Ep. 103: Master Grant Writing with These Strategies from World-Renowned Grant Writing Expert, Holly Rustick
EPISODE 103
Master Grant Writing with These Strategies from World-Renowned Grant Writing Expert, Holly Rustick
About the Episode:
I’m excited to have a repeat guest on the show today, Holly Rustick. Holly’s previous episode where she told us how to transition from your toxic nonprofit job to freelancing freedom is one of our most downloaded episodes, so I’m happy to have her back on to dig a bit deeper into her expertise of grant writing. In our conversation, we discuss the significant advantages of hiring freelance grant writers over staff members, and the strategic approach necessary for success in this field. Holly shares valuable insights into her program, which helps new and seasoned grant writers replace their full-time income through flexible freelance work. We also touch on the importance of having a master grant template, the benefits of specialized training, and how to create a high-impact grant strategy. And the episode wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t bring up the role of AI in grant writing. Holly’s expertise and passion for creating equity in the space made for an engaging and informative conversation that will leave you feeling more confident when you write your next grant (or hire it out)!
Topics:
The difference between hiring an on staff grant writer or a contracted grant writer and how Holly thinks in house grant writing needs to change
What it actually means to have a grant writing strategy and if you should hire a specialized or more of an agnostic grant writer
The importance of creating a standard grant template, a main focus, and a timeline when you’re writing grants so that you can prioritize ROI and get your nonprofit executives on board
Reimaging what it means to set your staff up to succeed and the need for continuing education in the nonprofit sector
Remembering that the nonprofit grant writing process is not personal, how to overcome rejection, and focusing on the right criteria
Holly’s thoughts on using ChatGPT and AI for grant writing and the magic of the master grant template (again)
Trends that Holly is currently seeing in the grant space, what is working, what’s not working and where to focus in the next year
The one piece of advice that Holly would give to the aspiring grant writer and what she’s currently celebrating in her own business
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“If you actually give your writers the training, they’re going to stick around for a long time, better understand your nonprofit, and get you so much money.” – Holly
“My wish for the sector is that every single staff member had a line item for continuing education.” – Christina
“With grants, you cannot score a review on an emotional story. You have to respond to the criteria.” – Holly
“A grant is formulaic, but there’s also thinking involved and AI is just not up to speed on that yet.” – Holly
“There’s this shift in giving where there’s more conversation between the grant writers and the funders.” – Holly
“We're in interesting times with the grants, they're still going to be around in our lifetime, but I think we'll move more into the grant strategist sphere.” – Holly
“The grant writing market is not saturated at all. It’s a skill that is so meaningful and can create a legacy job.” – Holly
“To me, having success for my students is success.” – Holly
“My word of the year is unlimited – unlimited self protecting boundaries that I’ve kind of put up in the past and breaking those down and stepping forward into my identity more and more courageously every day.”
About Holly:
Holly Rustick is a world-renowned grant writing expert and Amazon bestselling author. Holly has been coaching grant writers how to run successful 5-6 figure businesses since 2017. With two decades of grant writing and nonprofit experience, Holly is a popular keynote speaker for events all over the world, podcast host of the Top-Ranked Grant Writing podcast, a former university instructor, and past president of the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce. She is constantly booked out to help aspiring and seasoned grant writers replace their full-time income while working part-time from home.
Connect with Holly:
Episode Resources:
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Christina Edwards 00:00
Holley, rustic, you're back. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here, we're going to talk all about grant writing all about all the things. Let's start about, let's start with an intro. Tell us about the work you do about your program. And we'll dig right in.
Holly Rustick 00:14
Sure. So we help a new and inspire our new and seasoned grant writers replace their full time income on flexible hours writing grants from home. And we also help people quit their toxic nonprofit jobs and enter into becoming freelance grant writers. And we're really doing this at a high momentum right now, because that is our mission. So we're helping a lot of people out there. And we love the work that grant writers and nonprofits do. But we just want to really create more equity in the space and fair pricing.
Christina Edwards 00:45
Amazing, I'm so excited to have you back in your episode was one of our top listen to episodes. So we want to hear about the grants, we want to hear about all the things. Let's start by just talking about why you should hire a freelance grant writer or should you hire just a staffer to do this? Can't somebody for programs just write some grants for you? So like, give us give us kind of the lay of the land there?
Holly Rustick 01:11
For sure. Yeah. And I think it's so interesting, because the problem that we really see is grant writer has an all other duties is necessary. It's not just all other duties and deafness necessarily thrown in their lap, they're usually actually hired like as a program manager, as a case manager or something else, like, even the role grant writer is few and far between. So they're usually hired to write grants, but they have to have the other title to get paid. So they're doing two jobs, etc. So we could talk a lot about that. And then just like ethically, and all of the things, but if we really like just pry apart that question, you could say how you how efficient is that for one? So are you hiring a staff grant writer to actually write grants, because if they're lucky, a grant writer, that's a staff grant writer might be I say, higher than this, but really is lower, I think it's about I would say, if they're lucky 40% of their time actually writing whereas if they're lucky, and that would be on the high end, because they still have to go to the meetings and other staff, they still have to do all the other Staffy things, they have to jump in on that fundraiser event, they're doing all that, you know what I mean? That and it's just it's, they're not actually spending a lot of time actually writing grants, or managing grants or following up on grants, they really don't have a grant strategy, it's you, the executive director or the board going get these grants or find some grants, but they're not really doing high level thinking or strategy on it, they've just have enough time. It's not their fault. It's not because they're not able, it's because it was kind of because they're not able they don't, they're not able because they don't have time, right, they don't have time to actually sit back and think it's just the doing the getting it in, they're working weekends or working evenings, they're even on vacation, they're taking their laptops, because of the never ending cycle of grants, it's a really, it can turn into a very unhealthy pattern for a majority of nonprofits. So that was me in the nonprofit world. Before I became a freelancer. That was a lot of people, I hear that again and again. So I'm not saying it can't work. There are people that are happy in their grammar, but it's because they have boundaries is because they're at least doing 85% of their time writing grants, right? And all of that. But the difference in then you asked like the difference between hiring someone, there's still a staff grant writer is still just going to be checking the box a lot of times, right, they're still going to have to, you know, adhere to everything else that your nonprofit is doing. Where if you hire a freelance grant writer, that is your grant writing department, they're your grant writing strategy, they're thinking about it, that's all they're doing. Right? It's 100%, their scope of work, that is such a different relationship than having someone underneath your organization kind of within it kind of working on it as much as they can write, it's such a different relationship. And you can save a lot of money hiring a freelance grant writer, you can get someone on retainer, you're not paying their fringe benefits, you're not paying their taxes, you're not paying for an office space or a computer, right? So you are able to actually set aside a retainer budget that will actually help your nonprofit overall. And that then just focus on the grants. So too,
Christina Edwards 04:15
one of the things you said was, like high impact strategy. And I think it's really easy with grant writing to be like we should apply for the grants, the grants, do you know what I mean? And yeah, you know what I mean? So what does that actually mean to be like, no, there actually should be a strategy around. It's not throw spaghetti at the wall. It's what is what is it instead? And maybe kind of a two prong question. Should you hire a grant writer that is a specialized expert in his particular sector, if you're arts organization, do you want somebody who only does that? Or is it okay if they're agnostic?
Holly Rustick 04:51
Yeah, yeah, great question. So I'm definitely I'll start with that one. So you can and it but it doesn't matter at the same time. So we actually have a lot of grant writers in our finance grant writer Academy, where we help them get to their specific niche, whether that is writing federal grants already foundation grants, or rain state grants, like so I'm just like to stay in certain lanes, some like to write just foundation grants for arts organizations, right? And I'm like, that's amazing. Because you're going to get to know all of those specific grants like the back of your hand, right? You're going to be in that field, you're going to know what's going on all of the trends, all the things within that specific niche, where some are like, No, I want to focus on arts organizations, but I can also write federal grants, foundation grants, so they may be working with different sized nonprofits, but based on the same cause, area, and for that, you know, you can have a nonprofit like I've written grants for science, indigenous languages, like all the things that I don't have a PhD in any of that, right. So a lot of times grant writers are kind of ghost writers at the same time. So there is some there are some benefits to hiring someone and then niche for sure, because they can be more on top of the industry. However, it's not entirely necessary either, as long as they have the skills. So going back to your question about like, just sending out, you know, the same two page letter of inquiry to 100 places, and if you know what I mean, like, yeah, you're gonna get nose up and down, like 100 nose. So how we like position that as we actually have inside our academy, a 30 day master template grant writing template, where we actually help you write as a very robust, like 28 Page master brand template, and it takes you through the framework of an entire grant and all the attachments that they may need. And what we say is we recommend that all of our students and they love this, they start with their nonprofits, whether they're selling them a package, or they're doing a retainer with them, they start there. And what's so important about there is they can they start doing what is your priority project that you want funding, and why that's so important, you know, this, Christina, right is the nonprofit's not going to work with you for six months and throw you three 510 Different Oh, we could write this. And we could write that and we have this program, we have that program. Like it actually helps you take the executives at the nonprofit and say, What's your priority, we're going to spend some time developing this template, we're going to give it back and forth with you a couple of times so you can see what we're working through, we're going to get information for you. And this is what we're going to focus on getting funding for for the next six months or the next year. And now you have buy in from the executives on the nonprofit, you can reel them back in and because they're all visionaries, yeah, and I love it. They're all visionaries, but to get around back in. And then you can also like dark doing your grant prospecting research that's on that programs about that program. It's connected to that template. So then by the time you're ready, you find the best fit grants, which might be 10, might be five, we're looking at smaller numbers here, but they are very good. Like the best fit that you can have, you're looking at 990s, right, you're looking at all these things, we're funding sources, you're really spending time, and there is an art and a science to grant research. And then you're able to write the grants so much quicker, because you have the template. So that's our process on how to like, prioritize that, and how to actually get a higher ROI on grant writing as well. Yeah, oh,
Christina Edwards 08:14
my gosh, I love that I always have all of our club members go in and like set their goals set their intentions. And the whole point is to figure out what is it I really want to do, and it cracks me up. Because it's like, I want to start a monthly giving program, I want to reengage our lapsed donors, I want to courageously ask for more. I also want to build out more major donors, and we need sponsors. And we and I'm like, Whoa, we need three months. Like, it's like, what is that? For me? It's like what is the highest ROI activity? What is the most perfect fit? Let's start there. And I love this, this creative list. And we'll just go one at a time. So it sounds like a version of that. But the idea of this template almost like this brand standard. Ooh, if I was a grant writer, too, I would love that too. I'd be like this. This is our foundational piece that we're going to go back to and go that's why we're prospecting over here and not over here. Great idea. And no, and here's where we're at. Yeah, and
Holly Rustick 09:10
helps you just like with boundaries with your clients to is like such like a win win, win win, right? So it's like you're helping them get clear, there's buy in, but they're also like, what about this one? And then you're like, you know, no, like, we can go there. And I like that, too. It's like you, they have great ideas. There's a lot of great vision. I'm not saying there's not but it's not focused, and there's not like a timeline for it, it's there, you know, you're just not going to have as well, some ROI is you're going to be all scattered, you're going to be charging them more, they're not going to see the results as fast as you have to work so much more. Right. So this gives them a timeline and you can say okay, in six months, or 12 months, once we get funding for this, then we'll look at that priority number two, right, then we'll go to that next place. So it's also like we're probably going to be working with you and your grant department for a number of years even Right, because then when you have the institutional knowledge of that nonprofit, that's very valuable for them. And you, right? So
Christina Edwards 10:08
this just popped in my head, but is it a symptom of like maybe not having something like that, like a standard template? When somebody an organization says we've applied for grants, we barely get any, or we don't get any are like there's that saltiness to it. And I'm thinking of a few love you see, I see you, I'm thinking of you. And they may have a volunteer, a board member, a part timer, who's slash admin account person doing it, right. It's sort of like that. So is this a symptom of maybe just this, having a standard template, and also maybe not having continuing ed support? So if you're weren't a freelancer? Is the academy something that maybe this role who this person is like, maybe they don't know what they don't know about it? Right?
Holly Rustick 10:56
Yeah, for sure. And we actually have nonprofits that pay 70, they actually pay for their volunteer or a board member or someone to actually do the academy, because we teach you how to write grants. And we also teach our business acumen skills. So they might just hang out in the grant writing plays, and it's like, $2,500 for one year, which is like, Wait, like, we have unlimited grant reviews in this program, where if you're not in our program, or company does offer grant, one grant review is $2,500. Like, that's the difference, you know, you're so and then you get all of the course, you get the master grant template, you get all of our attachments, you get all of everything you can come to our weekly calls and ask questions. And the unlimited grant reviews is a huge thing in our program. So before you submit your grant, we even review your your template that you create the master grant template, and you can create multiple ones. So after you do get funding for that program, let's create another one that you can submit it for us to review and give you feedback on which is so valuable, because like you said, it is like that, that Miss of, you know, not having a grand strategy is one of those things that happens, not having the training is definitely the other thing. I can't tell you how many times nonprofits will just everybody wants to learn grant writing, or a lot of people do they understand the value of it. So you have a lot of interns and all of that. But if you just say go learn how to write grants, it's going to be so overwhelming, they're not going to hang out forever, etc. But if you actually give them the training, they will stick around for a long time, right? They might become a staff member then or they may become a consultant with you. And they're going to understand your nonprofit and be able to write so many of these grants and get you so much money, like it is such a great investment to give training to those people that you're off as a grant writer, that is the staff, but you need to give him grant right or grant training you do.
Christina Edwards 12:48
I'm not here, my wish for the sector is that every single staff member had a line item for continuing education they could spend on any sort of professional development, they go to a conference, they could hire a coach, they could join a program. And it's like it's so such a misstep and such a like so short sighted to think, well, we shouldn't invest, right, they can DIY, they can watch a webinar, right? They can YouTube it and it's like no, you just said they would literally get it reviewed, right? Yeah, reviewed before. I mean, come on. And it's like, the value of that is so important. The other thing too, is I think we also often in the sector, we give paid roles to what should be a paid role to an unpaid person, whether it's a volunteer and intern, a friend, a friend, right, somebody and it's like if we want them to succeed, let's make sure we help them succeed. Right. So some sort of support development course coaching program, it's so not fair. I remember, years back, we were talking about my agency background, when we had interns, it was very quick, I quickly learned the value of an intern is for them, I'm teaching them and experience it was not let me throw a bunch of work over the wall to a college student. And it's like, let me not throw a bunch of wall of work over the wall to a volunteer who may have written one grant rent once like me set them up to succeed. So I love that that you're
Holly Rustick 14:14
right, and then that's gonna then that with an impact them showing up. They're really not going to want to show up to your nonprofit like, there's so much with grants oh man, like you do get rejections. And that's a part of that's a part of it, and understand why and then able to we have an E review people's grants that have gotten rejected. And they're like, Hey, can you guys review it so we can get some feedback because we want to submit again in the future, but we want to submit it better, right? So we give that as well, because that's really valuable, right? And we even say, Hey, can you get feedback on it? If you didn't get it awarded? Like let's actually look at some data, instead of it just being a personalized? Oh, I did a really bad job writing this or they don't believe in my nonprofit. I hear that a lot. They don't believe in the work that they we do. And it's like no, that's it at all that I've been a federal grant reviewer for over 10 years and a grant writer for 20 years. It is not like every nonprofits take it personal, but it's really not the processes not so yeah.
Christina Edwards 15:10
We got to say more about that. Yeah,
Holly Rustick 15:13
it's usually because they didn't respond to the criteria. The criteria said, give us a clear goal. And you just said, Hey, we want to help some people. That's not a clear goal. And then you go into a flowery poetic story about all of the things that are wrong about it, or whatever you do, and, and it's like, they can't really score you on that. Right. And I know you can use some of that, like more emotive language and fundraising and that sort of thing. But in grants, no, yeah. And that's where you shine, right? But bringing that same thing in the grant is not wearing it scored, and then you are basing it on that emotional kind of story. So you're saying they don't, they don't love us? Or they don't. They don't believe in us because they're not connecting with our emotional story. But with grants, you literally cannot score a grant review on emotional story.
Christina Edwards 16:04
Like, I'm so glad you said that. Yeah,
Holly Rustick 16:06
I've loved programs. And I'm like, I wish I could score you higher. But you are not responding to the criteria. And I have to score you on this. That's the only way. Yeah,
Christina Edwards 16:15
I hope everybody really like hears that right. I'm remembering I'm having a flashback, Holly to like a webinar you were teaching a few years ago. And you're so fast on your like, I think you were doing a great search, engine search or something like that for prospecting. And I remember thinking you're so fast, it's because you've literally seen every facet of the grant writing process, like you said, from reviewing, to writing to submitting different types of grants to researching and it's like, that is the value to have a coach, to me that is the value of a coach. It's like, do you want results faster? Higher coach, join a program there, I have no doubt that you could you could check out a bunch of books from the library, watch some webinars and ultimately get there. But wouldn't it be more fun to get there faster? And with somebody guiding you along the way? I don't know. I just had that that memory Have you been like? And it's like, yeah, that is the value of investing. That is the value of of investing in continuing education and investing in the coach and investing in, in support to because there's also that piece and it's also like, the trends of like, what is happening in the sector? My next question for you is, can't we all just can't we just use Chachi? T? Can't we just use AI for grant. So tell us what to say what to say to the board member that comes up with that one.
Holly Rustick 17:32
I love that. I love that so much. Because I'm just full disclosure. I'm not like the super AI grant girl. But Phillip dang is the grant girl man. He owns grant approval, which is an AI for grant writing. But we're really close. And he came into our program recently. And he's been on my podcast and all the things. And we're staying really close on top of that trend. But what he and I especially as industry leaders have really talked about is it's the magic of that master grant template. Again, you can use AI, but it's not to build that out. You still need a human to do that. Because a grant is formulaic. But there's also thinking involved, like if this is really a need, how does this research go with this is that puzzle. And AI is just not up to speed on that yet. And especially like where's the priorities with a nonprofit in this conversation and building that out. But once you have that, and the other thing too, is, AI is really bad at doing research. So one of the things when I first started using chat TPT I was like who I can maybe help me with my research in grants, because that's a time consuming part like to get Sources and Citations. And it gave me like this beautiful list of like 10 sources, and it had like a work cited thing. And then I was checking all the links, and like eight out of 10 were done. So I was talking to Phil about that. So what's up with that, and he goes actually, AI is terrible at research is good at writing. It's terrible at research, and it's just making things up. It's making things up. I think it's called like a hallucinogen, who's in his. So, it's like a weird term for that. But I was like, Ooh, that makes sense. Right? So um, but the even the writing, you still need to do the thought process putting something that together and then you might be able to take some of that to respond to a criteria. So then it saying what because you're a member, you're prioritizing your project, you're not putting everything in there, then then you apply for a grant that makes sense. You see the criteria, and you say, okay, use this template now to write out my objectives for this to respond to it in this certain way. So you use your own writing to create the grants than using like random bowl or something like that right or chat TBT and what's the it's not just scouring the internet for it's using your writing. So then it actually um, create grants a lot quicker. A lot of my clients are looking into that some of them are using that. And then you know, you might be able to write a lot more grants especially for startups and nonprofits can kind of enter that space. And it's more equitable. And that's his thing, big thing fills is creating more equity for nonprofits to not we're just the big dogs that can hire a grant writer can apply for the grants. Right? So it is, but you still need to do that startup work is so important. Otherwise, your grants not going to read right? It's not going to get scored well. So there is ways I think that you can apply it, but there has to be a strategy behind it. And you still need to do the human work upfront. Yeah,
Christina Edwards 20:29
I mean, listen, huge fan of chat. GPT. I totally agree. I think it's the same way. It's like I use it. But I use it often to organize my thoughts. I use it sometimes to just have a brainstorm session. You're not getting any content that it wrote for me. And I find too, it's redundant. And so for grant writing, it sounds like too, it's like stop repeating yourself. And and so it's like it will say the same same flying, you know, six different ways. And so it can be a helpful resource. It sounds like in the process, but not the not the main course to it.
Holly Rustick 21:02
Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, part of the strategy, but don't go there first, because you just won't get your grants awarded. And you're not going to learn how to write your grant either. So yeah. Yeah, for sure. So
Christina Edwards 21:13
let's talk about some giving trends. So election year, we've seen individual giving down, that's kind of the hit the headlines. What are you seeing in the Grant Space? What what's what's working, what's not, what do you see in the next year or two years? What does that look like for you?
Holly Rustick 21:31
So there's still money that was infused during COVID? That's in line that needs to be spent out? So we're still seeing that. But I do think that we're going to kind of creep up on the exploration of that for soon, right. So I think what we're looking at, though, is really interesting, and it does reflect a lot on politics, especially federal grants. So different priorities can change different things within politics that can vote federal monies, etc, etc. Right. So it is important to kind of stay abreast of that and to see how that kind of lays out. But we are seeing which is great is federal grants have prioritize a lot more marginal communities, bipoc populations, even looking at like, does your board are they made up of bipoc, as you're asking for bipoc monies like they really want to see that integration of of that. And I think that's fantastic. And people are even getting priority points for that and for marginalized communities. So we are seeing a we're seeing more of that. And I do love that. We're also seeing things like MacKenzie Scott, right, we're also seeing things like different types of individual donors giving out these massive grants. So we are seeing and even just grants is awesome, where you can write a grant, and then it will connect you with different funding sources. So it's kind of like a universal application, and then they would connect it right. So it'd be like a great place to put a master grant template. So there are there's kind of the shift in giving. And there's also more conversation in general, between the funders and the grant writers, right, or the nonprofits applying for funds. So in the past, we just saw a lot of like the grant writers asking the foundations like, how, you know, how was this written? Are we eligible for this, blah, blah, blah. But now we're kind of seeing more of the pushback, and I think zulay I'm not sure if you know who they were. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's awesome. And here's a whole movement to that I see or notice, right, is that it is creating more equity in that space. And why do we have to do all of these like, oh, my gosh, it's just so ridiculous. Sometimes I'll have the
Christina Edwards 23:36
link to his LinkedIn threads have like on the show notes, where he's like, calling out grant funders, right? And he's like, come on, you guys. Yeah. And
Holly Rustick 23:47
it's so like, there's so many, you know, you gotta check this box. And you got to do that. And it's, it's very bureaucratic in so many ways, and then it does marginalize people, once again, that may be able to hire a grant writer or not, right? So um, he's really like holding the light up to that. But we are seeing more of that conversation than to be like, Why is this like this instead of just accepting it? And I think that's really good. And that's also why you do want a freelance grant writer because there's a lot of ways you don't have to pay as much as an in person staff. So that can also create more equity. And then there also that part of that grant strategy of asking those hard questions to funding sources, right, because as a as a freelance grant writer, like what we do, too, is we actually call funding sources. We have conversations we ask a lot of questions before we submit the grant so we can get the best points awarded all of the things and we can have some of those tougher conversations. So it is that they are listening more now and they are holding like even town halls like online town halls and that sort of thing to have more of this candid conversation. So I think that's good and even one of the things I thought talking about AI was like, I wonder if that's gonna affect because of a lot of people just start writing grants using AI without having like a strategy but it's also going to create, like, what is the impact in the capacity on the funding source side? Now getting the huge influx bottleneck? Yeah, yeah. So I was like, it'll, it'll be answered, we're in interesting times with the grants, they're still going to be around in our lifetime, I'm gonna say that they will be, but I do believe there will be changes. And I don't believe that grant writers will be out of a job because of any of the changes that we're looking at. Now with AI and everything, we I think we'll move more into the grant strategist fear. And that's what I tell a lot of people in the freelance grant writer Academy, like, you're not really just freelance freelancers, your grant strategist. And that's how they really position themselves because it is doing that human thinking and strategy. And then, yeah, they're spending time writing grants. If AI can help them, write more grants, that's great. And they don't have to spend as much time there. They can focus more on the strategy then right and on changing, changing things in the industry having those hard conversations, because they can think about it, they have the space to think about it from a higher level. So
Christina Edwards 26:04
yeah, all right, perfect. We're gonna do a couple of rapid fire questions. What would be one piece of advice that you would give to an aspiring grant writer? So somebody who is like, consultant freelancer? Or maybe they're like, I want to leave my in house job? And I'm kind of curious, like, what would you say to them,
Holly Rustick 26:24
I would say that the market is not saturated at all, it is a skill, like I said, that's gonna be here with our lifetimes. And it is a really valuable skill that's so meaningful, that you can say, hey, I want to focus in this cause area, or this type of nonprofit, this is what I want to leave as a legacy to get funding for this program or to make this change in the world. So it's something that's it's a legacy job, that but it can also bring in an income for you, and it can create freedom and flexibility in your life. So it's such a women, I'm so passionate about it. And that it doesn't have to be hard, they don't have to do it all at once. There are sources out there that can take them, they don't have to have the best grammar, they don't have to have a degree and be know, whatever in writing or none of that they can learn this skill. And it's very formulaic, they can learn this skill, and they can have the support and they can easily get clients. So go forward.
Christina Edwards 27:20
Awesome. What would be a recent book, or maybe one that you wrote a while ago that you that influence the way that you teach? Or your programs or just kind of like, did any influencing that you're like, Oh, that's a good one.
Holly Rustick 27:33
Oh, I like this question. Um, I haven't you know, I've read some really, really good books. Okay. Recently, let's say, Take back your time. I think that's Dan Martell, really good. Self coaching one on one. But Brooke Castillo super good for the Fortune. Yeah, I love that we actually use that book inside our academy. And we should all be millionaires by Rachael Rogers of that book.
Christina Edwards 28:02
Yes, anyone in my program knows the like, think feel act cycle. So they've had a little bit of like that kind of inner work inner self coaching? Through that, because yeah, that informs what we do, the actions we take and the results. So that's a good one. That's a really good one. Will you share a success story from your career? Because you have been how long? Have you been an entrepreneur? Have you been in this space?
Holly Rustick 28:25
This is my 10th year. So 2024 is my 10th year in business. I'm really excited. I'm also a dragon, and it's the year of the dragon. So I'm all like all about it. So, yeah, so a success story. Um, you know, I think it for me, too, is creating this movement that I have, like, that's really been the big shining light is to say, you know, I was just kind of doing the grant writing, because I was got trained in and I love getting trained, and I love how I started grant writing. But then I kind of got just a little better, a little bit better working inside a nonprofit, all of that. And then when I opened my own business, you know, it was hard at first, right? I had all those thoughts. I had undercharging and I had all the things going on, and had to really figure that out and double down on that a lot. But overall, I think one of the biggest successes recently has been the Academy, the freelance grant writer academy that I've developed, because within the last, it hasn't even been a whole year that we've read physician, this program, we already have over 150 people in this program. And collectively, they've secured over $60 million in grants and over $1.3 million in their grant writing businesses in less than a year. So that's like that, if I can, like this is my legacy that I'm leaving, right is this program and helping all of these people and then the nonprofits that they help and all the monies they raise for amazing programs in the world. It's just like this trickle effect. So I'm just really, really happy to be where I'm at right now. And to me, like having success for my students is my success, right? So yeah,
Christina Edwards 29:59
It's the best, isn't it the best of just like seeing their wins, seeing their celebration, celebrating alongside them and just being like, holy crap, like it's happening. It's happening.
Holly Rustick 30:12
Yeah. Last week, when one week alone, we had three people quit their nine to five jobs and go full time into freelance grant writing, like in just one week. So it was such a celebration, like all these people in the same time, like stepping down. And, you know, three people like, that's amazing that just changed their lives. And because they were able to have setup their business in the academy, now they have cash flow. Now they can do that all things, right. So it was just like really cool to be like, oh, when we've been three people, or nine
Christina Edwards 30:39
to find if we, and if we have anyone listening who's like, Okay, I would like to hire a freelancer? Yeah. Do you have a referral network? I feel like I've forwarded a few. But like, Is that Is that something that they can reach out to you for and say, Hey, that word, this type of organization? Here's what we're looking for? Yeah, absolutely.
Holly Rustick 30:57
So we actually what we do is it's our academy students, and how they can actually be listed on our directory is they have to at least written for grants that have gotten awarded, and we've had to review at least one of them. So we do vet them, um, to come on. But they have to be inside our programs to be there as well. Like, we don't accept just payment for that, or whatever. It's like, we're helping, like nurture these these individuals. So they can go to our website for that. And we just have a grant radium and funny.com. I hire a grant writer, it's like hired dash, a dash grant dash writer. And I think you can get the show notes for that. But definitely go to our website, grant writing and funding.com. So you can see our directory and there you can see like, oh, this person writes federal grants for housing. And that's what we are. So you'll be able to see like that specifically to kind of go through and figure out who you'd like to set up a discovery call with, we don't do any of the processing on that. And with them, it's up to the freelancers. But we just give them the opportunity to be listed on our website, so we can be just a directory there. Perfect. All
Christina Edwards 31:59
right, we ask every guest to share one mantra when thought they like to think on purpose, just any sort of affirmation. Well, I know you've already shared one with us, but share share one for this episode. Sure.
Holly Rustick 32:12
Um, maybe I think I for me, it's more of like my word of the year, like so perfect. Yeah. And it's unlimited. So I just feel like this sense of Yeah, like no limits, no boundaries, like unlimited. Like is that potential abundance, like, whatever that is? I'm like, just step into unlimited. And I think what I've really thought about it for myself, is just, yeah, those unlimited self protecting boundaries that I've kind of put up in the past and breaking those down and stepping forward into my identity more and more courageously every day. So yeah.
Christina Edwards 32:48
Oh, that's a good one. That's a good word of the year. That's gonna be on my shortlist for next year. So we will link to the academy in the show notes because people I know you live lunch, but we will link to maybe Is there a waitlist or something like that, too, if they're curious, freelance curious, or maybe they do have that volunteer that they're like, Hey, listen, let's invest in our volunteer going through this. So we will link to that. Yeah, yeah,
Holly Rustick 33:15
we can definitely have that. And that's just a grant writing and funding.com. And then we'll have our academy there. So you can definitely find us there. If you go forward slash freelance dash Academy, you can find it. And we also have our podcast too. So for those podcast listeners out there work, grant writing and funding. We have a lot of our students hosted on there as well and featured on our podcast, you can hear behind the scenes about the program. We talk a lot about our movement, we talk a lot about the different things that are happening in the industry and have people on like yourself, Christina on our podcast as well. So definitely check us out there as well. And that's where we are. Amazing.
Christina Edwards 33:51
Thank you for coming back. I always you always leave me more uplifted, more motivated, and you're such a light in this sector. So thank you for coming back. Oh, thank you. It's been so awesome. Thanks for having me back. All right. See you later.