Date: Monday, April 27, 2026
Frenemy (noun): a person who is or pretends to be a friend but who is also in some ways an enemy or rival.
Grant writers and evaluators…friend or foe? Love or hate each other, we share many of the same end goals (e.g., a successful grant-funded initiative) so why does harmonious collaboration sometimes elude us? (Here’s where us evaluators may insert a snarky comment about not being invited to the first 10 meetings about the proposal).
We’re Emma Alston, Caroline Freitag, and JoAnna Hillman: independent consultants with our own respective firms who each like to dance in the space that intersects all things evaluation and grant writing. We’ve been thinking a lot about the role of evaluators on grant writing teams and want to share some Lessons Learned for turning “frenemies” to strategic partners:
We know you’re exhausted from that horrible grant writing experience. Everything went wrong: It was sloppy. Timing was off. Roles were unclear. Final draft still had holes in it. Budget looked like something your 2nd grader doodled. Consider letting it rest a week, and then ask for a meeting with the grant writer. Ask about upcoming proposals and request to be included at the beginning of the next proposal. Explain how having your “evaluation brain” at the table can be a value-add to the grant writing process, not just to what goes IN the grant. Get involved in grant writing at the earliest stage possible.
Knowing your grant writer’s working style and strengths can help your evaluation planning contribution go more smoothly. You need them to provide the context essential to developing a good evaluation plan. Conversely, you are the best person to help blossom an evaluation plan that simply meets technical RFP requirements (something any decent grant writer can do) into an appropriately funded evaluation that can be beautifully executed in the real world. Noting that some grant writers are more evaluation-savvy than others, a brief conversation about their exposure to or experience with evaluation will help you tailor your approach to make the most of your strengths.
Ideas that are obvious to professional evaluators can feel like castles in the clouds and pies in the skies to grant writers. You want grant writers to be able to draw a clear through line between the project’s goals, measurable outcomes, activities that make up the work, criteria for success, and budget line-items. Make your evaluative thinking visible using plans, maps, diagrams, or tables. What evaluators know as logic models, theories of change, or project timelines don’t require technical names or deep knowledge to understand. Use simple tools to show the flow of your planned evaluation to support grant activities, make course corrections along the way, and achieve project goals together.
Perhaps the evaluator–grant writer relationship will always include a little healthy tension, but it does not need to feel adversarial. When we approach each other with curiosity and create simple tools for shared understanding, proposal development can shift from a scramble to a coordinated effort. These small changes add up: clearer narratives, stronger evaluation plans, more realistic budgets, and more effective funded programs. As you enter your next proposal cycle, pause and ask: are we operating as frenemies out of habit, or as partners by design? The answer may shape both the grant’s success and the collaboration that follows.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting IC TIG Week with our colleagues in the Independent Consulting Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our IC TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.