Meet Grant Assistant

Grant Assistant was founded in early 2024 by Mustafa Hasnain, whose journey to create the company was fueled by a deep desire to level the playing field in the world of grant solicitation.

Early in his career, Mustafa understood how daunting complex language and rigid writing expectations could be—even for those with the strongest ideas. As an immigrant to the United States, he experienced firsthand the complexities of the proposal-writing process, a world that often seemed inaccessible to those who weren’t well-versed in its intricate lexicon.

Mustafa’s perspective, shaped both by his personal experience and by living around the world through his wife’s work with the US foreign service and the international development community, sharpened his awareness of who gets left out. Brilliant ideas and projects too often fell by the wayside simply because their proponents lacked polished writing skills or were part of small, overextended teams without time to navigate complicated processes. Grant Assistant was created to change that.

Determined to solve this problem, he envisioned a toolkit that would democratize the proposal creation process. The result was Grant Assistant: an AI-powered platform that helps mission-driven teams create high-quality proposals faster, without hiring additional staff. Within months, the product gained strong traction with nonprofits and global development organizations. Since launch, teams using Grant Assistant report cutting drafting time by 60% and turning that time into real wins. Adoption has quickly expanded from small nonprofits to universities, hospitals, international NGOs, and local governments.

In October 2024, Grant Assistant was acquired by FreeWill, a nonprofit technology leader trusted by 2,200+ charitable organizations. The acquisition brings new investment and reach to the platform, enabling Grant Assistant to grow faster, build smarter tools, and help more organizations win the funding they deserve.