Grant Strategy: Building a Year-Long Funding Plan for Your Nonprofit

Many nonprofits have an overarching strategy, but they often overlook the importance of a well-structured grant strategy as being instrumental for their success. 

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• What a grant strategy is
• Why it’s so important
• How to build one for your own organization

By the end, you’ll discover how a year-long grant strategy can transform your nonprofit's fundraising outlook.

Sounds good? Let’s dig in!

A grant strategy is a structured plan that guides your nonprofit’s funding process, ensuring your team is aligned with your goals over a specific time frame.

Your grants strategy should be a complement to your nonprofit’s overall strategic plan, which outlines what you want to accomplish and how you plan to achieve it. A good grant strategy will help provide the funding to make that all happen.

Typically, a nonprofit will set a grant strategy for the year that includes the following information: 

• Potential funders
• Potential grants (deadlines, amounts, funding cycles, etc.)
• Potential funding goals

You can be as detailed as you want in your grant strategy, though keep in mind that nothing is guaranteed unless you are in the middle of a multi-year grant. 

Ultimately, a grant strategy should guide you through the process of securing funding so you never miss another opportunity.

With limited time and resources, it’s critical that you take a step back and develop a proper grant-seeking strategy. Here are five reasons why. 

• It helps you plan. When you have a bird’s eye view of your grants—including those you’ve won and plan to apply for—you can better allocate your resources and maximize your time.
• It helps you prioritize. It can be tempting to try to chase every grant out there. However, you need to prioritize grants that you have the best odds of receiving, and a grant strategy will ensure you stay on track throughout the year. You can always apply for additional grants as capacity allows. 
• It helps you see gaps in funding. Certain times of the year may be busier than others. When you see this in your grant strategy, you can identify new funding opportunities that can fill the gap. 
• It helps you anticipate programming. If you think you know what grants you’ll receive, along with your other funding, you can set your programming for the year. You will have a clear idea of what you can accomplish and the grants you need to make it a reality.
• It helps you be more efficient. At the end of the day, most nonprofits are trying to do more with less. You can be strategic about what opportunities to pursue given the resource constraints at your nonprofit. You’ll be able to allocate your resources more wisely with a clear strategy.

A grant strategy helps you stay focused. You won’t get distracted by the noise or the shiniest, newest grant opportunity. Keep reading to learn how to start building a grant strategy for your own organization.

Now that you know what a grant strategy is and why it’s important to have one, we are going to outline the steps for developing one. It may take some time, but it will yield dividends in the long term.

1: Building Your Team

There are two things you want to keep in mind when building your team: assembling the right people and clarifying the roles and responsibilities within the team. 

Assemble Your Grant Team

Take a look at your organization and ask yourself the following questions:

• Who are the key individuals responsible for grant-seeking activities within the organization?
• Do you have dedicated grant writers? If not, can you afford to hire one?
• Who will approve the grants? 

Be sure to assign an owner of the grant strategy as a whole, in addition to the roles necessary to advance it practically. Each organization is different, so it’s important to have clarity on the process upfront.

Clarify Roles and Responsibilities

Now that you know the key players, it’s time to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the team. Identify the specific duties of each grant team member, including:

• Identifying new opportunities
• Writing the grant proposals
• Reviewing and revising the application
• Providing final approval prior to submission
• Administering the grant
• Tracking its finances
• Creating grant reports

If needed, clarify the reporting structure, providing insight into who people should go to if they need additional support. Team size and roles may vary based on the organization, but a basic team will include the following two roles. 

• Grant writer: The person who writes the grant and gathers the documentation needed to apply.
• Leadership/approver: The person/people who provide feedback and approval.

You’ll also need someone who handles the financials and program administrators to help execute once you get the funding.

For example, Girls in the Game has a solid fundraising team in place, including a grant and program coordinator . They have all the subject matter experts in place to successfully land grants.

2: Planning Out Your Funding Priorities

Once you have the right team in place, you can focus on nonprofit grant planning. That includes identifying potential funders, crafting your plan to apply for grants, and prioritizing funding goals and strategies. 

Identify Potential Funders and Crafting Your Plan

A good grant strategy should include a comprehensive list of your potential funders, key proposal deadlines, and more. You want to get a clear picture of your potential funding for the year and identify if you have the resources to support the plans.

To begin crafting your plan: 

1. List out all the opportunities that are on your radar. This could be grants that you previously received, as well as new opportunities that have been brought to your attention. Include details that can help you plan resources to support the application process, including deadlines. 
2. Search for new opportunities. Utilize grant management software like Instrumentl to find new grants that align with your mission and funding needs.  

3. Identify how many grants you can apply for in a year. This really depends on many different factors, including how much funding you need, how many grant writers you have, the size of your organization, and more. As a general rule of thumb, you want to apply for at least twice the number of grants you need to reach your funding goal. 

You don’t necessarily need to narrow down your list. In fact, you should have a long list with additional funding opportunities that you can pull from in case you have additional time. 

Prioritize Funding Goals and Strategies

Before you can really get a grasp of your next steps, you need an understanding of your organization’s financial goals. Your annual business plan should have a breakdown of what you want to accomplish and the funding needed to make it happen. 

These funds can come from different revenue streams, including:

• Donations
• Grants
• Fundraising events
• Merchandise sales

The amount that is allocated for grants will determine how many grants you need to apply for, the financial amounts you should be pursuing, and more. 

Now that you have a sense of the financial amount you’re targeting, you should categorize your grants into three tiers. 

1. Existing Relationships: These are grants that you have received in the past or from funders you have previously partnered with.  
2. Connections: These are grants from funders who you may not have worked with before, but you have a connection with them that could increase your odds of winning funding.
3. Reach grants: These are the long-shot grants where you have no established connections. 

Ideally, you’ll want to prioritize funders who you have an existing relationship with, filling in gaps with new opportunities you want to explore. 

3: Acting on Your Grant Strategy Throughout the Year

You have your team in place. You’ve set a great grant strategy that aligns with your overall plan. Now it’s time to execute on it. 

Develop a Comprehensive Grant Calendar

One of the most important steps you can take is to create a detailed grant calendar to help keep you on track. This should include:

• Key deadlines
• Important tasks
• Reporting reminders

You can also include other information on your grant calendar such as links to key documents and funder notes. Consider it your one-stop shop for all of your grant needs. 

Instrumentl makes it easy to save all of your grants to a shared calendar that your whole team can access. 

Your calendar should provide a detailed overview of what you have coming up for any given month to help you allocate and plan your resources. 

Execute the Grant Strategy:

Now that you have all your information laid out, as well as your funding priorities, it’s time to take action on it. 

This includes:

• Researching more information about the grant, including its requirements, past grantees, and more. 
• Writing the grant proposal, effectively tailoring it to meet the grant requirements while effectively telling your story.
• Submitting your grant applications, ensuring you submit it before the deadline. While many organizations won’t look at applications until the window has closed, you still don’t want to be down to the wire in case something goes wrong.

4: Reporting and Adjusting Your Grant Strategy

As with all things, you need to routinely audit your strategy to ensure it’s working as planned.

1. Set up a quarterly reporting process to help you track your progress. You can then analyze your data to identify what’s working, what you can improve, and what you need to stop doing. This information will allow you to adjust your grant strategy as needed to get better results. 
2. Solicit feedback from your team members and other key stakeholders. If you think they won’t be candid with you, you can always give them the opportunity to provide feedback via an anonymous survey. 
3. Commit to making necessary improvements based on what you hear. The feedback may be difficult at the time, but it shows your team cares about the progress and wants to do better. 
4. Continue to refine your approach. Check back in a few months to see how the changes are going. Look back at the metrics. Your work is never done!

Even if your plans are working, there’s always an opportunity to improve. You could take your organization to the next level if you take the time to listen, learn, and make important changes.

With a proactive approach to your grant-seeking strategy, you’ll never miss out on another funding opportunity. You’ll have a clear plan in place, with goals and metrics to help you achieve your nonprofit’s overall strategic priorities.

Building a grant strategy doesn’t have to be difficult. You simply need to follow the the four steps we’ve outlined:

1. Build your team
2. Plan your funding priorities
3. Act on your strategy 
4. Adjust as needed based on performance

There are many foundational tools that can help jumpstart your planning process, including Instrumentl. With best fit-funders, 990 snapshots, a grants calendar, and so much more, Instrumentl can help improve your team’s grant success.

Sign up for a free, 14-day trial today and experience firsthand what Instrumentl can do for your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy.