Capacity building grants just might be the unsung heroes of nonprofit sustainability and success.
Sheleia Phillips, the Founder and Principal Consultant at SMP Nonprofit Consulting, certainly thinks so! Sheleia recently sat down with Instrumentl to share her expertise, explain why capacity building grants are so vital, and provide helpful tips on how to find them.
In this article, we will walk you through key points from her presentation and explain:
and actionable steps on how to find and secure these competitive grant opportunities.
Let’s get started!
Why Are Capacity Building Grants So Valuable to Nonprofits?
Capacity building grants are one of the most valuable types of funding sources a nonprofit organization can attain.
Capacity building grants are strategic investments that allow nonprofit organizations to strengthen competencies and enhance internal processes through things like leadership development, staff training, and technology procurement.
By investing in capacity building, your organization can better achieve its mission and have a greater impact.
Traditionally, nonprofits have found themselves up against stiff competition for general operating grants and other forms of flexible funding. However, according to data pulled from Instrumentl’s grant database, capacity building grants are having a moment in the spotlight.
There were 4,834 grants live at any point in 2020, of these:
774 (16%) were tagged for "Training / Capacity Building"
951 (20%) were tagged for "General Operating Expense"
1476 (31%) were tagged for Training / Capacity Building and/or General Operating Expense
There were 5,500 grants live at any point in 2023, of these:
1483 (27%) were tagged for "Training / Capacity Building"
763 (14%) were tagged for "General Operating Expense"
1976 (36%) were tagged for Training / Capacity Building and/or General Operating Expense
These trendsshow a significant increase in the number of capacity building grants being offered by grantmaking entities. That’s great news for nonprofits!
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Examples of What Capacity Building Grants Can Fund
So what types of things can a capacity building grant fund? Let’s take a look at some of the most common examples!
Strategic Planning
Capacity building grants can be used to develop a strategic plan and determine high level objectives for your nonprofit organization over a multi-year period.
While this should be a critical priority for any organization, not all nonprofits have the time, staff, or expertise to initiate a strategic planning process and see it through to fruition.
This is where a capacity building grant comes in. With a capacity building grant, nonprofits can:
Hire strategic planning consultants,
Facilitate training sessions,
Conduct research, and
Evaluate impact.
Conducting a Needs Assessment
Needs assessments are vital, but as with strategic planning, most nonprofits do not have the organizational capacity to perform them on a regular basis, if at all.
A capacity building grant can fund several activities needed to carry out a needs assessment including:
Technology procurement: investing in systems that will strengthen evaluation activities.
Staff time: Investing in new staff or consultants who have the expertise to conduct a needs assessment.
Drafting reports: investing in writing, publishing, and designing a report that is digestible and accessible to a broad audience and/or tailored to the needs of key stakeholders and reviewers.
Hiring Consultants
The ability to hire consultants can help nonprofits improve organizational development and leverage their time and resources for tasks outside of the scope of other employees.
Even utilizing the skills of a consultant for a short time can provide you with key insights, tools, and resources to enhance your fund development strategy and move your organization toward increased financial stability.
There really isn’t any doubt that capacity building grants are incredible. They provide nonprofits with the resources and support needed to improve efficiency and ensure long-term sustainability.
It all sounds great, but the million dollar question is, how exactly do you win a capacity building grant?
Luckily, Sheleia has shared some top tier “secrets” and insights on how to find and win capacity building grants.
Secret #1: Demonstrate a Clear Plan
For Sheleia, clarity is key when it comes to winning a capacity building grant.
Capacity building projects are often lengthy, complex initiatives that require a great deal of attention and thought into their preparation and launch. Funders will want to have a thorough understanding of the project from beginning to end.
An effective proposal or plan for a capacity building project should include the following:
Project timeline,
List of primary activities,
Project milestones and deadlines,
Detailed budget document,
Key personnel, and
External partnerships such as consultants, government agencies, grassroots organizations, and other community stakeholders.
Sheleia notes that it is important to set objectives that are realistic and achievable. Set your sights high, but also coordinate with your team to be sure that you could reasonably hit any proposed KPIs without any strain.
Secret #2: Make a Strategic Investment in Operational Systems
Great staff and people are certainly the backbone of any nonprofit—but those incredible people need the right tools and resources to perform their jobs and make an impact.
Nonprofits can benefit from a variety of systems and infrastructure that can make their jobs easier and more effective. Financial systems like Blackbaud Financial Edge or donor relationship management systems like Tessitura or Bonterra are just a few examples of common operational systems that can be secured or enhanced through capacity building grants.
Bonterra provides nonprofits with donor engagement tools that help organization’s strengthen donor relationships and maximize donor impact.
When it comes to making a case to a funder as to why these investments are critical, research is key.
Explain how a new or improved system will enhance your operations or ensure your sustainability. How will it make your staff’s work easier and more impactful? This information is essential for funders to know when making a capacity building request.
Secret #3: Recognize the Importance of Long-Term Planning
Nonprofit professionals work hard to advance their missions. Focusing on these day-to-day responsibilities can make it difficult to spend time on future planning.
However, long-term planning is vital to the longevity of a nonprofit and the efficacy of its work. This is just the type of strategic planning that capacity building grants are intended to accomplish!
Developing a winning capacity building grant proposal begins with long-term planning and investing a bit of time into strategizing what your organization can achieve in the future.
Sheleia calls this the “crock pot method” versus the “microwave method”.
She explains:
“I don't want you to think of capacity building grants just for right now. I want you to think about how you can utilize these funds to better position your organization in the future.”
The most effective capacity building initiatives do not happen overnight. However, if you take the time to thoughtfully and intentionally plan out how your organization will convert a capacity building project into long-term impact, funders will be much more inclined to support your work.
Secret #4: Harness the Power of Partnerships and Relationships
Nonprofits do not exist in a vacuum. Most communities have a network of organizations that work in tandem to address a variety of issues. Nonprofits commonly partner with the community members they serve, public agencies, and local businesses to ensure success.
Sheleia sees these relationships as the crux of effective fund development and key to securing capacity building grants:
“...When you think about who's in your corner, not only do I want you to think about your internal board, the clients and the community that you serve, but think about other nonprofits who can help you and connect you to folks in addition to those institutional funders and grant makers that you're going to approach in the future.”
Sheleia calls the process of identifying and fostering partnerships “love-mapping”.
Identify who (internally or externally) you could work with and who will be in your corner throughout this project. Do these individuals have any connections to funders or have other relationships that could lead you to a warm introduction with a grantmaker?
The more you grow and strengthen your network, the more funding opportunities will come your way.
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Case Study Example: What Went Well?
Sheleia’s “secret” winning strategies for securing capacity building grants are tried and true!
Not long ago, Sheleia worked with a client to secure and manage a capacity building grant and found great success.
In 2022, Sheleia provided consulting support to a St. Louis based social justice nonprofit to obtain capacity building funds for a strategic planning process.
The nonprofit received a capacity building grant from a local funder, the Deaconess Foundation. The grant gave them the support and resources they needed to execute their strategic plan and grow their organization.
The Deaconess Foundation invests in organizing, advocacy, and policy change to combat systemic racism and create the conditions where liberation is a lived reality.
So what went welland what lessons were learned from Sheleia’s client?
Demonstrating a clear plan: The client developed a clear plan for their project, showing the funder how it connected to their mission over the long-term.
Communicating financial sustainability: The client demonstrated financial viability by securing funding from diverse sources including individual donors and other grants. Remember, funders rarely want to be the sole driver of a single project—they are more eager to invest in an initiative that draws in other donors and sources of support.
Building relationships: The most critical aspect of the client’s grantseeking strategy was relationship building. The client did not rely on cold outreach—they went out of their way to identify existing relationships and foster warm connections with the foundation prior to submitting an application.
Not rushing: The client developed a detailed and realistic timeline, giving themselves the space to intentionally design a plan of action, successfully launch the project, and see it through to fruition.
How To Find Capacity Building Grants
Prospect research can be a challenge, but with the right tools and strategies finding best-fit capacity building grants for your nonprofit will be a breeze!
Create an Instrumentl account. Every user has access to a 14-day free trial to see if our services are the best fit for your fundraising needs!
With a database of over 15,000 active public and private funding opportunities that are updated every week, Instrumentl is strongly positioned to help match your nonprofit to the best-aligned grants to support your capacity building initiatives.
Instrumentl offers robust grant management tools and resources for an all-in-one solution that will enhance your grantseeking and save you time at each phase in the grant process.
Instrumentl is your one stop shop for finding and securing capacity building grants.
Instrumentl was designed to help nonprofits find best-fit grants fast—including capacity building grants!
Running a targeted search for capacity building grants in Instrumentl is a piece of cake. Once you have set up an account you’ll just need to follow these simple steps:
Step 1: Create a Project
You will first need to create a project in your Instrumentl profile. Start by clicking the “+Project” button in the left hand toolbar.
Click on “+Project” to create a new project in your Instrumentl profile.
Next, you will create a name for your project. For the purposes of this example the project is titled “Museum Program Funding”.
Make sure you toggle the box for “Matches & Tracking”. This way, you’ll be able to initiate a search in the grant database while seamlessly tracking opportunities you are interested in pursuing.
Enter a name for your project to begin searching the database and tracking new grant opportunities.
Click “Save and Continue” and move on to “2. Matches Set Up”.
Step 2: Perform a Targeted Grant Search
In the Matches Set Up, you’ll first select the type of organization you are. For the purposes of this example we will select “Nonprofit” and “Museum/Library/Zoo”.
Choose the applicant type and whether or not you would like to see grants for faith-based programs or organizations.
Next, choose the geographic location of your organization or where your project takes place.
Select if your organization or project take place in or outside of the United States.
After you’ve selected the location, click the “+Select fields of work” button.
Narrow your search down by specifying the location of your organization and/or project.
You can choose between 2-5 areas of focus for your nonprofit. We have chosen “American Art”, “American History”, “Art & Culture”, and “Art History”.
Select specific focus areas of work relevant to your nonprofit organization or project.
You will also have the opportunity to select the range of grant sizes you would like to search for. For this example we have chosen to search for awards ranging from “$10,000 to $100,000”.
Note: Selecting award minimums and maximums are important for budgeting and identifying awards your nonprofit has the capacity to reasonably manage.
The next step is the most critical when searching for capacity building grants.
Instrumentl gives you the opportunity to search for specific types of grants or what you will use the funds for.
You can select:
Education/Outreach
Project/Program
General Operating Expense
Capital Project
Training/Capacity Building
We will of course choose “Training/Capacity Building” for this example. Selecting this option will narrow our search to grants specifically intended to fund capacity building initiatives or staff training opportunities.
Choose the type of grant you want to target for your search—including Capacity Building Grants.
Finally, you can choose types of funders you would like to see grants from.
We will search for grants from “Private” funders for this example.
Click “Save and Exit” to initiate the search. Now all you have to do is wait while Instrumentl matches you with capacity building grants that fit your criteria!
Step 3: Find Best-fit Capacity Building Grants
This grant search yielded 106 results. Excellent! You are now ready to begin reviewing the search results and find best-fit capacity building grants that are a strong fit for your nonprofit.
Foundations typically have a strong interest in supporting capacity building initiatives and they have far fewer requirements and constraints than government grants.
Some prevalent capacity building grantmakers include:
The Greater New Orleans Foundation is one of many foundations that offer capacity building grant opportunities to eligible nonprofit organizations.
Looking to delve even deeper into the world of capacity building grants? Instrumentl has a comprehensive library of resources, training, and guides on how to find grants of all types—including grants that fund capacity building projects.
Finally, here’s a list of a few other resources on capacity building that you may find helpful:
Capacity building grants are invaluable for nonprofits. They support long-term sustainability and increase efficiency in ways that cannot be accomplished through other types of funding.
By leveraging the tips, guidance, and expertise shared by Sheleia—combined with Instrumentl’s robust grant discovery database—you should have no trouble finding and securing capacity building grants that will grow and strengthen your organization for years to come.
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