Why Offering Free Grant Writing Isn’t a Solution: It’s a Symptom

Let’s talk about what free grant writing really signals. Not as a kindness, but as a symptom of deeper dysfunction in the nonprofit ecosystem. Because every time an organization accepts free labor in place of real investment, they’re reinforcing the very scarcity they’re trying to escape.

Here’s what it actually means when someone offers to “write your grants for free”:

• There’s no budget for infrastructure

• There’s no plan to sustain the funding if it arrives

• There’s no recognition of the labor required to build systems that funders trust

And here’s the part that stings: It’s not the organization’s fault entirely.

Small nonprofits are caught in an impossible bind. Funders want strategy, accountability, and polished applications, but they rarely provide capacity-building dollars to help orgs get there. So what happens? Leaders scramble. Consultants get ghosted. Volunteers are expected to fix undercapitalization with hustle.

Offering free grant writing becomes a bandaid for a broken system.

But bandaids don’t build anything. They hide wounds.

The Real Issue Isn’t Access: It’s Grant Writing Without Resources

When funders require performance without resourcing the prep work, they’re outsourcing risk and responsibility to the very organizations they claim to uplift. And when nonprofits perpetuate that same model internally, expecting grant writers to work unpaid or on commission, it’s the same extraction dynamic, just with nicer branding.

We need to stop confusing exposure with opportunity. And we need to stop mistaking unpaid effort for ethical alignment.

If a nonprofit doesn’t have the capacity to hire, plan, and budget for development support, they’re not ready for grants. And pretending otherwise only prolongs the struggle.

This isn’t about shaming small orgs. It’s about calling out a model that keeps us tired, broke, and spinning.

What would change if, instead of offering free writing, we offered shared infrastructure? If funders seeded real prep grants? If Boards built readiness into the org’s design from day one?

Free labor isn’t a solution. It’s a symptom of a system that refuses to resource the work it demands.

It’s time to treat the root cause.

Next: “Dear Nonprofits: You Deserve Real Development, Not Free Labor.”