If you’ve been putting off applying for grants or you applied once and haven’t tried again since, I want to walk you through a few mindset shifts and practical habits that have made hitting submit a whole lot easier for me.
And if you want to put all of this into practice with actual support, that's exactly what the Hit Submit Challenge is for — a 5-day live challenge where you'll apply for a real grant by Friday, with feedback from me along the way.
Grab your spot here → We start Monday, August 31st!
Funders Aren’t Looking for Grant-writing Wizards
Grant funders are not expecting perfection.
They’re not looking for the most polished, most “professional” application in the stack.
They’re looking to connect with the person on the other side of the screen.
What they actually want to know is:
Why does your work matter?
Who does your work impact?
Are you going to be a good steward of this money?
With funding, can you deliver on what you say you’ll deliver?
That’s a much lower bar than “be the best writer in the pile.”
Once I figured this out, a lot of the pressure I put on myself melted away.
So if you’re chasing an idea of “perfect,” let it go.
Aim for “I did my best,” then move on.
Grants Ask the Same Questions
Once you start applying regularly, you’ll notice something: grant applications tend to ask the same handful of questions over and over. That repetition is a gift.
I teach how to answer these questions in the Hit Submit Challenge. Plus, you’ll get real-time feedback to improve your responses.
That means every time you answer one of these questions, you’re not starting from scratch; you’re adding to a growing library of answers you can pull from and refine.
Over the course of a year, if you’re applying for even one grant a month, you’ll end up with a dozen different versions of the same answer. And when one of those versions actually wins something, you’ll know exactly which angle landed (and you can lean into it again).
This is exactly why applying more often matters.
The creators who submit once a year never get to build that archive or do that A/B testing. The ones who submit consistently get better with every round, because they’re not reinventing the wheel each time.
Read Next: Stop Copying and Pasting Grant Applications
You Don’t Have to Do it All in One Sitting
No rule says you have to complete a grant application in one three-hour sitting, or that you have to answer question one before question two.
Work on whatever part of the application excites you or comes easily first.
If the community-impact question lights you up, start there. If you’re a quick-wins person, knock out the easy sections first to build momentum.
I discovered my current process: writing applications bit by bit, in 20- or 30-minute sessions spread across a few days out of necessity.
I don’t have four uninterrupted hours to sit and write anymore, and honestly, coming back with fresh eyes each session has made my applications better.
I catch typos and long-winded sentences I would have missed staring at a screen for a long time.
Note: Watch for the actual deadline and any submission caps. Some applications close early once they hit a certain number of applicants, regardless of the posted deadline — so don’t wait until the last minute if a grant mentions a cap.
Time To Hit Submit!
Hitting submit gets easier when you stop chasing perfection, start building a reusable library of answers, and give yourself permission to work in whatever order and pace actually fits your life.
Pursuing grants doesn’t require you to become someone you’re not.
As creators, persuading, storytelling, and communication are already what we do every day; grant applications ask us to use those same skills in a slightly different way.
If you’ve been meaning to apply for grants, this is a nudge that we’re doing it live together next week.
Over 5 days, in the Hit Submit Challenge, you’ll:
Get access to the full Grants For Creators list (if you don’t already), so you quickly find a real grant to work on
Learn how to answer the most common grant application questions, one lesson at a time
Get live feedback on your actual answers
Join (2) live coaching calls (kickoff Monday + office hours Wednesday) with a small group of other creators doing this alongside you
Walk away having hit submit on a real grant application or have all the pieces to move forward on your next submission