Picture this: You’re under intense time pressure to secure funding. So you’re applying to every grant that’s somewhat relevant. Regardless of the size, funder, or whether or not it’s a good fit for your project, you’re applying so you can report to the board that you’re submitting dozens of applications per quarter.
Sound familiar?
We need a better approach as grant writers and managers. Applying for opportunities with no strategy will eat away our already limited time, leaving no room for effective grant applications to good-fit funders.
This article will outline one philanthropy director’s “5 Checks” Method for avoiding applying for every grant opportunity and instead taking a more strategic approach.
This approach will give you back your time with a refined and repeatable process to win grants that are a perfect match for your nonprofit.
The #1 Reason It’s Crucial To Have a Strategic Approach in Your Grant Search
Here’s the bottom line: searching for grants without an intentional well-thought out strategy is a huge waste of time!
Like you, the pressure to secure funding often led me down a path of applying for grants that weren’t the best fit for my organization’s needs.
Why is this? We feel FOMO (Fear-of-Missing-Out) about opportunities, but we also know we need a more strategic approach. We can’t do it all!
The reason strategy is so important is that it creates efficiency - and increases the quality of your proposals. When you have a haphazard approach to grants, your success rate is going to be pretty low.
Just know - you’re not alone! Becky Harris, the Philanthropy Director for Foundations & Corporations at Eversight, struggled with this same thing. Eversight is one of the largest eye banks in the United States. They provide sight-saving transplant services and support research into the causes of blindness.
This work takes a lot of capital. Like many fundraisers, Becky’s fundraising strategy was shaped by the pandemic. She and her team were pursuing a lot of opportunities at once to try to secure funding since there was such a heightened need to raise money quickly.
With lockdowns disrupting operations, there was a heightened need to acquire funding quickly. But this isn't sustainable for long term funding.
As the world opened back up, Becky realized her shotgun approach would only lead to burnout.
She needed to build a more strategic and efficient nonprofit fundraising strategy. To become more disciplined, she developed what we’re calling, The “5 Checks” Method. It’s a game-changer that will have you only applying for the grants you are confident you can win.
Following these "5 checks" halved Becky's applications with no impact on targets. In short, she did WAY more with less stress and pressure.
With The “5 Checks” Method, Becky aligned Eversight with the right opportunities, reducing the number of submissions by 73% per month without missing any targets.
Once she implemented a more strategic approach, Becky saw incredible results:
“Our success rate has gone from 14% to 22%; that’s a significant jump.”
Let’s unpack each of the 5 checks below.
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Check 1: Is The Funder Invite Only or Open To Unsolicited Applications?
When thinking about creating a strategic grant application process, Becky recommends starting with the basics: is the funder accepting unsolicited grant applications?
When it comes to grant-seeking, being selective about where you direct your efforts is key. This means steering clear of funders and funding opportunities that don’t accept unsolicited funding applications.
ICYMI: An invitation-only funder is an organization or a foundation that has limited its applicant pool to only those whom they have asked to apply for their grants.
Applying to an invite-only funder when you don’t have an invite is not just unproductive, but it also has the potential to harm your nonprofit’s reputation with the funder.
Here’s an example: The Snider Foundation is an invite-only funder whose website clearly states that they do not consider unsolicited grant applications.
The Snider Foundation is an example of an invite-only funder
Adopting a strategic and respectful approach to grant writing involves focusing on opportunities that are aligned with your mission - and that are openly accepting applications. This ensures that your valuable time and efforts are channeled where they can make a meaningful impact.
Check 2: Is There Any Alignment Between Our Nonprofit and The Funder?
A fundamental principle in successful grant seeking is aligning your mission and goals with the funding opportunity at hand.
Before working on a grant application, pause and assess whether there is an overlap between the funder’s focus area and the project you’re seeking to fund.
Pursuing grants that don’t align with your mission is counterproductive.
A strategic approach involves targeting opportunities where there is a clear synergy, ensuring that your application resonates with the grantor’s objectives.
What does this look like in practice? Here are a few common alignment “criteria” that grant seekers should evaluate and consider:
Geographic focus of funder
Average grant size
Willingness to fund new grantees
Funder focus area
It’s important to make sure that the funder’s preferences, priorities and guidelines are a match for your nonprofit’s project or program before you spend time submitting an application.
Pro Tip: You should also emphasize alignment in your grant narrative! Be sure to call out the ways in which your nonprofit’s project or programs align with the funder’s mission, vision, and goals.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, that’s ok! Trust me - I can relate. It can be challenging to know where to start gathering all of this information to make sure there’s an alignment between your work and your potential fuder’s goals.
Take a deep breath! Instrumentl’s detailed funder profiles and prospect research tools can help you easily identify good-fit funders.
When you tell Instrumentl about your nonprofit’s focus or program area, it will automatically share active funding opportunities with you that match. Each week, you’ll get an email with new good-fit opportunities that are in alignment with your nonprofit’s mission.
Instrumentl will match you with grants based on your location, mission, and funding needs so you don't waste time with funders irrelevant to you.
Remember - it’s not about chasing every opportunity; it’s about investing your time wisely in those that truly align with your needs.
What does this mean? Becky shares that it isn’t a good practice to spend your time applying for opportunities from funders who don’t have a history of giving in the area where your project is located.
Many funders have a specific geographic area where they like to focus their giving. Don’t cast your net too wide and apply for grants from a funder that doesn’t support projects in the area where your organization operates.
If Eversight is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they shouldn't be pursuing a foundation in California with no history of funding Michigan-based nonprofits unless they have strong reasons.
Taking this targeted approach ensures that you’re focusing your valuable time, efforts, and energy on grant opportunities that are aligned with the geographic scope of your nonprofit’s work.
Makes sense, right? But you might be wondering - how do I know where a funder likes to focus their giving?
Here is another place where Instrumentl can help you: When reviewing a funder, look at their Past Grantees feature. It uncovers where they’ve awarded grants in the past in an easy-to-read, heat map!
Check out the screenshot below. Here’s what the color coding means:
States that are in dark purple, such as Texas, have been awarded the most grants by this foundation (557!).
States shaded in medium purple, like Pennsylvania, fall in the middle range (221 grants awarded).
States in the lightest color purple (Wyoming) have the least number of grants awarded (only 9).
Instrumentl will show you a heat map of where funder give the most awards
Looking at the image above, if your nonprofit’s project is located in Texas, California, or New York, you’d have a higher chance of getting funded than if you were located in West Virginia or Wyoming.
This map helps you ensure that your grant applications are strategic and aligned with your nonprofit's location.
Check 4: Is This Funding Relationship Sustainable?
To increase your efficiency, your focus should be on prioritizing grants that promise long-term, multi-year support rather than being drawn toward smaller, short-term opportunities.
We know this might be a shift in your thinking - we get it! During, and even shortly after, the pandemic, many fundraisers, including our friend Becky, were feeling the pressure to generate revenue and were applying for every opportunity - even small, one-time grants. You’re not alone in feeling or operating this way!
Now, however, sustainability is crucial to making sure we are getting the most impact from our efforts.
Becky agrees! She shares:
“The pandemic was a different time for fundraising. Now that things have settled, I’ve become a lot more strategic.”
Takeaway: By strategically directing your attention to opportunities with the potential for the greatest lifetime giving, you’re establishing a reliable and ensuring source of financial support for your nonprofit. This is a win!
Aligning strategically with sustainable funding prospects sets the stage for continuous growth and success in fulfilling the organization’s mission.
Instrumentl’s funder profiles are full of useful data that can help you determine if a funder passes this check. One of these data pieces is a funder’s willingness to work with new grantees; if a funder historically does not give to new grantees, then it isn’t worth your time to apply - and the opportunity certainly won’t provide long-term, sustainable dollars.
Check out the screenshot below. This funder, The William R. and Esther Richmond Foundation, has a 3-year history of giving 22% of awards to new grantees. Right off the bat, this data is not super compelling in demonstrating that this foundation would be open to a new proposal. However, in 2022, you can see that approximately 50% of awards were given to new versus repeat grantees - this is more encouraging!
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Check 5: Can We Reuse Our Templated Resources?
Check number 5 is my personal favorite out of all of Becky’s tips: create templates!
Following Becky’s advice, creating templates for proposals and letters with pre-filled common information will be a game-changer for enhancing your fundraising efficiency.
Using templates for your grant applications gives you the starting point you need to personalize it
Adopting this approach is going to help you in a few ways:
Streamlining the process of crafting grant applications
Ensuring consistency across multiple submissions
Freeing up time to focus on personalization
FYI: Personalization is really important; while we encourage using templates to streamline your process, don’t neglect to personalize each and every application based on the funders preferences.
All of this is going to save you time and increase your efficiency!
Here’s the best part - Instrumentl can also help with this in two different ways!
You can store and organize all of your grant documents in one central hub - including submitted proposals! You don’t need information scattered across dozens of folders to find what you need.
The screenshot below shows how organized it is to upload documents so that you can easily see all relevant documents for each funder application in one place.
For each funder, you can save all your documents in one place
Becky found great success using this method for her grant applications - and you can do the same!
Streamlining for Success
Becky’s “5 Checks” Method will refine your grant research and application process.
This approach makes sure that you’re investing your time and effort where it matters most.
To recap, here are the 5 things to keep in mind:
Avoid invite-only opportunities
Make sure your mission aligns with the funder’s goals
Narrow your focus by geography
Consider sustainability
Use templates
By incorporating these 5 checks into your grant-seeking and grant-writing processes, you will foster a more focused, streamlined, and successful approach to securing funding for your nonprofit’s projects and programs.
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![“Our strategy before was definitely born out of the pandemic. I think a lot of [nonprofits] felt like, ‘Okay, we just need money now because our operations have been shut down for a few months, and things are crazy. So, let's just put out as many applications as possible to whoever may fund us, and hopefully, they'll respond.’” - Becky Harris](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/60b65772307b850ced32fd47/65b921d83f80b2f2f062d645_0bJOgn4JM7FIAprW-LobKv8jN3NOEyrU5d9wzpS9VHBXh0C-vQViQuYzBGzhGMlf6QUXzRoGEbhZXWqfCfXRjOywNY7gylefZOGKAUNi9pt1_hu4q6ugUoZcvt6Wq4WPNGiI65KUrOTvZSy9-TuEcUE.webp)
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