I know am I late to the show on this, but here is what I typically tell prospective clients that ask this question.
We do not work on a contingency or deferred basis. Here is why:
- Due to the amount of time and resources used to assist organizations in during the development and proposal process, we must charge our clients. If you do not have any money, you are not ready to apply for a grant. Grants should never be an organization’s first dollar. You need to raise funds from individuals first: people who believe in your organization and are willing to make a contribution to get you started. A good place to begin is your board of directors.
- Contingency payment or commission payment for grant writing is an unallowable expense with public dollars and is expressed in detail in the Grants Management Circulars[1]. You cannot pay for services rendered before the grant award and goes against Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), which state that fundraising services should be paid “at the time services are provided”. Should an organization be audited by federal agency (e.g. the IRS), the organization would then have to repay the amount paid out to the grant writer back to the funder, plus fines, plus possibly lose the grant and/or face federal jail time. We do not want to put any of our clients in a position of an audit.
- As an active Grant Professional Association (GPA) member, contingency payment goes against GPA's code of ethics[2].
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants_circulars
[2]http://www.grantprofessionals.org/files/Ethics/Revised%20Code%20of%20Ethics%20100511%20GPA%20ONE%20PAGE.pdf
I would also remind that you get what you pay for. If you are asking for reduced rates, you may get reduced service.
I hope that you found a development consultant that helped develop a high-quality and high-competitive proposal.
I would love to hear how you made out.