Services · Fee schedule, 2026–27

the fixed-fee schedule for small-shop grant work.

Three application packages and five standalone services, each priced in dollars and planned in weeks. Your board approves one number before we begin; the invoice repeats it after we submit.

Price my next application See the weeks, counted backward

Half at signing · half at submission · ACH, check, or card

01 / 05 The schedule

every line priced, every week accounted for.

A package is one application to one funder: the research, the narrative, the budget, the attachments, the compliance read, and the submission itself. The standalone services exist for organizations that already have a writer, a draft, or an award to report on — and need one exacting piece, not the whole apparatus.

Zebraquill services with what each includes, its lead time, and its fixed fee
No.ServiceWhat you receiveLead timeFee
Application packages — one funder, one deadline

foundation proposal

Community, family, and corporate foundations — written in the funder’s own vocabulary, never a recycled boilerplate.
  • Fit check against three years of the funder’s giving
  • Letter of inquiry or narrative, up to 10 pages
  • Program budget and budget narrative
  • One revision round, then portal submission
 3 weeks $1,380per funderCommission A

state application

New York State agency RFPs filed through the Statewide Financial System, built to the rubric the scorers hold.
  • Prequalification status checked before drafting
  • Narrative mapped line by line to the scoring rubric
  • Work plan with objectives and performance measures
  • Line-item budget, justification, agency forms
 4 weeks $2,640per RFPCommission B

federal application

USDA Rural Development, HHS, and other notices posted to Grants.gov — where compliance decides who gets read at all.
  • SAM.gov registration and UEI confirmed first
  • Project narrative, logic model, evaluation plan
  • SF-424 family forms and budget justification
  • Two compliance passes; submission tracked through validation
 6 weeks $4,750per funding noticeCommission C
Standalone services — one exacting piece

funding prospect scan

For the organization that suspects there’s money out there but can’t spare a month to look for it.
  • Twelve vetted opportunities for your mission and region
  • Each with its deadline, eligibility, and a candid fit note
  • A suggested order of attack for the year
 10 business days $585credited to your first packageAsk for a scan

letter of inquiry

For foundations that invite full proposals only after a first, two-page look.
  • Two-page LOI in the funder’s requested format
  • A one-paragraph budget summary
  • Fee credited to Package A if you’re invited
 8 business days $495per letterRequest a letter

compliance read

Your draft, read slowly against the funder’s own guidelines — the week the reviewers never see but always notice.
  • Line-by-line markup against the notice
  • Budget totals reconciled across every form
  • A ranked checklist of fixes, eligibility first
 5 business days $640per draftSend a draft for review

resubmission

A declined application — ours or anyone’s — rebuilt around the reviewer comments for the next cycle.
  • Reviewer comments requested and annotated
  • Revised narrative and budget for the new cycle
  • Compliance read against the reissued notice
 3 weeks $860per applicationRevive an application

interim or final report

Written against the objectives promised, so year two reads like a continuation rather than a confession.
  • Narrative report on each stated objective
  • Expenditure figures reconciled to your books
  • Filed in the funder’s portal or format
 2 weeks $420per reportSchedule a report

Shorter than the lead time? Where the calendar genuinely allows it, a compressed schedule adds 20% to the fee. Where it doesn’t, we’ll say so on the first call — a hurried federal draft costs more than the fee it saves.

Prices are fixed when you sign. The fee on your engagement letter is the fee on your invoice, even if this schedule changes before your deadline arrives.

02 / 05 The calendar

counting backward from the deadline.

Every package is planned from the due date toward today. Here are the weeks as they usually run — what the desk is writing, and what we’ll need from you before the next week can begin.

package C, in six weeks.

Federal work starts with registrations, not prose. An expired SAM.gov record can sink an application nobody has read yet — so we check it before anyone writes a sentence.

  1. T–6 wk

    registrations

    • UsConfirm SAM.gov, UEI, and eligibility
    • YouDetermination letter, 990, signer named
  2. T–5 wk

    the outline

    • UsEvaluation criteria mapped to sections
    • YouProgram data; partners contacted
  3. T–4 wk

    first draft

    • UsProject narrative and logic model
    • YouBudget figures from your finance lead
  4. T–3 wk

    budget & forms

    • UsBudget justification; SF-424 family
    • YouComments on the draft, in one document
  5. T–2 wk

    revision

    • UsRevision round; evaluation plan finalized
    • YouSigned letters of support returned
  6. T–1 wk

    two passes

    • UsTwo full compliance reads against the notice
    • YouFinal sign-off from your director
  7. T–48 h

    submitted

    • UsGrants.gov upload, tracked to validation

Us the desk in NanuetYou your director, staff, or board

A printed funding notice flagged with blue tabs on a desk at dusk, with headlight trails passing outside the window

The notice comes first. Everything on this page is priced from it.

03 / 05 Fit

who this schedule is written for — and when we’ll point you elsewhere.

The fees above assume a particular kind of client: an organization small enough that the executive director also writes the newsletter, with a program that already exists and a funder it plausibly matches. Inside that description, the schedule holds. Outside it, we’d rather tell you on the first call than on the invoice.

the desk writes for

  • Rural libraries, historical societies, and volunteer fire and ambulance companies
  • Food pantries, senior centers, and youth programs running on a handful of staff
  • Fiscally sponsored projects with the sponsorship agreement in hand
  • First-time federal applicants who need the registrations walked through, patiently

we’ll point you elsewhere

  • University research grants — a sponsored-programs office is better equipped for NIH and NSF
  • For-profit businesses seeking SBIR or economic-development awards
  • Capital campaigns and donor appeals — that’s development work, not grant writing
  • Pay as a percentage of the award, in any form

Somewhere in between? Most organizations are. Ask the desk directly — (845) 323-9558

04 / 05 Terms of engagement

the terms, written as plainly as the fees.

A one-page engagement letter sets the scope, the deadline, and the fee. These are the clauses inside it, in the order boards tend to ask about them.

An engagement letter and a submission receipt laid on blue-grey graph paper beside a fountain pen

i. Billing

half at signing, half at submission.

The deposit is half the package fee, invoiced when you sign the engagement letter. The balance is invoiced the day we forward your submission receipt. We accept ACH, check, and these cards:

VISA AMEX ACH

ii. Revisions

rounds sized to the form.

Foundation packages include one revision round after your review. State and federal packages include two, because their forms give a reviewer more places to look — and more places for a figure to drift out of agreement.

iii. Amendments

when the funder moves, we follow.

If a funder publishes an amendment mid-draft, revising the application to match it is part of the package. A change you request — a second program, a new partner — is quoted in writing before a word of it is written.

iv. Withdrawn notices

if the opportunity disappears.

Agencies occasionally pull a notice before its deadline. If yours is withdrawn, we bill only the hours already spent, at $95 an hour and never more than the deposit — and the draft stays yours for the next cycle.

v. Ownership

the words are yours to keep.

You receive editable files of every narrative, budget, and attachment we write. Reuse them next year, adapt them for another funder, hand them to a future development director. No license, no reuse fee, no strings.

05 / 05 Your next deadline

bring the notice; we’ll bring the price.

Send the link and the due date. Within one business day you’ll know which line of this schedule it needs, whether the calendar allows it, and the fixed fee — in writing, before anyone signs anything.

Price my next application Email the notice to office@zebraquill.com Or call (845) 323-9558

504 Normandy Village, Nanuet, NY 10954 · Weekdays 9am–6pm · First call free, about forty minutes