will take too much time OR you may be a freelance grant writer and be stuck in client work.What I have seen after working with more than 500 freelance grant writers in the last two years (and literally thousands over the last 10 years), is that many of you are overworking yourselves.Why are you doing this? Well, let me know if this sounds familiar:You are taking the ‘employee’ mentality into your freelance grant writing business AND ARE scope-creeping, i.e. doing work OUTSIDE of your deliverables.Your client also has a tipping point of value from you. If you deliver the value you both agreed to delivering (i.e. X number of grants in X timeframe for $X) then they should be happy.But…You want your client to ‘like’ you, so you overworkYou feel bad a grant didn’t get awarded so you ‘work for free’ on oneYou think this overworking makes them value you, but here’s what happens:Your clients feel weird because they aren’t sure if they should pay you moreOr worse yet, they may expect you to overwork in the future. Then this results:You feel bitter at the client because you set them up with an unsustainable expectation.Stay within the bounds of your contract. Put together a scope of work that will get them results AND STAY WITHIN IT.They agreed to the price and deliverables. You agreed to doing them.This is GOLDEN and it’s why most people join the Academy who have existing freelance grant writing businesses. You can run a streamlined and neutral business that delivers value and makes your clients happy. You can feel and BE appreciated for your scope of work.Find out more about the Freelance Grant Writer Academy: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy/
Oct 9, 2025 • 14min
Get Clients as a Grant Writer 5-Part Series: #2 Stop Calling Yourself a Grant Writer
You don’t just write grants. You are a grant strategist. You just aren’t positioning yourself as one.We are seeing that Academy students who are leaning into positioning themselves as a Grant Strategist vs. Grant Writer are doing BETTER this year in booking out their businesses.What a Grant Strategist Does in 2025-2026Stays on top of changes in grants (at least in your cause area: i.e., DOE grants, etc.)Attends new webinars for grants and makes ‘go or no-go decisions’ on grants for nonprofitsMeets monthly with clients and lets them know of updates, tasks, etc.Prospects for grant fundingCreates strategies for their clients to develop relationships with funders (can be easy as a script)Writes grants after talking through budgets, priorities, and work plans with nonprofitsAnd more…If you already are a grant writer, you have already done the above. You just haven’t marketed yourself with the above OR given yourself the permission to take a beat from the writing and lean into the above more (even though you know it’s vital).Here’s your permission.Organizations need to focus on running their nonprofits/organizations. They need you to pay attention to the grant funding side. AND Nonprofits and organizations are PAYING grant writers to be grant strategists in 2025 and for the foreseeable future.We got the receipts. It’s no surprise that overall our students (like any sizable sample size of grant writers in 2025) raised LESS grant money as compared to 2024 (obvi, with all the grant freezes, etc.).2024, our students won: $138million in grants2025 (to date), our students won: $48million in grantsThat’s a huge difference and it makes sense with all the pauses at the beginning of the year. This is NO surprise as this hit across the sector. While some grant writers saw no impact, many federal grant writers got hit at the beginning of the year.AND IT’S STILL A LOT OF MONEY THAT WE WERE ABLE TO WIN!Literally millions of dollars. 🤯BUT what’s super interesting here is the money student MADE in their freelance grant writing businesses, i.e. clients paid them:2024, our students made: $4.1million money in their businesses2025 (to date), our students made: $3.4+million in their businessesThis is MIND BLOWING as it proves that dollar signs are NOT the only reason organizations are hiring you!We are ON TRACK for students to MAKE MORE MONEY in their businesses in 2025 vs. 2024!Organizations need your mind as a grant strategist in 2025, and for the rest of time. Find out more about the Freelance Grant Writer Academy: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/academy
Oct 9, 2025 • 16min
Get Clients as a Grant Writer 5-Part Series: #1 Stop Writing Grants
Changemakers in the Academy have made $3,470,242 (and growing every day) in their grant writing businesses so far in 2025. 🔥They’ve also secured more than $48 million in funding for their clients. 🤑How are they doing it?They are utilizing our Grant and Funding frameworks built on 20+ years of experience.One mantra that I have always had is, “Don’t be 100% reliant on grant funding.”I might be known as the grant writing girlie, but I’ve actually helped organizations get a lot of diverse funding.And I’m doing that today, and teaching others how to do it.With the number of grants going out over the last four years, it was easy for us grant writers to lean into just writing grants. But it hasn’t always been like that. I’ve helped nonprofits with:Corporate solicitationsIndividual donor campaignsGiving Tuesday campaignsSocial media and newslettersWebsite copyPresentationsFundraising eventsConsultationsAnd moreWe have added these trainings into the Academy this year. And students have diversified their services for nonprofit clients. They aren’t just writing grants. They are doing other things.These are called Funding Assets.When you take your Master Grant Application and repurpose it into a Corporate Solicitation Letter, this is now a Funding Asset.So for many Academy members, they are getting more clients this year because they take our Funding Asset training (and templates and resources) and then integrate them into their services.Starting in November, we have our 6-Week Live Master Grant Template training where Academy members will learn how to create a Master Grant Template and how to repurpose it into other funding assets for their clients.For more about the Freelance Grant Writer Academy, go to: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/academy
Oct 8, 2025 • 38min
Earn an Extra $10K in 90 Days Writing Grants from Home
Join Holly to hear how you can earn an extra $10,000 in 90 days writing grants from home. She will give you case studies on what freelance grant writer students (inside the Academy and Mentorship) are doing to secure grants and clients in 2025, why nonprofits have money in 2025 to hire you as a freelance grant writer, and 3 steps to make extra money writing grants (even if you are new to grants).Tune in today!
Oct 7, 2025 • 42min
How Dr. Annise Mabry Secured $2.7M in Grants
Today on Grant Writing & Funding, Holly Rustick sits down with Dr. Annise Mabry bestselling author, and multi-stream revenue builder. We dive into how she’s secured $2.7M+ in grants while in the Academy, landed multi-million-dollar rural infrastructure wins, balanced a nonprofit with a grant services business, priced her services with confidence. Tune in today to listen to this podcast.To learn more about the podcast episodes go to https://grantwritingandfunding.com/grant-writing-podcast/"Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsFavor, please?If you love this podcast, would you please do me a favor and leave a review on iTunes or your podcast listener?This helps others find the podcast and I read each and every review!“Every time I listen to Holly’s show, I learn something” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show!Thanks for listening!Warmly,Holly RustickCoaches new and experienced grant writers to earn high 5-6 figure incomes writing grants from home!Get Freelance Grant Writing Spicy Tips when you Join the weekly newsletter series “Write Grants. Get Paid” https://grantwritingandfunding.com/Freelance Grant Writer Academy: Replace your Full-Time Income Writing Grants Part-Time from Home.https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy/———————————————————————————This podcast episode was lovingly sponsored by GEMS!This podcast episode is lovingly sponsored by Grant Easy Management Software (GEMS). Break Up with Your Spreadsheet – Get GEMS Grant Easy Management Software and NEVER MISS A DEADLINE AGAIN! Book YOUR FREE demo now! Click here: https://www.grantwritingandfunding.com/gems ———————————————————————————
Sep 30, 2025 • 26min
Should Freelance Grant Writers Submit Grants on Behalf of Your Clients?
In this episode, Holly Rustick dives into a nuanced topic that many freelance grant writers grapple with: Should you, as a freelancer, submit grants directly on behalf of your clients, or should your clients always be the ones submitting? Holly unpacks the different approaches, shares best practices, and explores the implications for liability, client capacity-building, and business strategy. Tune in today to listen to this podcast.To learn more about the podcast episodes go to https://grantwritingandfunding.com/grant-writing-podcast/"Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsFavor, please?If you love this podcast, would you please do me a favor and leave a review on iTunes or your podcast listener?This helps others find the podcast and I read each and every review!“Every time I listen to Holly’s show, I learn something” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show!Thanks for listening!Warmly,Holly RustickCoaches new and experienced grant writers to earn high 5-6 figure incomes writing grants from home!Get Freelance Grant Writing Spicy Tips when you Join the weekly newsletter series “Write Grants. Get Paid” https://grantwritingandfunding.com/Freelance Grant Writer Academy: Replace your Full-Time Income Writing Grants Part-Time from Home.https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy/———————————————————————————This podcast episode was lovingly sponsored by GEMS!This podcast episode is lovingly sponsored by Grant Easy Management Software (GEMS). Break Up with Your Spreadsheet – Get GEMS Grant Easy Management Software and NEVER MISS A DEADLINE AGAIN! Book YOUR FREE demo now! Click here: https://www.grantwritingandfunding.com/gems ———————————————————————————
Sep 23, 2025 • 24min
Reframing Grant Rejection
In this heartfelt episode, Holly dives deep into the topic every grant writer faces but rarely wants to talk about—grant rejections. She reminds us that denials are a natural (and frequent!) part of the grant writing world, often for reasons outside your control, like shifting funder priorities or geographic focus. Holly shares her own experiences, how even seasoned grant writers get rejected, and why your worth is not tied to every grant outcome.You’ll also get practical tips on navigating those tough feelings, setting client expectations, and why your work is valuable—even when a grant isn't awarded. Holly covers why it’s essential to learn from feedback (if you get it), how to set boundaries and timelines with clients, and the importance of persistence in the face of nos.There’s also an important discussion on the role of AI in grant writing and why learning the craft remains vital, even with new tech tools on the scene.Tune in today to listen to this podcast.To learn more about the podcast episodes go to https://grantwritingandfunding.com/grant-writing-podcast/"Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsFavor, please?If you love this podcast, would you please do me a favor and leave a review on iTunes or your podcast listener?This helps others find the podcast and I read each and every review!“Every time I listen to Holly’s show, I learn something” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show!Thanks for listening!Warmly,Holly RustickCoaches new and experienced grant writers to earn high 5-6 figure incomes writing grants from home!Get Freelance Grant Writing Spicy Tips when you Join the weekly newsletter series “Write Grants. Get Paid” https://grantwritingandfunding.com/Freelance Grant Writer Academy: Replace your Full-Time Income Writing Grants Part-Time from Home.https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy/———————————————————————————This podcast episode was lovingly sponsored by GEMS!This podcast episode is lovingly sponsored by Grant Easy Management Software (GEMS). Break Up with Your Spreadsheet – Get GEMS Grant Easy Management Software and NEVER MISS A DEADLINE AGAIN! Book YOUR FREE demo now! Click here: https://www.grantwritingandfunding.com/gems ———————————————————————————
Sep 16, 2025 • 9min
Mastering Grant Prospecting: Free & Paid Tools for Success
We dive into the essentials of grant prospecting, covering both free and paid tools. Learn how to find funders, understand RFPs, and utilize top software like Grants.gov, Instrumental, and Foundation Directory Online to secure grants for your organization. Whether you're a seasoned grant writer or a newbie nonprofit, discover insights and strategies to enhance your grant-seeking process.Tune in today to listen to this podcast.To learn more about the podcast episodes go to https://grantwritingandfunding.com/grant-writing-podcast/"Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsFavor, please?If you love this podcast, would you please do me a favor and leave a review on iTunes or your podcast listener?This helps others find the podcast and I read each and every review!“Every time I listen to Holly’s show, I learn something” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show!Thanks for listening!Warmly,Holly RustickCoaches new and experienced grant writers to earn high 5-6 figure incomes writing grants from home!Get Freelance Grant Writing Spicy Tips when you Join the weekly newsletter series “Write Grants. Get Paid” https://grantwritingandfunding.com/Freelance Grant Writer Academy: Replace your Full-Time Income Writing Grants Part-Time from Home.https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy/———————————————————————————This podcast episode was lovingly sponsored by GEMS!This podcast episode is lovingly sponsored by Grant Easy Management Software (GEMS). Break Up with Your Spreadsheet – Get GEMS Grant Easy Management Software and NEVER MISS A DEADLINE AGAIN! Book YOUR FREE demo now! Click here: https://www.grantwritingandfunding.com/gems ———————————————————————————
Sep 9, 2025 • 1h 28min
What Saves Grant Writers Hours Every Week (it's not AI)
Freelance grant writing comes with freedom—and a lot of moving parts. If you’re juggling multiple clients, deadlines, and reporting requirements, you need more than a spreadsheet. You need a system that saves time without adding complexity.Join us for this live panel replay where fellow freelance grant professionals share how they use Grant Management Made Easy to stay organized, meet deadlines, and keep clients happy—without burning out.You’ll hear directly from 4 amazing grant professionals staff who made the switch from overwhelm to organized—and are now saving hours each week.Visit www.grantwritingandfunding.com/gems to book a free demo and save 10%. Thank you to our sponsor GEMS for lovingly sponsoring this podcast episode!
Sep 2, 2025 • 14min
What Is Grant Writing?
Ever wondered what grant writing actually is and how you can start even without a degree, certification, or years of experience?In this video, Holly Rustick, CEO of Freelance Grant Writer Academy and Grant Professional Mentorship, breaks down grant writing in its simplest form: connecting mission and money.Tune in today to listen to this podcast.To learn more about the podcast episodes go to https://grantwritingandfunding.com/grant-writing-podcast/"Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple PodcastsFavor, please?If you love this podcast, would you please do me a favor and leave a review on iTunes or your podcast listener?This helps others find the podcast and I read each and every review!“Every time I listen to Holly’s show, I learn something” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show!Thanks for listening!Warmly,Holly RustickCoaches new and experienced grant writers to earn high 5-6 figure incomes writing grants from home!Get Freelance Grant Writing Spicy Tips when you Join the weekly newsletter series “Write Grants. Get Paid” https://grantwritingandfunding.com/Freelance Grant Writer Academy: Replace your Full-Time Income Writing Grants Part-Time from Home.https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy/———————————————————————————This podcast episode was lovingly sponsored by GEMS!This podcast episode is lovingly sponsored by Grant Easy Management Software (GEMS). Break Up with Your Spreadsheet – Get GEMS Grant Easy Management Software and NEVER MISS A DEADLINE AGAIN! Book YOUR FREE demo now! Click here: https://www.grantwritingandfunding.com/gems ———————————————————————————
