Julie Hughes / M2 Consulting
Julie is the grant writer at M2 Consulting. Years of keeping books taught her what a budget has to prove; years of writing for a working business taught her how to make a reader care. A proposal needs both, and rarely gets them from one person.
About
At a glance
Julie Hughes is the grant writer at M2 Consulting. She came to the work from an unusual direction — not out of a development office, but out of the books. Bookkeeping has been her occupation for years and years, and she currently manages the office at Scotlyn’s Yard Landscaping, LLC, where she has worked off and on across thirteen years.
That background matters more than it first sounds. A grant proposal is really two documents pretending to be one: a narrative that has to move a reader, and a budget that has to survive a close look. Most writers are strong at one end of that. Julie has spent her working life at both — keeping accurate books on one hand, and on the other writing her company’s advertising, newsletters, new employee applications, and the daily correspondence with clients.
She has also served in ministries and nonprofit organizations, which is the third thing this work asks for: knowing from the inside what a small mission-driven team can honestly promise a funder, and what it actually takes to deliver on it.
Away from the desk, Julie has taught dance in Highlands, Franklin, and Cashiers — taking something intricate and breaking it into steps a person can follow, then staying patient until it lands. It is the same instinct a good proposal runs on.
She lives in Glenville, North Carolina, up in the mountains of Jackson County, and writes for nonprofits and mission-driven teams across western North Carolina and beyond.
Experience highlights
Julie's résumé does not read like a development officer's, and that is the point. The books, the business writing, the nonprofit service, and the years of teaching each supply something a proposal needs.
M2 Consulting
Julie writes the grants for M2's nonprofit and mission-driven clients — researching funders whose priorities genuinely match the work, drafting the narrative, building the budget that backs it up, and holding the calendar so nothing is lost to a missed deadline.
Proposals where the story and the numbers say the same thing.
Office Manager & Bookkeeper · 13 years
Julie has kept the books at Scotlyn's Yard off and on across thirteen years, and now manages the office — bookkeeping first, alongside employee support, client communication, ordering, and scheduling. Her writing carried weight there too: advertising, company newsletters, and new employee applications.
Thirteen years of being the person who closes the loop.
Ministries & Nonprofit Organizations
Julie has worked inside ministries and nonprofit organizations, and she carries that fluency into every proposal. She knows what a small mission-driven team can honestly promise a funder — and what it takes on the ground to deliver it.
She has served inside the kind of organization she now writes for.
Highlands, Franklin & Cashiers, NC
Julie has taught dance across three western North Carolina towns. Teaching asks for the same discipline a proposal does: take something complicated, break it into steps a person can actually follow, and stay patient until it lands.
Practice at making a complicated thing simple enough to follow.
References
One from the owner who has employed her across thirteen years, one from a colleague who worked at her side. Both were written this July.
“Julie is honest, intelligent, and articulate. She is committed to the completion of every task she is faced with and doing so in a timely manner.”
“Julie also has great writing skills. I strongly recommend Julie for a position as grant writer for your firm.”
“I worked with Julie Hughes and I would ABSOLUTELY recommend her. She is dedicated, a hard worker, very thoughtful, and extremely focused!”
“Any task she was given was completed thoroughly.”
Background
Julie's grounding is practical rather than academic — a long stretch of keeping other people's numbers straight, and a long stretch of putting their words in order.
Bookkeeping
Office manager and bookkeeper at Scotlyn's Yard Landscaping, LLC — the books first, plus employee support, client communication, ordering, and scheduling.
Writing
Advertising, company newsletters, and new employee applications written for a working business, alongside the day-to-day client correspondence of running an office.
Service
Time served inside ministries and nonprofit organizations, bringing outside skills and fresh ideas to mission-driven teams.
Teaching
Taught dance in Highlands, Franklin, and Cashiers, North Carolina — years of breaking something intricate into steps a person can follow.
Services
From finding the right funder to filing the report after the award — including the budget work most writers hand back to you.
Finding the foundations and programs whose priorities genuinely match your work, not just the ones with an open call.
The full proposal — the narrative that makes the case and the details a reviewer is actually scoring.
A budget that matches the narrative line for line and holds up when a funder reads it closely.
The short, sharp first contact that decides whether you are invited to submit at all.
Tracking cycles, deadlines, and renewals so an opportunity is never missed by a week.
The work after the award — reports, documentation, and keeping the funder relationship in good standing.
Years of keeping books, so the financial records behind a proposal are clean before anyone asks.
The writing between grant cycles — newsletters and updates that keep supporters close.
Capability stack
Her strongest work sits where careful writing meets careful arithmetic — and where somebody has to keep track of the dates.
Process
Julie starts by understanding what the money is for, and does not stop at the submit button — the reporting afterward is what makes the next ask easier.
Understand the mission, the program, and what the money is actually for — before a word goes on the page.
Find the funders whose stated priorities genuinely fit the work, and read what they have funded before.
Write the narrative and build the budget together, so the two halves of the proposal tell one story.
Assemble the attachments, meet every requirement exactly as written, and file ahead of the deadline.
Track reporting dates and keep the record clean, so the next ask starts from a relationship in good standing.
Start the conversation
Bring the work you are trying to fund, even if it is only half-shaped. Julie can tell you whether there is a proposal in it and what it would take to write one.