Funders don't score your work. They score your words.

The best organisation in the room does not always win the money.

Most funding is decided by someone reading a form. They have a scoring sheet, forty applications to get through, and no knowledge of you beyond what is on the page. Strong charities lose to weaker ones every week because the weaker one answered the question that was actually asked.

I work with small charities, community interest companies, social enterprises and small businesses. Usually the person writing the bid is also the person delivering the service, doing it at eleven at night, three days before the deadline, on top of everything else.

If that is you, the useful thing I can offer is not enthusiasm. It is a first draft that already answers the criteria, so your time goes on checking it rather than starting it.

Four pieces of work, priced separately.

• Grant applications Most requested

  Trusts and foundations, the National Lottery Community Fund, local authority and parish pots, Arts Council project grants. I write to the funder's own guidance and priorities, not a generic template, and I keep the case for support in your voice. Here is every grant-making trust registered in Lincolnshire, free to use.

• Tender responses

  Public sector contracts found through Find a Tender and Contracts Finder. Selection questionnaires, method statements, quality and social value questions, framework applications. I map every answer to the published evaluation criteria before I write a word. See what is open in Lincolnshire right now, or have the new ones emailed to you on Mondays.

• Bid review and mock scoring

  You have written it, you are too close to it, and it is due Friday. I read it the way an evaluator will, score it against the criteria, and give you a marked-up version with the changes that move the score.

• Funding search

  A shortlist of funds you are genuinely eligible for, with deadlines, typical award sizes and an honest note on fit. Fewer options, better matched, so you stop spending evenings on applications you were never going to win.

The same organisation, answering the same question, twice.

This is the whole job in one comparison. Nothing was added to the charity. Only the answer changed.

An illustrative example written to show the difference, not a client submission. New practice, so I would rather show you the work than a wall of logos.

No retainer, no lock-in, no surprise invoice.

1. A free first read

   Send the specification or the funder's guidance. I will tell you in writing whether it is worth bidding. Sometimes the answer is no, and that saves you a fortnight.

2. Scope and fixed fee

   I confirm the deadline, the word limits and what I need from you, then quote a fixed price in writing before any work starts.

3. One interview, then a full draft

   A single structured conversation gets me your evidence, on a call or in writing. You get a complete first draft mapped to the scoring criteria, not an outline.

4. Two rounds of changes, then submission

   We revise twice, I check it against the submission checklist, and you send it with time to spare. I need at least ten working days before a deadline.

Prices on the website, because you should not have to ask.

I charge a fixed fee for the writing, never a percentage of what you win. Registered charities with an income under £250,000 pay 20% less, and my first three clients get a reduced rate in exchange for a reference I can use.

Alexander, in Lincoln.

I am a writer working from Lincoln with organisations across Lincolnshire and, since none of this needs a meeting room, anywhere in the UK. My background is in reading dense official documents closely and turning them into something a person can actually act on, which turns out to be most of what bid writing is.

This is a new practice. That is why the prices are published, the example above is on the page, and the first reply costs nothing. Judge the work in front of you rather than a client list.

The questions people ask before they ring.

• How much notice do you need?

  At least ten working days before the deadline, and more is better. That is not padding: it covers the interview, a full first draft, two rounds of changes and a final check against the submission checklist. If your deadline is tighter than that, send it anyway and put the date at the top, and I will tell you straight away whether it can be done properly.

• Is there ever an exception to the ten days?

  Possibly. Send the specification and the deadline together and I will give you a straight yes or no, usually the same day.

  Ten working days is what the full process takes: interview, complete draft, two rounds of changes, final check against the submission checklist. Below that something has to give, and what usually gives is the revision rounds, which is where a good deal of the value sits. I would rather tell you plainly that a deadline is not worth chasing than take the work and hand you something rushed.

• When do I find out what it costs?

  Before any work starts. The prices above are the starting point; once I have seen the specification I confirm the scope and quote a fixed fee in writing. You will never get an invoice with a number on it you have not already agreed.

• Are you VAT registered?

  No, not at the moment. The prices on this page are what you pay: nothing is added on top, and there is nothing for you to try to reclaim. If that ever changes you will know before I quote, not after.

• Do you take a percentage of what we win?

  No. A fixed fee for the writing, whatever the outcome. It is also worth knowing that many funders will not accept fundraising costs charged as a percentage of the award, so an arrangement like that can cause you a problem later even where someone offers it.

• Can you guarantee we will win?

  No, and I would be wary of anyone who says otherwise. The assessor's decision is not mine to make, and nobody writing bids has ever had control over it.

  What I will commit to is the part that is in my control: every question answered against the published criteria, in your voice, inside the word count, with evidence an evaluator can actually check, submitted with time to spare. Bids are lost for all sorts of reasons. They should not be lost because nobody answered the question that was asked.

• Do you use AI to write our bid?

  Yes, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. It is a tool, and whoever you are bidding against is very likely using one too.

  It is not a shortcut, though. The tool does not know your organisation, it has not read your monitoring data, and it cannot tell you which criterion the assessor weights most heavily. That is the actual job, and it is why there is still an interview. What it speeds up is drafting and redrafting, which means more of the time goes on getting the argument right.

  Your material does not go into it. The evidence in a bid — the numbers, the outcomes, the qualifications your staff actually hold — comes from you in the interview, and it goes into the draft because you told me it, not because a tool produced something that read well. Nothing reaches a funder with a figure in it you cannot stand behind and an evaluator cannot check. Where I do use these tools, it is on business terms where what I put in is not retained or used to train anything.

  My background is in software engineering, so I keep track of which tools are genuinely any good. That changes month to month, and most people using them settled on something a year ago and stopped looking. You get the benefit of that without having to think about it.

• Will you sign a confidentiality agreement?

  Yes. Send it over and I will sign it.

  Without one in place I already treat what you send as confidential: I do not name clients or quote their material without asking first, and your documents and figures do not go into AI tools. The privacy notice sets out what I hold, who else sees it and how long I keep it. If your trustees or your funder want something signed on top of that, it is no trouble.

• Who owns the words once you have been paid?

  You do, outright. You can lift any of it into your next application, a bid library, your annual report, wherever it is useful. I assign that to you in writing when I quote, because in law a freelance writer keeps the copyright unless it is signed over, and I would rather that was settled than assumed.

  The value of this usually shows up on the second bid. A good deal of what I write for you is reusable, and the first paid application quietly makes the next few faster.

• We are not in Lincolnshire. Does that matter?

  No. I am in Lincoln and I work with a lot of organisations across Lincolnshire, but none of this needs a meeting room. The interview happens on a call and everything else happens in a document, so I work with people anywhere in the UK.

• What if you think we should not bid?

  Then I will say so in my first reply, and it costs you nothing. Being told a fund is a poor fit before you start is more useful than a well-written application to a funder who was never going to say yes. Sometimes the answer is no, and that saves you a fortnight.

• Is there anything off the price for small charities?

  Registered charities with an income under £250,000 pay 20% less. Separately, and for as long as it lasts, my first three clients get a reduced rate in exchange for a reference I can use afterwards.

• I have already written it. Can you just check it?

  Yes, that is the bid review. I read it the way an evaluator will, score it against the published criteria, and send back a marked-up version showing what is costing you marks and what would move the score. £150, back within three working days.

• How much of my time will this take?

  One structured conversation, usually about an hour, plus the time it takes you to read a draft properly. The point of doing it as an interview rather than a form is that I do the digging once, so your time goes on checking a draft rather than starting one.