JOB: Grant Strategy Lead, FreeWill (Remote-US)

[Julia Silbergeld]

Grant Strategy Lead
Full-time •  Excellent Benefits • Work from Anywhere in the US (except AL, CO, or LA)
About FreeWill

FreeWill is an award-winning, social-good startup that has partnered with 2,400+ nonprofits who support our mission while generating $12B in gift commitments for nonprofits since we were founded in 2017. We’ve been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Oprah’s magazine, and our co-CEOs have even been named to Town & Country’s “Top 50 Philanthropists” list.All of this is because we’ve figured out how to make some powerful (but complicated!) ways to donate much easier and more accessible. Our products make things easier for the donors who want to change the world and for nonprofits doing heroic work around the planet.In the last 8 years, we’ve grown from 5 people to 200+ (all smart, tenacious, and kind), and continue to grow. We’d love to have you be a part of this adventure. We were named a "Most Loved Workplace" by both Newsweek and Best Practice Institute and in 2025, we were named as one of Forbes' Best Startup Employers and the 2025 Most Loved Workplaces® for Diversity; you can also check us out on Glassdoor! Curious about company culture and management at FreeWill? Check out the 2025 Best Manager Ever podcast featuring Anthony Sottile, FreeWill's VP of Partner Success on either Spotify or Apple.
About the Role

We're seeking an experienced grant professional to serve as Grant Assistant’s Grant Strategy Lead. In this role, you'll be the expert voice for our Grant Assistant partner community, providing strategic guidance, training, and hands-on support to help nonprofit organizations maximize their grant success. This is a unique opportunity to leverage your grant writing expertise at scale, impacting hundreds of organizations while they learn to use AI-powered grant writing and prospecting tools. We expect the responsibilities to sometimes shift, and aim to hire an individual who is comfortable moving quickly in a fast-paced and/or start-up environment. The right candidate will be an energetic person with passion and innate drive to excel at any task. 

FreeWill has set compensation and a non-negotiation policy for fairness reasons (we don't think that an individual's pay should be determined by how comfortable they are negotiating). As a result, we like to be transparent and up front about the compensation. The offer for this role will be a base between $85,000 to $95,000 and potential variable compensation of $10,000 for a total OTE of $95,000 to $105,000. 

Note: For internal candidates from PS Strategist or PS Senior Strategist roles, we will offer an 8% salary increase from your current salary.

What You’ll Do

As our Grant Strategy Lead, you'll be the go-to expert empowering our partner organizations to win more grant funding. You'll combine hands-on training, strategic advisory, and community engagement to help partners navigate the entire grant lifecycle—from discovery to submission.

Key ResponsibilitiesTraining & Education

• Lead live training sessions for partners on grant discovery, strategy, and best practices 

• Develop and maintain training materials, resources, and best practice documentation for the partner community

• Create ongoing educational content and touchpoints

Strategic Grant Support

• Provide expert guidance on grant strategy questions, including opportunity fit assessment, competitive analysis, and application readiness

• Review grant opportunities and advise partners on alignment with their mission, capacity, and competitive positioning

• Offer tactical advice on grant application approaches, including what makes applications more competitive

• Help partners understand how to leverage AI tools effectively within their grant workflows

Partner Success & Engagement

• Partner with Customer Success Managers to ensure partners receive the right level and type of support

• Engage with partners 1:1 when specialized grant expertise is needed, including helping partners find opportunities and use the tool to draft grants on behalf of the partner

• Proactively identify partners in need of additional support, and work with Customer Success Managers and Account Managers on a plan to ensure that partners’ success with the tool

• Join onboarding calls alongside Customer Success Managers for key accounts

• Support the entire Grant Assistant partner community without maintaining an individual portfolio

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of grant writing experience with a proven track record of successful applications across multiple funding sources

  • Deep understanding of the grant lifecycle, including discovery, strategy, writing, submission, and reporting

  • Experience training or coaching others on grant-related topics

• 2+ years of experience working within fast paced startup or startup-like environment

  • Strong ability to lead engaging live training sessions and create compelling educational content

  • Excellent 1:1 client engagement skills with the ability to quickly build trust and credibility

  • Strong communication skills and ability to translate complex grant concepts for diverse audiences

• Desire and excitement to work in an evolving early stage product environment where the product and our customer journey are continuously improving

Hiring Process

To apply: Go to https://grnh.se/wprn94in4us to submit an application.

The hiring process for this role is as follows:

• Initial Phone Screen - External Candidates Only (30 minutes)

• Hiring Manager or Technical interview (30 minutes)

• Assignment or Presentation or Live Modeling Exercise and Q&A (1 hour)

• Final interviews with FreeWill team members (separate 30 minute interviews)

• Offer (contingent on positive references)

Please note that steps in the hiring process can and may change and the Recruiter will be your point of contact in sharing any updates in terms of the process. If you are selected to move forward in this process, the Recruiter will share more details about the hiring process and interviewers. However, this is a good estimate of what you can expect. For most roles, our hiring processes take an average of 4-6 weeks.

Benefits

In addition to the immense personal and professional satisfaction you’ll gain from helping to raise $1T for high impact nonprofits in a kind and joyful work environment, full time employees at FreeWill are eligible for the following benefits:

• Work from home 

• Unlimited PTO

• Flexible hours

• Competitive salary

• Commuter benefits

• Company stock options

• 401k

• Medical/Dental/Vision (some single coverage medical plans are 100% employer paid, subsidized rates for spousal, parent-child, and family coverage)

• Short-term and long-term disability insurance

• Life and AD&D insurance

• Free One Medical membership

• Paid parental leave for all parents

Perks

• Regular (virtual) team events

• $250 monthly co-working budget which can be used for local co-working spaces

• $300 annual budget to outfit your home office or cover utility bills

• $1,000 referral bonuses for growing our FreeWill community

• $1,000 annual professional development budget

FreeWill is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. We are committed to finding talent that is not determined on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We are a remote-first company that’s able to hire in 47 states and D.C. Unfortunately, we are unable to hire in Colorado, Alabama, or Louisiana at this time. We also can’t sponsor working visas, so all applicants will need to have work authorization in the US.

Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! Studies have shown that marginalized communities - such as women, LGBTQ+ and people of color - are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. FreeWill is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!