Where our numbers come from.
Every figure we publish — the hours, the salaries, the multiples — traces to a named source. Here they all are, with links, plus an honest note on what’s peer-reviewed, what’s our own testing, and what’s still an estimate.
Eight numbers, eight sources.
Federal grants only. If you want to check our math, start here.
Hours to write a federal application
116 avgPeer-reviewed survey of 195 academics on federal proposals (NASA/NSF/NIH): mean 116 principal-investigator hours per proposal, plus 55 co-investigator hours. This is the strongest citable anchor for the time a competitive federal application takes. We publish a 60–150 band with 116 as the average.
Grant-writer base salary
$65,000Grant Professionals Association 2023 Compensation Survey median for grant writers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has no dedicated grant-writer occupation code; its nearest proxy, Fundraisers, shows a $66,490 median (May 2024), which corroborates the figure.
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/fundraisers.htm
Benefit load — state / local government
38.5%BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (Mar 2026): benefits are 38.5% of total compensation for state and local government workers ($25.59 of $66.41 per hour). Because benefits are stated as a share of total pay, loaded cost is base ÷ (1 − 0.385) — which is why a fully-loaded government grant writer costs about $105,700 a year.
Benefit load — private / nonprofit
30.1%Same BLS ECEC release (Mar 2026): benefits are 30.1% of total compensation in private industry ($14.01 of $46.60 per hour). A fully-loaded nonprofit grant writer costs about $93,000 a year on the same $65,000 base.
What a consultant charges per federal application
$15,000–$25,000A federal application takes about 116 hours (the peer-reviewed average), and agencies bill $150–$250 an hour for federal work (Funding for Good, 2025). At the $150 low end that is roughly $17,400 for a typical application; complex construction and multi-track grants reach $25,000+. We publish the range as $15,000–$25,000 and tie it to the hours and the billing rate rather than a single flat fee.
Internal / calculated
Applications one full-time writer produces per year
~11Derived, not assumed as a headline: 1,880 productive hours a year × 70% spent on applications ÷ 116 hours per application. At federal scale that is about 11 a year; a writer handling smaller state and foundation grants produces more. Everything in the Buy-vs-Hire calculator keys off this figure.
Internal / calculated
Grant-writer cost per application (blended)
~$8,100Fully-loaded writer salary (~$105,700) spread across the applications one writer produces in a year — averaged across federal, state, and foundation grants. A single federal application (116 hours) runs well above this; smaller state and foundation grants run below it. We use the blended average so the figure isn’t skewed by assuming every application is a large federal one.
Internal / calculated
Staff time to complete an application with NexGrant
~1 hourFounder-validated in July 2026: 20 federal applications completed end-to-end, 5 of them complex multi-track / construction NOFOs. Measured time to complete the organization profile and apply was consistently under an hour. We publish 1 hour as a deliberate conservative round-up so every real customer beats it, and we state it as “in our testing” rather than an independent multi-user study. Assumes your organization’s documents and information are ready.
Internal / calculated
Application-utilization rate
70% (assumption)This is our least-certain input and we flag it plainly. Grant writers also do reporting, funder relations, research, and administration, so not all productive hours go to writing applications. 70% is a reasoned estimate, not a sourced figure. It matters because it drives the FTE number — but the economics hold even at 100% utilization, so the case does not depend on it.
Internal / calculated
What each tag means.
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Our hours-per-application anchor is the strongest evidence we have and we treat it as the ceiling of our published band.
Straight from federal statistics — BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation. Not our interpretation; the government’s own numbers.
Measured by us, in our own testing, on real federal applications. We say so plainly and we round conservatively so customers beat the number, not miss it.
A reasoned estimate we haven’t independently sourced yet. We flag every one, and we’ve checked that our conclusions hold even at the conservative end of each.
How we keep ourselves honest.
- We publish the conservative end of every range. The case is meant to survive scrutiny, not win on the aggressive numbers.
- We tie consultant cost to the same 116-hour anchor. At the $150/hour low end that is about $17,400 for a typical federal application; complex construction and multi-track grants reach $25,000+. We cite the hours and the billing rate, not a single flat number.
- We distinguish measured from assumed. Our own testing is labeled as our own testing; peer-reviewed evidence is labeled as such. You always know which is which.
- We don’t guarantee awards. Funders decide those. We guarantee a complete, compliance-checked, reviewer-tested application, filed on time.
See the numbers work on your own grant.
Run your organization through the calculators, or start a free trial to see your grant matches and a sample application.