Overhead view of a stack of printed grant applications with a red pen on a green desk

Grant writing for small nonprofits · New York, NY

Come ask for the money. Plainly.

Name: Mercer Row
Address: 788 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY, 10025, US
Telephone: (212) 762-9195

Mercer Row researches funders, writes the application, and tells you straight when a grant isn’t worth the chase. Flat fees, real deadlines, no jargon you’d be embarrassed to repeat to a board.

Call (212) 762-9195 See the flat fees

Letters of inquiry from $640 Weekdays 11am–4pm 788 Columbus Avenue

Featured work · The proposal library

Write it once. Borrow from yourself forever.

Your org description, your outcomes language, your budget narrative, your three best program stories — written properly once, tagged by funder type, and kept in one document your next hire can actually find. Every later application starts at 60% done.

Org boilerplate, three lengths
Outcomes & evidence paragraphs
Budget narrative templates
Program one-pagers
Funder-type tags
A one-page style sheet

$1,850 flat · 10 business days

The trade-off, said plainly: it costs you a few hours of answering our questions up front. It pays that back on the second application.

Build my library

A wall calendar with four deadline dates circled in marker

The numbers you’ll actually deal with

Dates, days, dollars

5 days: Business days from signed scope to a first-draft letter of inquiry in your inbox.
15 days: Business days to a full application draft, budget narrative included.
2 rounds: Edit rounds built into every package. A third costs $180.
4 funders: Mapped, drafted and tracked per quarter on the retainer calendar.

About the shop

Small on purpose

Mercer Row is a grant writing shop on Columbus Avenue. We work with nonprofits that have a real program and not enough hours: the ones where the executive director is also the bookkeeper.

We take a handful of packages at a time, which means sometimes the honest answer is “not this quarter.” We would rather tell you that than hand you a rushed draft with our name on it.

Read the longer version · Everything that’s included

Two pairs of hands marking up a printed proposal with a red pen

Rule 01We read the funder’s last three award lists before we write a word.
Rule 02We’ll tell you when a grant isn’t worth chasing. Often that saves you more than we bill.
Rule 03You sign it, so it has to sound like you. We write in your voice, not ours.
Rule 04The budget and the narrative tell the same story, or neither gets submitted.
Rule 05Nobody here charges a percentage of the award. Nobody honest does.
Rule 06Everything we write for you goes into your library when we’re done.

Rule 01We read the funder’s last three award lists before we write a word.
Rule 02We’ll tell you when a grant isn’t worth chasing. Often that saves you more than we bill.
Rule 03You sign it, so it has to sound like you. We write in your voice, not ours.
Rule 04The budget and the narrative tell the same story, or neither gets submitted.
Rule 05Nobody here charges a percentage of the award. Nobody honest does.
Rule 06Everything we write for you goes into your library when we’re done.

House rule number one

House rule, number one

A grant application is a letter asking for money. Most fail because they’re long, vague, and written for the writer. Ours are short, specific, and true.
Mercer Row, 788 Columbus Avenue

Who we help

Small shops with a big ask

Profile 01

The one-person development office

You’re the director, the bookkeeper and the grant writer at 9pm. We take the writing off your plate. You keep the relationships, which are the part funders actually remember.

Profile 02

First-time foundation applicants

Never sent a letter of inquiry? We explain what one is before we write yours, and we tell you which funders will ignore you this year.

Profile 03

Won once, no plan since

One grant landed and then nothing followed. We turn the win into a funding calendar so the next one isn’t luck.

Not a fit

Who we’ll send elsewhere

Federal multi-year awards in the millions. Anyone wanting a guaranteed win. Anyone asking us to work for a cut of the award.

Not sure we’re your people? Call. If we’re not, we’ll say so in ten minutes.

Ask us straight

Before the first call

Bring these four things

Rough is fine. Sticky notes are fine. The call is 30 minutes and free, and it goes faster if you’ve got these within reach.

Item A

Your last proposal

Funded or not. Even a losing application tells us how you already talk to funders.

Item B

Your current budget

One page. Last year’s actuals next to this year’s plan, if you have both.

Item C

Your deadline list

A spreadsheet, a calendar, a wall of sticky notes. We’ll work with whichever it is.

Item D

Your rejection letters

Free research. What a funder says no to is half of what they say yes to.

Call or write

(212) 762-9195

Weekdays 11am–4pm. Outside those hours, email and we’ll answer the next weekday.

hello@mercergrant.com

Come by

788 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10025

Visits by appointment, weekdays 11am–4pm. Call first so we’re in.

Route me to 788 Columbus

Flat fees

Pick the size of the ask

Letter of inquiry

Two to three pages that earn you an invitation to apply. Includes a funder-fit check, so we’ll say so if the answer is “don’t bother.”

5 business days · 2 edit rounds

$640Order a letter

Full application package

Funder research, narrative, budget narrative, attachments checklist, and the final read before you hit submit. One funder, one deadline, one flat number.

15 business days · 2 edit rounds

$2,450Start an application

Quarterly funding-calendar retainer

Four funders a quarter, mapped, drafted and tracked. The trade-off: you commit for a full quarter, and we need your files within three days of every request.

Per quarter · up to 4 submissions

$3,900Book a quarter

Half to start, half on submission, invoiced by email. The proposal library ($1,850) can be added to any package. Full scope of each package

Deadline in three weeks? Call before you panic. We’re in weekdays 11am–4pm.

Dial (212) 762-9195