Grant Writing Assistance for Nonprofit Supporting College Students with Autism

We seek a knowledgeable consultant to help us identify and apply to two to three appropriate grant-funding organizations to support our work. We are a small nonprofit in the higher education arena, focusing on autistic and other neurodivergent college students and employment candidates, and would like help 1) identifying potential foundations and 2) writing effective grant applications to these sources.

Our organization has been in existence since 2016. We have built the organization using volunteer labor and have become a vital professional association for higher education and employment professionals who support autistic and other neurodivergent college students and employees. Our funding comes from membership dues, sponsorships for our annual conference, and a renewable contract with a university center. We have had success soliciting grants to support our research initiatives, but it is more challenging to find funding sources to support our administrative costs.

In order to grow beyond our current limited infrastructure, we need a boost--to help us become sustainable beyond the next couple of years. We are confident that there are funders who would find our mission of supporting autistic college students to excel academically and through the transition to employment compelling. We need advice and support to earn their attention.

We have a membership of around 600 individuals and organizations with tremendous potential to grow. We have enough funding at this time to cover one full-time professional and several stipended individuals who manage our finances and technology. We work with an accountant who can prepare all the necessary financial documents for a grant application. We have eager and supportive volunteers who routinely step up to help us on projects. We are seeking grant funding to provide a more consistent approach to our daily work and allow us to fully grow into the need. That need--for colleges, universities, and employers to better support neurodiverse students and employees--is a rapidly growing arena, and we are seen as a leader in this work. We will use grant funding to help us build a small professional staff of 2-3 individuals who can, in turn, grow CAN into a more financially sustainable organization through membership and sponsorship increases. We would like to identify three or four potential grant funders and work with the Taproot expert to craft promising proposals to earn their support.