How it works
How an engagement runs.
No discovery-call gauntlet, no proposal theater. A short note starts it, one working conversation shapes it, and a retained team carries it. Here is the whole path, including how fees work.
Five steps, no maze.
The same thread that carries your funding work carries the engagement itself: one line from first note to embedded team.
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01Tell us what is stuck
The form takes about five minutes. Plain language is perfect: the stalled report, the renewal nobody owns, the database no one trusts.
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02Jake reads it
Every inquiry is reviewed personally by the person who decides, and you hear back within 24 hours. Honestly, either way.
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03A working conversation
If the fit looks right, we talk through what is stuck, the systems it lives in, and what carrying it would take. No slides, no pressure.
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04A scoped retainer
One agreement for one accountable team, shaped around the work you hand us. Three-month minimum, then month to month.
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05The team embeds
We work inside your systems, on your calendar, with your approvals at the decision points. The work starts where it hurts most.
What a retainer replaces.
Retaining Grey Mirror works like adding exceptional internal capacity without adding employment: one team, one agreement, accountable to your leadership.
Instead of a new hire
No months-long search, no management load, no single point of failure. Senior capacity across every discipline from the first week.
Instead of an advice engagement
We draft, build, file, reconcile, submit, and follow through. Recommendations come with the work already moving.
Instead of a vendor roster
The grant writer, the data person, the web shop, the report help: one retained team carries all of it, so nothing is lost in handoffs.
Fees, plainly.
We don't publish a number, because scope is where pricing gets honest. We do publish the structure, so you know it before the first call.
- A flat monthly retainer, scoped to the work you hand us
- Never a percentage of funds raised
- Three-month minimum, then month to month
- Cancel anytime after the minimum, with prorated refunds
- One retainer in place of a payroll line, a consultancy, and a vendor stack
The same team serves organizations from small staffs to one moving over nine figures a year in donations. The conversation is where scope gets set.
One thing we will never sell: guaranteed awards. Funding decisions belong to funders. Our job is making sure your strongest case reaches them and nothing gets dropped on the way.
You're getting things done that people know need to happen but simply can't get to. And you have a team behind you that's going to deliver again and again. Service is your greatest strength, honestly.
Boundaries you can hold us to.
Licensed judgment stays licensed. Where legal, accounting, or audit judgment is required, it stays with the appropriate licensed professionals. We execute and coordinate around them rather than substitute for them.
Discretion is the default. We do not name clients or their work publicly without express permission. Access to your systems is scoped at the start of an engagement and ends cleanly. How confidentiality and access work.
Fit gets an honest answer. If we are not the right team, we say so in the first conversation, not after a quarter of fees. The FAQ covers the common questions.
Step one takes five minutes.
Tell us what isn't getting done. The five steps above are the entire process: no discovery gauntlet, no pressure.
Questions first? The FAQ answers fees, fit, and diligence.