Federal grant proposals for small arts nonprofits, delivered in three weeks and priced for your budget.

Flat-fee NEA Grants for Arts Projects applications, foundation proposals, and grant-pipeline strategy. Built for 501(c)(3) theater, dance, music, and museum organizations that don't have a development director.

Tell us about your project See a sample proposal →
$10k–$100k Typical NEA Grants for Arts Projects award range
2,000+ NEA GAP awards funded every year across 13 disciplines
Dec 2026 Next NEA GAP guidelines expected. The deadline lands weeks later, so applications get built before they drop.
Services

Three ways to work together

All engagements are flat-fee. No commission or success fees on government grants. Industry ethics prohibit them, and frankly, they create perverse incentives. Honest pricing, honest scope.

Tier 1

Grant strategy intensive

$1,500
one-time, 4 hours

The fastest way to find out if we should work together. We read your prior proposals and financials, then deliver a 6-month grant pipeline plan.

  • 4–6 specific grant opportunities ranked for fit
  • Realistic win-rate notes for each
  • Your strongest narrative angles, documented
  • Live working session to walk through the plan
Get in touch
Tier 2

Proposal package

starting at $2,500
per proposal, flat quote · fixed before work begins

We write the full proposal: narrative, budget, attachments, submission support. 3 weeks from contract to submission. Your team supplies the artistic content and reviews drafts.

  • Complete narrative (Project Description through Budget Narrative)
  • Itemized federal-category budget with 1:1 cost share
  • One round of revisions before submission
  • Grants.gov + agency portal submission support
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Tier 3

Fractional development director

$2,500–$5,000
per month, ongoing

For orgs that need real grant capacity without a full-time hire. We become your part-time grants lead, managing the pipeline, writing the proposals, and reporting on awards.

  • 2–4 proposals per year covered in the retainer
  • Ongoing grant-calendar management
  • Reporting and compliance on awarded grants
  • 3-month minimum engagement, then month-to-month
Get in touch
See the work

Download a real sample proposal

A 19-page sample federal grant proposal, in the same format you'd submit to the NEA Grants for Arts Projects program. Free, no strings.

Voices of the Mississippi: New Play Development Program

A complete sample NEA Theater discipline proposal: $40,000 request, $80,000 total project, 1:1 cost share, full narrative through budget. Written for a hypothetical small theater applicant.

The kind of submission that makes panel reviewers say "this is a real organization that can actually do this work."

📄 19 pages · PDF · ~170 KB

Why this works

A grant agency built for small arts nonprofits, specifically

The development consultant who charges $8,000 per proposal isn't built for organizations like yours. This is.

We specialize, so you don't pay for someone else's learning curve.

Other grant writers serve nonprofits across every category: health clinics, schools, food banks, environmental groups. They charge premium rates because they have to research every new agency. We work in one vertical: small arts 501(c)(3)s applying to NEA, NEH, state arts councils, and arts-aligned foundations. Less research overhead, lower price, deeper expertise.

Flat fees, never success fees.

The Grant Professionals Association code of ethics prohibits commission or success fees on government grants, and we agree with the principle. Charging a percentage of the award creates incentives to over-promise and under-disclose risk. Flat fees mean you know what you're paying for, and we have no incentive to over-sell projects that aren't actually right for you.

Three weeks, not three months.

Federal proposals don't need to take 8 weeks of back-and-forth. With a clear process (structured intake, focused drafting, one review cycle, submission support) we deliver in 3 weeks from contract signing. That's fast enough to start an engagement after the NOFO opens and still hit the deadline cleanly.

Honest about win rates.

Anyone who tells you they have a 70% win rate is cherry-picking. NEA GAP funds roughly 35–45% of applicants in a strong cycle. Federal proposal win rates depend mostly on alignment between your program and the agency's priorities, which is exactly what the Strategy Intensive is built to assess. If your project isn't a real fit, we'll tell you upfront and save you the application cost.

FAQ

Things prospects usually ask

Do you charge a success fee on top of the flat fee?
No. The Grant Professionals Association code of ethics prohibits commission-based or success-fee billing on government grants, and we follow that standard. Our fee is the same whether you win or don't. We do offer optional grant reporting services on a separate flat-fee basis after award.
What if our organization has never applied to the NEA before?
That's fine. First-time NEA applicants are explicitly welcomed and funded every cycle. The bigger question is whether you meet the basic eligibility: a five-year history of arts programming completed before the application deadline and an active SAM.gov registration. Send a note through the form below and we will walk through these together over email, free.
How long does the whole process take?
Three weeks from contract signing to submission, broken into a structured intake (Week 1), full draft delivery (Week 2), one revision round and submission prep (Week 3). For organizations that haven't completed SAM.gov registration yet, start it immediately. New registrations can take 4 to 8 weeks, and SAM.gov is a hard prerequisite for federal grant submission.
What happens if we don't win?
NEA provides written panel feedback to all applicants. We'll read it with you and identify what to strengthen for the next cycle (the program runs twice a year, with deadlines in February and July). Many strong organizations apply two or three cycles before getting funded, and the panel feedback is itself valuable signal about where your program narrative needs work.
Can you guarantee our grant will be funded?
No reputable grant writer can, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does. NEA panels score on artistic excellence and artistic merit; the score depends on factors beyond the proposal narrative (your organization's track record, the artistic team, the proposed project itself). Our job is to make sure the strongest possible version of your case is in front of the panel.
Do you work with organizations outside the arts?
Not currently. We specialize in small arts 501(c)(3)s specifically: theater, dance, music, opera, museums, literary arts, visual arts, arts education. The specialization keeps our rates lower and our expertise deeper. If you're a non-arts nonprofit, we're happy to refer you to a generalist colleague.
What does the payment schedule look like?
For Tier 1 (Strategy Intensive), payment is due at booking. For Tier 2 (Proposal Package), 50% deposit at contract signing, 50% on submission. For Tier 3 (Fractional Director Retainer), monthly invoicing in advance with 3-month minimum.
Do you offer rush turnarounds?
Yes. For a deadline under 14 days from contract signing, a rush fee of +50% of the quoted proposal fee applies (so a $2,500 proposal becomes $3,750). The work is the same; the rush fee reflects the displaced calendar capacity. Talk to us before you assume your timeline is "rush". Three-week turnarounds are the standard package and many "urgent" deadlines turn out to fit.
Do you use AI tools in your work?
Yes, for research and structural drafting support, the same way most working professionals use them now. Every proposal you receive is written and finalized by us. Your story is told in your voice, and nothing about your organization or your project is generated. A person reads every line before it goes out. If you have a policy or preference against AI tools in your work, including no AI involvement at any stage, mention it when you reach out and we'll let you know whether we can meet that standard for your project.
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Tell us about your project

Five quick questions. You'll get a straight answer by email, usually the same day: whether federal funding fits, which program, and what it would take.

Prefer to just write? joe@marqueegrants.com