About Emberly Tally · Davie, FL

We write grants. That’s the whole job.

No side hustle in consulting, no event planning, no “strategic visioning.” One desk in Davie does one thing for small nonprofits: finds the funder, writes the ask, and gets it across the finish line. You keep running the mission. We handle the paperwork.

Send us your deadline
A writer's desk with a marked-up grant narrative, colored tabs and a red pencil under a warm lamp

Why the name

Every grant is a tally mark

A hand drawing five tally marks in red pencil on grid-ruled paper

Four strokes up, one across. That’s a submission, filed.

Emberly Tally started the way most small-nonprofit grant work does: with a friend’s director on the phone at 9pm, a Friday deadline, and a half-written narrative that said everything except what a reviewer scores. We sat down, rewrote the need statement around local numbers, and rebuilt the budget so it matched the story. It went in with an hour to spare.

That night taught us the two things we still build around. First, small organizations rarely lose because the work is weak. They lose because nobody had the hours to make the paper show it. Second, grant writers who bill by the hour make a stressed director do math on top of everything else.

So we price each submission as one fixed fee, quoted before we start. We keep a tally of what we file, not what we bill. You can make your next move knowing exactly what the last one cost, and exactly what it’s going to.

From the desk on SW 137th Terrace in Davie, we work with food pantries, youth programs, arts collectives, clinics and neighborhood associations. If your staff is four people and a part-time bookkeeper, you’re who we built this for.

House rules

Four things we do every time, and one we won’t

  • I

    We read the 990 first

    Before we pitch a funder, we read their filings and last cycle’s awardees. If your zip code or your budget size isn’t on their list, we tell you before you pay for a draft.

  • II

    One sheet, two documents

    The budget and the narrative are built from the same spreadsheet, so the three case managers in the story are the three on the payroll line.

  • III

    We write it out loud

    Every final draft gets read aloud against the guidelines. If a sentence makes us run out of breath, a reviewer will skim it too.

  • IV

    We say the date is too tight

    Three weeks is our comfortable runway for a full application. Less? We’ll tell you straight whether it’s doable before you commit a cent.

  • ×

    We never promise a win

    Funders decide. What we promise is a complete, on-guidelines package, delivered before your deadline, and a writer who picks up the phone.

Who’s on your file

How the desk runs on a Tuesday

  • 8:00

    Funder reading

    Mornings go to Form 990s, award lists and guidelines. This is where we decide which funders deserve your name on their form.

  • 11:00

    Interview hour

    You talk, we listen and take notes in your words. Most directors tell us the best sentence in the application without noticing.

  • 1:30

    Draft + budget

    Narrative on the left monitor, budget on the right. Neither gets finished until they agree with each other.

  • 4:30

    Read-aloud edit

    The day ends with red pencil. Loose claims get cut, tabs get labeled, and the next morning’s list is written.

Before our first call

What to have on the table

You don’t need a polished file. Gather what you have, and we’ll chase the rest. The call takes about twenty minutes and costs nothing.

Nonprofit paperwork laid out on a desk: determination letter, board list, budget and program flyer
01Your deadline

Even a rough one. We plan backwards from it.

02The dollar ask

What you hope to raise, and what it would pay for.

03IRS determination letter

Funders ask for it every time. We’ll check it’s current.

04Last year’s budget

Back of a napkin counts, as long as the numbers are yours.

05Board list

Names and roles. Many applications require it.

06A story you tell often

The family, the Tuesday, the moment it clicked. We’ll find the grant that fits it.

Ready to start?

Send us the deadline.

Tell us the mission, the due date, and what you want to raise. You’ll have a fixed-fee quote in one business day, and a writer on your file this week.

Call (954) 305-7584 Email us

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