Funders are deciding which applications to fund, and they are increasingly scoring that decision against fixed criteria. The case for your funding now has to be made in their terms, not only yours.
Ask about the Grant LabFunders and city governments are moving toward scoring social service contracts on impact and return on investment, not just outputs.
Austin formalized this in early 2026, adopting a rubric that weighs whether a service is essential, avoids downstream costs to other systems, and demonstrates return on investment. Other cities are not far behind.
Funding decisions are increasingly made by scoring an application against published criteria: essential need, cost savings, return on investment, track record, and alignment with stated priorities.
The case for your funding now has to be made in their terms, not only yours.
Most providers do excellent work and have never had to translate it into a funder’s scoring language. The story lives in your head and in your programs. It does not always reach the page in the form the criteria reward.
Strong programs lose points not because the work is weak, but because the case was never built to be scored. Doing the work and making the written case are two different skills. Grant Lab helps with the second one.
You bring your own draft of the application, even a rough one, and answer a short set of questions about your programs. Working from your material, Grant Lab does four things:
Scores your application against the funder’s criteria and shows where it is strong and where it is thin.
Drafts stronger language for the thin spots, built only from what is true for you, that you review and confirm.
Surfaces impact and value you never put on the page, including a cost-savings argument where the funder bears the cost, with the source shown.
Pulls usable material from past applications you already have and points it at this one.
You leave with a stronger application you can actually submit, not a report about it.
Your own attempt at the application, in your own words. It does not need to be polished. Detailed bullet points are fine, as long as there is enough there to work from.
Please do not send client-identifying or sensitive personal information. Remove or redact it first.
If you are starting from a blank page with nothing written yet, that is a different kind of help, and we can talk about it separately. Grant Lab strengthens your own draft. It does not ghostwrite from nothing.
Each engagement covers one application and up to three supporting documents. You receive a written readout: a scored assessment of your draft against the funder’s criteria, with stronger language drafted for the thin spots and any cost-savings argument documented to its public source. Every cost figure comes with its source so you can defend it to a funder. You review and confirm all drafted language before it goes anywhere. Nothing goes into your application that you have not seen and agreed to.
Where the work supports it, the readout may include a cost-savings argument. Examples of the kind of argument Grant Lab can build:
These are illustrations of the kind of argument Grant Lab can build where the numbers support it. Whether a specific funder bears a given cost varies by city, county, and program, so each case is checked against real public figures, with the source shown.
Grant Lab does not promise a specific cost-savings number. It builds that argument only where real public figures support one, and always shows the source.
Judgment from inside the grant system, not outside it.
I have worked at every level of the grant chain: writing the applications that secured federal and state funding, designing the RFPs that partner organizations applied to, scoring those applications, and deciding who received the awards. I managed a portfolio of more than $5 million in active federal and state grants, overseeing compliance and program delivery across 26 partner sites in Texas. I know what funders are actually looking for because I worked inside the system making those decisions. I know what makes a grant reviewer stop reading and what makes them lean in.
The Grant Lab works with a small number of organizations at a time. Investment is scoped based on the funder, the application complexity, and the timeline. Every engagement starts with a fit conversation. Founding engagements are open now. Tell me which funder, what program, and when the deadline is. I will confirm fit and investment before anything begins.
Bring your grant at least 10 business days before the deadline. That gives us time to do the work, and gives you time to review and refine before you submit.
Engagements are virtual. In person is available in Austin by arrangement.
If your grant is the right fit, I want to hear about it. Tell me which funder, what program, and when the deadline is. I will be honest with you about whether I can take it on and whether it is a match.
Reach out about your grantThe Grant Lab strengthens your own draft. You review and confirm every word before it goes into your application, and you remain responsible for the accuracy and completeness of everything you submit. Cost-savings arguments are drawn from public sources, which are shown to you, and should be verified against your own program data before submission. The Grant Lab does not guarantee funding and does not write applications from nothing.