Natalie Roberts

Grant writing for community services. Three grants. AI assisted all three.

I coordinate community services in Darwin for a small not-for-profit. Grant writing is part of my job but we don't have a dedicated grants person. It falls to me and I do it around everything else. This year we applied for three grants and got all three. Total value: $180,000. I credit a lot of that to using AI properly. What AI helped with: 1. Understanding what the funder actually wanted. I paste the grant criteria and ask Claude to tell me what the funder is really prioritising and what a successful application would need to demonstrate. This sounds obvious but it's not always clear from the documents. 2. First drafts of each section. I give it our program details and what we're achieving and it drafts in the language funders use. "Measurable outcomes." "Alignment with strategic priorities." It doesn't make up achievements — it translates ours into language that lands. 3. Logic checks. Before submitting I paste the whole application and ask: "Does this application answer all the criteria? Is anything vague? Where might an assessor have questions?" Useful every time. $180,000 for our community. Worth taking the time to do this properly.