Contract - Grant Writing Services

Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE): Development Team, Institutional Giving

Location: U.S. Based (REMOTE)

OVERVIEW

Purpose

Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE) is seeking qualified firms/consultants to provide on-call professional grant writing services for ACE’s development team at a flat-rate hourly compensation of $65. The services are more specifically described in the “Scope of Work” section of this document.

Background

ACE is a global nonprofit working at the intersection of climate, clean energy, strategic communications, policy advocacy, and civic engagement. ACE's work in the post-2024 election landscape is focused at the nexus of visionary possibility and our current reality—accelerating a clean economic agenda, expanding participation in our democracy up and down the ballot, scaling global impact, and continuing to erode the fossil fuel industry’s social license and hold them accountable. 

We are strategically focused on community-level campaigns to build local support in rural geographies for utility-scale renewables, overturn restrictive policies and smooth regulatory conditions, work to increase uptake of electrification with consumer audiences lagging behind, and connect the future workers of America to the clean economy. ACE’s work is youth-powered, resourcing young people as storytellers and innovative creators to leverage their outsized cultural influence over the mainstream narrative—reaching beyond traditional climate-aware audiences to those motivated by pocketbook issues and local community concerns. 

The development team has an ambitious goal to grow the organization from a $20 million annual budget toward a $100 million annual budget by 2030. Toward that initiative, we are seeking immediate capacity support on our institutional giving team for on-call professional grant writing services.

Terms Of Engagement

ACE intends to enter into an initial six-month contract with the successful offerer for the services detailed in the scope of work section below. Contracted compensation will be a flat hourly rate of $65 for work expressly agreed upon via an on-call basis—not anticipated to be more than 25 hours per month or less than 5 hours per month. However, there is no minimum amount of work guaranteed under the resulting contract.

Point of Contact and Reporting Structure

The contracted consultant will communicate directly with two key members of the ACE Development team on all needs and deliverables related to the agreed upon contract and scope of work:

Cristina Jorda - Chief Development Officer
Alex Weeks - Senior Director, Development


The consultant will be required to use a dedicated Slack channel for day-to-day communications, maintaining reasonable response times during active working hours.
 

The consultant will primarily report to Alex Weeks for all day to day communications and deliverables. There will be a three-month period where Alex is on parental leave and the consultant will report directly to Cristina during that interim period—anticipated mid-May through mid-August 2025.

SCOPE OF WORK

ACE is seeking proposals from experienced grant writing professionals with a proven track record of writing, preparing and submitting successful grant proposals for and reports to private philanthropy, foundation, corporate and other institutional grants. 

Primary responsibilities will be straightforward—writing proposals and reports for new and renewed institutional funders as identified by the ACE development staff contacts. We anticipate the vast majority of work to be reporting requirements for existing funding, with the possibility of renewal proposals or other grant proposal opportunity submissions as identified by the ACE development staff contacts. The consultant will be expected to produce an initial draft for review no later than 2 weeks before the communicated deadline, and turn around final drafts based on review feedback thereafter by the deadline. The ACE development staff contacts commit to a maximum 48-business-hour turnaround for draft reviews.

All available background information will be provided for each assignment, including but not limited to: the reporting/proposal application forms/directions/RFP etc., the funder background and giving history, and evergreen organizational branding and messaging guidance as well as relevant program details.

It will be the consultants’ responsibility to:

• Ensure that all grant writing products include all required components of the submission—including adherence to reporting requirements, evaluation criteria, technical directions and portal formatting/word counts, as well as guaranteeing each entire submission package is completed in a timely manner per the deadline.
• Compose and edit drafts for consistency of messaging, ensuring integration of grant requirements and succinctness prior to review by the ACE development staff contacts.
• Engage in regular and ongoing communication with the ACE development staff contacts regarding the status of current work undertaken and upcoming assignments. This type of ongoing communication shall NOT be billed separately and will be assumed to be built into baseline hourly rate.

CONSIDERATION OF CONTRACT

To be considered for the scope of work detailed here, applicants should submit a resume and brief cover letter detailing their qualifications and availability for services to [email protected].  

Following review and upon invitation, an interview will be conducted to determine alignment and next steps. Contract negotiations will follow and immediate on call support will commence per the scope of work detailed above.