We were lucky to catch up with Autumn Keck recently and have shared our conversation below.

Autumn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

In 2011, I was in a job that I hated and was pregnant with my second child. I absolutely did not wanna go back to work, or at least this job, but my husband and I had just bought a new house. One day, while brainstorming how I could manage to quit my job after I had my baby, I found an ad on Craigslist, of all places, for a freelance grant writer. I had been grant writing and fundraising for 11 years at that point, so I felt pretty confident that I could secure the job. I cut some bills, canceled our cable, and switched my daughter to part-time daycare, all while managing our budget so we could survive on my husband’s salary and my new freelance position.

My goal was to return to work after my son turned two. What started as my first freelance grant writer job, then turned into a growing client list that allowed me to continue to work from home and raise my family. I didn’t do any advertising or marketing, but I would often pick up jobs from board members of the clients I had.

In 2019, I attended a class on how to turn your business into a consulting firm. From there, I continue to meet fundraising clients at events or through my LinkedIn page. My business, Scribe, was born and formalized! After COVID-19 hit, my client list grew even more, and I began hiring other freelancers to work with me. We now serve over 30 clients each month, with six grant writers and a research assistant on staff. We have raised over $30 million in the past six years alone.

I never set out to be an entrepreneur, but I quickly realized that there was a demand for experienced grant writers with a track record of success. Now with our current staff of highly skilled grant professionals we can successfully manage our nonprofit clients who have diverse programming including education, housing, healthcare, legal advocacy, workforce development and so much more.

Grant writers who work in-house for nonprofits stay for an average of 18 months, which causes the nonprofit to have to invest more time and money into training new staff less than every two years, institutional knowledge gets lost and funder stewardship stops. As an experienced firm, nonprofits can eliminate the costs of training an in-house employee, fringe benefits, and supervision of our trained grant writing staff. And they can continue to keep critical funding coming in for their programs.

I am extremely excited about my job because my team and I have the opportunity to affect real change in the lives of the people that nonprofit clients serve. We often don’t even ever meet the client in person or the people we are helping raise money to serve, but it is very satisfying to get funding that can change the trajectory of an individual, a family or even an entire community.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Autumn Keck, owner and principal consultant of Scribe. I am a career fundraiser with over 25 years of experience. My business was born out of a need for flexibility and autonomy for my growing family, as I was leaving a job that didn’t offer me either. I knew grant writing was a skill that could be done at home and just starting with one client launched a whole business.

Interestingly enough I went to NCSU and graduated with a degree in public relations. I had dreamed of working in a PR firm in crisis communication. After many interviews that didnt pan out, one of my propective employers said she would could not hire me but instead she was recommending me to her friend who was hiring for a fundraising position. So there was my first real job, something I didnt even go to school for but I was excited to learn all the skills on the job. Fast forward 25 years, I have never worked in another industry and have never utilized my PR degree to the fullest.

My business, Scribe, is a nonprofit consulting firm focused on grant writing located in the Charlotte Metro area. Scribe’s mission is to connect nonprofits to the philanthropic community by effectively sharing the organization’s impact on the people they serve.

What sets us apart is our proven track record of success. As I mentioned, we raised over $30 million in the last six years. We can take a client who has never won a grant before and helped them build a thriving grant fundraising program. We can even take clients with a thriving grant program and help them grow their grant funding.

As I said, I’m most proud of the impact that our work has on the larger community that we serve. We work with clients across the country, but the majority of our clients are based in Charlotte and North Carolina. So we genuinely feel that we are helping change lives and helping get people much-needed services in our community.

Our services include:
Grant Readiness Assessment: Scribe conducts a comprehensive review of an organization and provides a detailed action plan to help it become grant-ready.

Grant Research: Scribe identifies and researches funders that align with the organization’s mission and programs. The goal is to deliver a curated list of up to 20 prospective funders.

Grant Strategy & Proposal Development: This service includes funder prospecting, strategic planning for funding alignment, and relationship-building with potential funders. Scribe also crafts a concise, compelling proposal that clearly articulates the organization’s impact on its clients and community.

Grant Management: Scribe provides a comprehensive grant management plan that encompasses all core services, including grant readiness, research, strategy, and proposal writing, while also overseeing the organization’s grants calendar and fulfilling required reports.

Grant Coaching: Scribe trains development staff to build and expand a sustainable grants program. This includes helping the organization shape a compelling narrative for funders, establish internal grant systems, and review existing proposals.
Grant Transition Services: Scribe provides interim grant writing and management support during periods of staff transition, such as employee leave or while hiring a permanent grant writer.

We work with nonprofits of all sizes and sectors, but the common reason most nonprofits work with us include:
-Pressure to keep programs funded year after year
-Limited staff capacity
○ Inconsistent grant success
○ Difficulty translating program outcomes into funder language
-Too many deadlines, not enough hands
○ Lack of strategic support for grant planning
○ Need stronger storytelling and metrics to win larger grants

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I always thought there was one formula for a successful business. Almost like you had to follow specific steps to be successful. I had to unlearn that theory and realize every business is going to be ran differently and there is no playbook for success. Continuing to educate myself through reading, researching, being accepting into business cohorts like the Goldman Sachs Black in Business program and the Women’s Business Program at Cornell has helped me learn about managing my finances, developing a marketing plan. growing my team and so much more. Connecting with other entrepreneurs and swapping stories of what has worked for other businesses has been incredibly helpful.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

At first, it was my LinkedIn page. I began to share tips on grant writing, share success stories from clients, and increase my visibility on the website. So many people say they found me on LinkedIn, especially those from out of the Charlotte metro area. I also think the amount of funding we have raised has led to our clients recommending Scribe to other nonprofits. We have consistently raised money for our clients so good news travel fast.

As I said, nonprofit professionals tend to switch jobs often, so they frequently refer us or hire us at their new position, which has led to more clients for us. Charlotte is a big small town where there is usually one degree of separation in the nonprofit world.

I have been active in the Association of Fundraising Professionals, speaking at conferences and workshops locally and nationally.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.scribellcnc.com
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/scribellc

Image Credits

rae images for headshots