Ep: 397 How AI Is Changing Grant Writing and What You Need to Know

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the grant writing world, but maybe not how you imagine. Sure you could go ChatGPT, put in a Request for Proposal and ask it to produce a grant proposal. But that grant would not get funded. Why? Before AI can produce a quality grant proposal, you need to provide it with your own original content. Today’s AI models need that original content to use, edit, and respond to. In other words, AI grant writing still requires work! In other words, the nonprofit sector still needs grant writers. However, AI tools can make grant writing easier and more efficient. Through my Freelance Grant Writer Academy, I’ve trained thousands of grant writers, helping them build thriving grant writing businesses. It also gives me a unique insight into how grant writers are really using tools like AI. Let’s take a look at what’s working with grant writing and AI (and what isn’t). Watch Video Podcast HERE: https://youtu.be/CbsNL22cM3U Related Links: -Why AI Won’t Take Your Grant Writing Job: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/why-ai-wont-take-your-grant-writing-job/ -Using Chat GPT and AI for Grant Writing with Philip Deng: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/using-chat-gpt-and-ai-for-grant-writing/ Links Mentioned: Grant Professional Mentorship: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/mentorship Freelance Grant Writer Academy: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy/ Tune in today to listen to this podcast. Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts “Every time I listen to Holly’s show, I learn something” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — move toward writing higher quality grants without overwhelm, and to start and grow successful grant writing businesses! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode! Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the Grant Writing & Funding podcast. I’m adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the feed and, if you’re not following, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out. Follow now!" This Podcast Episode is Lovingly Sponsored by: Grant Easy Management Software (GEMS). Break Up with Your Spreadsheet – Get GEMS Grant Easy Management Software and NEVER MISS A DEADLINE AGAIN! Book YOUR FREE demo now!

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Episode Transcript

Holly Rustick (00:00):
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the number
one grant writing podcast in theworld, the grant writing and
funding podcast, where
we help passionate people create stable
incomes and flexible schedulesby getting ideal non profit
clients with the best grantwriting and non profit sales
strategies in the industry. Myname is Holly Rustic and I have

(00:21):
more than twenty years of grantwriting and non profit
experience as well as federalgrant reviewing experience. And
I went from working fifty plushours per week as a grant writer
inside a nonprofit and livingpaycheck to paycheck to opening
my own freelance grant writingbusiness and only working part
time hours while earningmultiple 6 figures per year.
Inside our programs, theFreelance Grant Writer Academy

(00:43):
and the Grant ProfessionalMentorship, I have helped more
than 200 change makers get outof toxic nine to five jobs and
replace their full time incomeswhile working part time as a
grant writer from home andaround the world simply by
learning how to write grantsthrough our grant writing
formula and implementing ourunique approach to nonprofit
sales strategies. Join theseaspiring and seasoned grant
writers so you too can secureideal nonprofit clients with

(01:06):
cause areas that you fullybelieve in, get them massive
funding, and be a key part inadvancing these movements.
Be sure to join our weeklynewsletter, the Write Grants Get
Paid newsletter, where you getstress free nuggets on the
financial stability componentsand skills of being a freelance
grant writer and updates aboutthe academy and the mentorship.
Just go tograntwritingthefunding.com. And

(01:28):
now let's get ready for the mostbold, empowering, and
approachable coaching
Hello. Hello. It's Holly Rustic here
with Grant Writing and Funding, and we have
another episode for you today.This is all about AI in grant

(01:49):
writing. So definitely just somesimple, simple tips of what not
to do and some things you can dofor sure. So for all of today's
show notes go to episode threeninety seven. We'll also have
some links there to some otherepisodes we did with Feldang on
AI and grant writing.
So so good. So before we getinto our tips, here's a word
from our sponsor, GEMS. Andthank you to Grant EZ Management

(02:12):
Software for sponsoring today'spodcast episode. We love GEMS,
GrantEZ Management Software,because GEMS is a software tool
that organizes all of yourgrants. It also gives you an
opportunity to invite yournonprofit clients into the
software and you can put everysingle grant you've submitted.
You can also put every singlenote with funding sources that

(02:35):
you've connected to. At a clickof a button, you can see
everything that's pending,everything that's been secured,
everything that's been denied,and your clients can see that as
well. We love that GEMS actuallysays, hey, bring GEMS into your
meeting with your nonprofitclients so you can show them
exactly where you're at with allof the grant writing strategy as
you are working with them. Andthere's even a time tracker

(02:58):
inside of GEMS so you can trackyour time with all of your
clients. Never miss a deadlineagain.
Never miss a document again. Goahead and join GEMS, grant easy
management software. Sign up fora free demo today, and you can
also get a $50 off coupon codewhen you mention g w f, Holly, h
o l l y. Go tograntwritingandfunding.com/gegems.

(03:21):
Thank you, GEMS, for being asponsor for this podcast episode
today.
Alrighty, y'all. Here are sometips for what to do and not to
do with AI and grant writing.Artificial intelligence, or AI,
is changing the grant writingworld, but maybe not how you
imagined. My name is HollyRustic, I'm the CEO of the
Freelance Grant Writer Academyand the Grant Professional

(03:41):
Mentorship. We help aspiring andseasoned grant writers replace
their full time income onflexible hours writing grants
from home and to scalebusinesses with a part time
team, systems, and a scalingoffer without burning out.
Let's talk about five ways howAI is changing grant writing and
how you can actually leverageit. Sure, you could use ChatGPT

(04:03):
and just put in request for aproposal and ask it to answer
all of the questions, but youwouldn't get a grant awarded
that way. So why you need tohave content first to use that
makes sense for AI or chat orwhatever software you use to use
and respond. Let's look at fivedifferent ways that we are

(04:23):
seeing that grant writers useAI. Number one, use AI to check
spelling and grammar.
Here's the most basic use ofall. Let's call this grant
writing AI 101, use spell checkand grammar check. But
forgetting basics and trying tobe so sophisticated with AI can
miss the mark. Grammar reviewersaren't necessarily scoring you

(04:44):
on spelling and grammar, butsometimes they actually are. Not
that you actually have the bestgrammar in the world, but
blatant misspelled words andgrammar can skew a grant
reviewer's feelings aboutprofessionalism.
Let's face it. Grant reviewerscan be snobs. I can say this
because I've been a grantreviewer for almost a decade and

(05:06):
have been caught myself being alittle judgy. You can use simple
AI like Grammarly, Word, evenChatGPT to check on basic
spelling and grammar errors.Always run your grants through
this before submitting.
This is just basic. So beforeyou get sophisticated on me, do
the basics, which have beenaround for a long time. But I

(05:28):
have to stress this pointbecause inside the Freelance
Grant Writer Academy, we reviewgrants almost every single day
as we have unlimited grantreviews in the program. And what
we see time over time over timeover again, it's just having
basic misspelling and grammar.And that's one of the first
things we always mention isclean that up.

(05:48):
That's the easiest thing you canactually clean up. And then
we're getting to all the detailsin there as well. And I don't
have the best grammar in theworld at all, and I can still
write high scoring grants, but Ineed to make sure my spelling is
fixed up before I submit agrant. Number two, use AI to
write a grant. As I mentioned,you won't get the best outcomes

(06:11):
if you go into AI without firstactually developing or having a
grant written or evenunderstanding a program.
But if you have written a mastergrant application like those in
the Freelance Grant WriterAcademy or a number of grant
applications for the sameproject area you're requesting
funding for, then this makes AIcome alive with the right

(06:34):
information and with enoughinformation. If you also ask AI
then to answer questions from afunding opportunity announcement
or grant application RFP andprovide the master grant
application or narrative, thenyou are able to get words on the
paper that may save you sometime and may make sense. But

(06:54):
always, always, always reviewthis thoroughly. And Grantable
is one place that isspecifically for this, and we
are seeing a lot more softwarecoming out as well. And even
folks are training up their ownChatGPT to talk more like a
grant writer.
But you still need to haveenough information about the

(07:14):
program and you cannot have itwrite your grant first. You need
to, as a human, develop it firstand understand it. Number three,
don't use AI for grant researchand citations, please. As of
early twenty twenty five, whenwe are producing this video, AI
is still terrible at citingresearch. It will give you
beautiful citations if you askfor research, but those are

(07:37):
usually fake.
Okay? So you still need to checkall URLs to that it develops to
see if they even exist or ifthere's actual research on those
pages it references.Unfortunately, you still need to
do the grant research to findcitations, sources, and
references for your grants thatyou need to state in your grant

(07:57):
applications. And I was reallybummed that I saw that it does
not do a good job. AI does notdo a good job at this because I
often go down the rabbit hole ofresearch.
But if you do have a lot ofresources, here is one thing AI
can be super helpful at thistime in putting together is
creating a bibliography or workscited document. Just make sure

(08:17):
you tell AI to do an MLA styleor APA style. And we also have a
reference here, but make sureyou still go find the sources,
actually have them, all of that.But AI can save the time to make
all of the references that youthen find make it pretty and
consistent. And that can save alot of time if you need a Works

(08:37):
Cited page in a grant.
Number four, what AI is changingin grant writing? Use it for
replacing the banned federalwords. With the Trump
administration in 2025, we areseeing a radical shift in what
words will trigger scrutiny orjust banning grants from being
accepted from grantapplications. You can use

(08:59):
ChatGPT to run your grantapplications through a review
and cross reference the bannedwords and switch them out with
more acceptable quote unquotewords that may not trigger
reviews. And in fact, we have afree workbook on what these
banned words are and how toreplace them, and we also have

(09:21):
already developed alternativewords for you.
Number five, run an audit onyour grant. So AI can be really
helpful on that. So anotherusage of AI is to run your grant
through like something likeChatGPT and then put in the
grant instructions, I. E. Thefunding opportunity
announcement, request forproposal, and ask the following

(09:43):
questions.
Is there anything that isineligible in my grant
application? Another questionis, have I thoroughly answered
all questions? This is reallyimportant. So if your grant
instructions have a criteriaarea as well, this is where they
tell you all the specificquestions and how many points
per section. These are typicallymore in federal grants, but

(10:04):
sometimes in foundation grantstoo, you can find this criteria.
Be sure you also run thiscriteria along with your
application through AI and ask,have I given specific examples
for each of these questions?This can also be really helpful
in catching any issues, right?But do not rely on this audit to

(10:25):
be your initialized. First, useyour initialized to ask these
questions, then run it throughchat to catch anything as well.
You still need to have a humanto read your gram instructions
and ensure that you adhere tothe instructions.
You need it to also make surethat you align your programs to
the priorities and have all theattachments that are required.

(10:46):
Think of AI in your grantwriting as a support, not
necessarily as a team member.It's more of an editor at this
point in time than a writer,even though one of its jobs is
to write. But so far, we still,as far as grant writing, we need
to understand what are thepriorities of the organization?
What are all of therequirements?

(11:07):
What's ineligible? What'seligible? And then you can run
that through as an audit, butyou still need to understand it
as a human. In the future, I'msure that AI will become more
sophisticated with grant writingand research, but a human still
needs to understand thedesigning of the programs and
how they meet needs in reallife. So these are your five

(11:30):
steps on how AI is being used ingrant writing today.
And yes, there are many moreways that it's being used, but
these are just five tips thatwe're highlighting for you. Make
sure you subscribe so you canget all of the tips as we keep
coming out with new thingsaround grant writing and trends
that have always continued. Ihope you enjoyed listening to
the grant writing and fundingpodcast episode today. For

(11:52):
today's show notes, go tograntwritingandfunding.com. And
while you're there, join ouremail newsletter, write grants,
get paid, where every singleweek week you get proven
strategies to be able to replaceyour full time income on
flexible hours writing grantsfrom home.
We give you all of our beliefsand strategies to run a

(12:13):
freelance grant writing businessand to improve your grant
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(12:37):
And we also have some other freegoodies for you over there,
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(12:59):
as it's a way we feel
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