Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Teacher Built a 3000 Monthly Side Hustle in Grant Writing
Transcript
- Lucas: Last episode we covered interview coaching. Today I want to talk about a side hustle that flies under the radar but pays surprisingly well: grant writing. Luna: Grant writing? Like writing proposals to get funding for nonprofits? Lucas: Exactly. The case I want to look at is a middle school science teacher named Rachel. She started grant writing in April 2023 and within six months she was bringing in three thousand dollars a month, working about ten to twelve hours a week. Luna: That's a lot for part-time hours. What made grant writing work for her specifically? Lucas: The biggest thing is she already had the core skills. Teachers write constantly—lesson plans, grant applications for classroom supplies, emails to parents. Rachel realised the persuasive structure of a grant proposal is very close to what she did when she applied for a DonorsChoose project. Luna: So it's about reframing existing skills rather than learning something completely new. Lucas: Right. She didn't start from zero. She took a free online course from GrantSpace in April 2023—that's about six hours total—then she created a simple portfolio with two sample proposals she wrote for fictional nonprofits. Luna: Where did she find her first real clients? Lucas: She started on Upwork, targeting small local nonprofits—animal shelters, food banks, after-school programs. Her first gig was a two-thousand dollar contract to write a grant for a cat rescue. She spent about twenty hours on it, so that's a hundred dollars an hour. Luna: That's solid. And she did this while still teaching full-time? Lucas: Yep. She treated it like a second shift—two hours after dinner, three nights a week, plus a few hours on weekends. The key was niching down: she only wrote for education-related grants at first, because she understood that language better than, say, healthcare. Luna: Smart. And I imagine being a teacher gave her credibility too? Like, if I'm a nonprofit that runs youth programs, a teacher who writes my grant sounds legit. Lucas: Exactly. Her first three projects were all youth-focused. She landed them partly because her profile mentioned her teaching background. Clients told her it was a differentiator. Luna: So what's the actual income breakdown? Three thousand a month—how many projects is that? Lucas: Typically one or two larger grants per month, ranging from five hundred to two thousand dollars each. The average grant proposal she wrote was about five to eight pages, and she charged a flat fee rather than hourly. That way if she got fast, she earned more per hour. Luna: Did she ever get into retainers or ongoing relationships? Lucas: By month four, she had two repeat clients—a local library foundation and a youth sports league. They paid her a monthly retainer of five hundred each to handle their quarterly grant cycles. That gave her a base income, then she'd pick up one-off projects on top. Luna: That's the sweet spot. A retainer gives stability. Lucas: Exactly. And for Rachel, the work was flexible enough that she never missed a school day. She could write a grant draft during a Saturday morning, then revise it on a Tuesday evening. The deadlines were usually weeks out, not hours. Luna: Now, grant writing feels like it requires a specific personality—somebody detail-oriented, patient, good with research. Is that fair? Lucas: Completely fair. You need to be comfortable reading through a thirty-page request for proposal, pulling out key requirements, and then writing a proposal that hits every point. It's more structured than, say, copywriting. Luna: And you need to handle rejection. Not every grant gets funded. Lucas: Right. Rachel says about half of her proposals were successful. But that's standard. And most contracts pay a flat fee regardless of outcome, so you're not penalised if the funder says no. Luna: Good—so the risk is on the client, not the writer. What tools did she use? Lucas: Just Google Docs, a spreadsheet to track deadlines, and an email account. She didn't buy any fancy software. The only resource she paid for was a subscription to Foundation Directory Online—that's a hundred and ninety-five dollars a year—which helped her find grant opportunities. Luna: That's cheap compared to the income. So for a listener thinking, 'I'm a teacher, a writer, a librarian, someone with research skills'—what's the first step? Lucas: First, look at your existing writing. Rachel started by pulling a grant she'd written for her classroom and rewriting it as a sample. Then take that free GrantSpace course—it's about six hours. Then create a simple profile on Upwork or LinkedIn, and pitch three small nonprofits in your area. Luna: And price? What should a beginner charge? Lucas: Rachel started at five hundred dollars per proposal. After she had three successful projects, she raised to eight hundred. Now she charges twelve to fifteen hundred. She says beginners should start at four to six hundred to get that first testimonial. Luna: That feels attainable. And it's a niche that's not oversaturated yet. Lucas: Not at all. A lot of grant writers are retiring, and nonprofits are desperate for people who can write well. The Association of Fundraising Professionals says the sector needs more grant writers than there are available. Luna: That's a real market gap. And on that note, if this episode has helped you think through a possible side hustle, I want to mention something quickly. We keep this podcast ad-free, and listener support is what makes that possible. If you've gotten value from these episodes, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small way to keep the episodes coming without any commercial interruptions. And every bit helps us keep doing deep dives like this one. Luna: Exactly. So back to Rachel—what's her plan now? Is she still teaching? Lucas: She is. She's decided not to leave teaching, but the extra income allowed her to pay off her car loan and start a travel fund. She plans to keep it as a part-time thing indefinitely. Luna: That's the dream, right? A side hustle that stays a side hustle because you want it to, not because you're forced to scale. Lucas: Exactly. Grant writing isn't for everyone, but for someone with writing and research skills, it's a quiet path to a very respectable second income.