I had already written a response to your question when I read Tony's
response and liked his better.  There is one thing I would like to point out
in addition to his excellent synopsis however.
Tony stated, "Regarding your good work in the first place, it is unfair when
you put in honest effort, skill, and time to do a good grant writing job,
and then you are denied any compensation when the grant is turned-down by a
prospect due to circumstances completely out of your control?"
This is the crux of the whole matter with your treasurer.  He has already
seen how many hours it takes for you to write a grant and has figured out
that if you will agree to take a commission on only those grants obtained,
his costs will drop considerably.  Hiring someone  "on commission" is the
oldest trick in the management book on lowering staffing costs.  Not only
will the actual cost of your wages drop considerably, but you will be a
"contract employee" and the business will not have to pay taxes on you, nor
will they be responsible for offering you benefits, even if you work full
time.
You see, the treasurer has everything to gain by paying you on a commission
and you have everything to loose. I know this as I made my "living" on
commission for many years.  Although I "made $30K" per year.  It was gross.
By the time I subtracted expenses and averaged out how many hours per week I
worked, I made about $6 per hour.  If I had worked in any business the same
number of hours per week, even at just slightly better wages, with benefits
and overtime, I could have doubled my take-home.
The other issue with working straight commission is credibility.  In our
society, and person who works on commission is labeled by the public as
being "in it only for himself". The appearance of this on your resume or
when working with a donor would be devastating.  Think about how much
society respects car salesmen and Realtors, to name a few. I know, I was a
Realtor, and I spent half my time trying to explain that I was an honest
person despite my compensation method.
Lori Allen,
Graduate Student, UMSL

"Well behaved women rarely make history."
                                  - Anonymous

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