How to Find Grants to Fund Training and Capacity Building

Many nonprofits apply for grants for new projects and programs, but what if you need money to help improve the internal workings of your organization? This is where training and capacity building grants come into play. 

In this article, we will outline how to find grants to fund training and capacity building quickly and efficiently. You will learn:

• What training and capacity building grants are
• Why they are so important for nonprofits
• How to use Instrumentl to find them fast

Let’s dive in!

Training and capacity building grants are grants that are specifically awarded to support the internal operations of a nonprofit organization. Most often, they are used to help nonprofits operate more efficiently and broaden their reach through increased capacity. 

For example, training and capacity building grants could be used for:

• Educating and training staff
• Hiring new employees
• Investing in new technology
• Hiring consultants and contractors

Foundations, corporations, and even the federal government offer training and capacity building grants. Keep reading to learn why these funding opportunities are so valuable and worth pursuing.

Training and capacity building grants are important for nonprofits because they provide monetary resources to improve their internal structures. 

Nonprofits typically invest the majority of their time, money, and resources into their main projects and program delivery. However, the right infrastructure has to be in place to make these programs a reality—such as trained staff or even office supplies. 

Training and capacity building grants allow nonprofits to invest back into their operations, helping them function more efficiently and effectively. 

With the right infrastructure in place, nonprofits can spend more time focusing on advancing their missions in powerful ways. 

The more capacity an organization has, the more ability they have to expand their services and the impact they can make in their communities.

Training and capacity building grants can be a game-changer for nonprofits. Here are just a few examples of organizations that offer this type of funding! 

• The Communities Foundation of Texas offers capacity grants to “help nonprofit organizations build competencies and skills so that they can continue to make forward progress.”

• Google recently awarded $2 million in funding to InnovateUs to support digital skills training for public sector employees. 

• The Colorado Department of Early Childhood recently awarded over $15 million in capacity building grants for preschools to help fund “education materials and supplies, health care materials and supplies, technology, furniture, and site infrastructure.” 

When you find a grant opportunity or hear about a funder, you can use Instrumentl to learn more about them. Find out who they fund, what their average grant size is, the locations they send the most awards to and more using Instrumentl’s foundation profiles. Search for your local funders on our foundation lookup page.

Now that you see how impactful training and capacity grants can be, you’re probably wondering how to find this type of funding for your nonprofit. Keep reading!

Many funders announce their grant opportunities on their websites, but searching through all of them is a time-consuming and extensive process. Luckily, you can use Instrumentl to find grants that align with your nonprofit’s mission quickly.

Instrumentl focuses on matching your nonprofit with grant opportunities that best fit your organization.

To being your search for training and capacity building grants, simply: 

• Create a free Instrumentl account. 
• With over 400,000 funders on Instrumentl, we ensure that your nonprofit is matched with the most relevant training and capacity building grant opportunities.
• Use Instrumentl’s grant management platform for FREE for 14 days!

The following section will guide you through the exact step-by-step process for finding grants with Instrumentl.

The first step to finding training and capacity building grants is to set up your nonprofit within Instrumentl. 

Once you’ve signed into the platform, you’ll be prompted to create a new project. All of your “project” information will be used to match you with relevant grants. 

Fill in Details on Your Organization

In the “1. Organization” section, you’ll fill in details about your nonprofit, beginning with your organization’s location and fiscal year. 

You will also want to specify the state your organization is registered in and what specific counties your nonprofit serves. That way, Instrumentl can filter out grants that are not relevant to the area you serve.

You will then click “Save and Continue” to complete this first section.

Provide an Overview of Your Project

Now that you’ve filled in information about your nonprofit, you’ll move onto the “2. Overview” section where you’ll provide an overview of your project. 

Think of a project in Instrumentl as similar to a “saved search.” You will need to give a name to your project (we titled ours “Food Bank and Homeless Shelter”) but it can be anything related to your search for grant opportunities.

Next, you will select “Matches & Tracking'' for your project type because it will provide you with both grant tracking and funding opportunity matches. You will want to select this type of project if you are seeking grant recommendations.  

You should only choose “Tracking” if you aren’t looking for new funding opportunities and you simply want to track grants you’ve already found.

Once done, click “Save and Continue.”

Specify the Types of Grants You’re Looking for

In the last section, “3. Matches Setup,” you will specify the types of grants you’re looking for. 

To begin, you’ll need to select the type of organization you are (most commonly, just “Nonprofit” rather than “College/University” or “Zoo”).

And if you’re a faith-based organization, you can also select that you’d like to see grant matches specifically for faith-based programs. 

As you can see, we chose “Nonprofit” for our applicant type and “No” for grants that are specifically for faith-based organizations or programs.

You will then share the location that your project serves. Our nonprofit has a national scope, but you can choose a specific state and even specific counties, if necessary.

Here’s an example of a nonprofit in Pennsylvania choosing counties surrounding the capital:

Next, you will select the field of work you operate in to ensure you get the best grant matches that align with your mission. 

It’s best practice to select 2-5 fields of work so you have a wide enough scope of relevant grants.

When clicking “+Select fields of work,” search the cause you support and select 2-5 keywords from the drop-down that fit your mission. In our example, we searched food and homeless fields.

Next, set a minimum or maximum size for the grants you would like to be matched with. This will filter out grants that don’t fit your funding needs. 

In our example, we set a minimum of $1,000 and no maximum. Our nonprofit will take all the funding it can get!

Specify That You Want To See Training and Capacity Building

Next, you want to share what you will be using the grant funds for. In this case, you would select “Training and Capacity Building”. 

When Instrumentl compiles your matches, you won’t have to sift through hundreds of grant opportunities that don’t meet your needs. Instead, you will only see funding matches that are specifically for training and capacity building. 

After selecting “Training and Capacity Building,” you can also select what kind of funders you would like to see grants from. If you have no preference, you can choose them all and then filter them out later once Instrumentl gathers your top grant matches.

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Finally, click “Save and Exit.” Instrumentl will then do all the hard prospecting work for you based on the information you’ve shared! 

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Invite Your Team Members

Don’t worry about having to research grants for training and capacity building all on your own. Instrumentl allows you to invite up to 9 team members to collaborate on reviewing your grant matches. 

That way, your entire team can be on the same page when it comes to grant research, funding deadlines, and more!

When you first start reviewing your matches, you’ll notice that Instrumentl resembles an email inbox. The matches are on the left, and when you click on one, the details of the funding opportunity will show on the right.

You should now be ready to start evaluating your matches to find grants that your nonprofit can apply for! 

Briefly Review Your Grant Matches

You will want to start by reviewing your “Funding Opportunity Matches”. These are individual and active grants that align with your search criteria. 

As you can see in the screenshot below, we matched with over 300 active funding opportunities. 

Briefly Review Your Funder Matches

Next, you will want to review your “Funder Matches”. These aren’t active grants, but are instead funders whose missions and funding priorities align with those of your organization.  

These could be funders without websites, or even funders who are invite-only. Just because a funder doesn’t have an active grant posted doesn't mean they don’t want to partner with you and support your organization with funding! 

For more details on how to get noticed by invite-only funders, check out our in-depth guide.

Filter Your Results 

Don’t be overwhelmed if you’re matched with hundreds of opportunities. You can use Instrumentl’s filters to narrow down your search to the most relevant opportunities based on: 

• Funding use
• Field of Work
• Location of Project
• Location of Residency
• Past Giving
• Funder type
• Location
• Saved or hidden on other projects

For example, if you didn’t filter your original search to “Training and Capacity Building,” you can do so within your Matches. 

And once you’ve filtered your results, you can also sort them by deadline, amount, best match, and more!

Now that you have filtered and sorted your results, you can start prioritizing your funding opportunities by digging deeper into each potential grant. 

As we mentioned before, you can simply click on one of your matches and the grant’s details will pop up on the right. 

These details contain essential information that will help you evaluate whether a grant is worth pursuing. 

Review the Grant Guidelines

One of the first things you will want to do is review the “FUNDER OPPORTUNITY” tab. This tab will provide you with an overview of the grant, including its focus area, amount, support type, eligibility requirements, guidelines, and more. 

Gather Insights on Funders From Their 990s

Once you’ve reviewed the grant’s guidelines, you can select the “FUNDER 990 REPORT” tab to view a summary of data from the organization’s 990 filings with the IRS. 

Instrumentl distills information pulled from 990s into easy-to-read snapshots so that you can gather invaluable insights into a funder’s:

• Average grant size 
• The number of grants awarded 
• Geographic focus 
• Openness to new grantees 
• Nonprofits previously funded 
• Giving by NTEE codes 

For example, you can see below that this funder has been awarding more grants to repeat grantees year over year. If you’re a new grantee, this would be key information to consider. 

Once you’ve reviewed the grant guidelines and gathered insights from the funder’s 990s, you can go ahead and click “Save” on the grants that catch your attention. That way, you’ll have a saved list of all the grants you may want to apply for in one place and don’t have to search for them later.

Leave Notes on Your Saved Grants

When you save a grant opportunity, you can also leave notes on it for your whole team to access. 

For example, maybe you’ve worked with a particular funder in the past and want to make note of that so that you can mention your previous partnership in your proposal. 

Assign a Status To Stay Updated on It

Instrumentl also allows you to assign a status to each of your saved grants. At this stage, you would assign this grant as “Researching”. 

This allows your team to manage your grants easily and effectively. 

You can continue saving your grants to Instrumentl’s Tracker for future reference. The Tracker serves as an effective way to manage all of your funding opportunities in one place for easy access and organization.

Update Your Grant Details

Once you decide to apply for a specific grant, you can update its details within your Tracker. To update a grant’s status, simply click on the grant within your Tracker.

You’ll find the “Status” dropdown where you can select the appropriate status for your grant. You can choose from various status options, including “Planned,” “Application in Progress” and “Submitted.”

This feature gives you and your entire team a birds-eye view of all your funding opportunities so that you can efficiently manage your application processes.

Set Fundraising Goals

You can also set fundraising goals within your Tracker to align your grants with your financial targets. In our example, we set a fundraising goal of $350,000 over the next three years.

Never Miss a Deadline

Instrumentl also allows you to organize your saved grants by deadline. That way, you can focus on the most pressing applications first. 

Instrumentl will also send you weekly emails with all your upcoming deadlines and any funder deadline changes.

Assign Tasks to Your Team

Once you’ve decided to begin working on a grant, you can assign tasks within Instrumentl to keep you and your entire team on track. 

You can create a task, choose a deadline, and then assign it to someone within each of your saved grants. 

From your Tracker, you can then click on any grant you’ve saved to see the tasks for that specific opportunity. 

Report on Your Progress

Finally, Instrumentl also makes it easy to generate reports for internal and external stakeholders. 

You can develop reports for your grant opportunities, the awards that you have won, any tasks, and the contact information of funders. These reports are great for keeping your Executive Director or Board of Directors in the loop. 

Now that you know how to use Instrumentl to find training and capacity grants quickly, we are going to wrap up with a few frequently asked questions regarding this type of funding. 

What is the typical application process for training and capacity building grants?

The application process for training and capacity building grants is similar to other grants. They will have specific application deadlines, eligibility requirements, and guidelines. Make sure to follow the funder’s instructions carefully. 

Are training and capacity building grants typically recurring or one-time funding?

Training and capacity building grants are usually one-time funding since they are meant to help with a specific operational need within a nonprofit organization.

Are there specific reporting requirements for training and capacity building grants?

Reporting requirements are dependent on the organization awarding the grant, but usually nonprofits will need to report on what the funds were used for to ensure they meet the overall purpose of the grant.

Can small nonprofits apply for training and capacity building grants?

Training and capacity building grants are great for nonprofits of all sizes. Certain capacity building grants can go a long way for smaller nonprofit organizations.

What are common mistakes to avoid when applying for training and capacity building grants?

The most common mistake to avoid when applying for training and capacity building grants is not fully following the funder’s guidelines or not meeting their eligibility requirements. Fortunately, Instrumentl makes it easy to review grant details with a simple click of a button.

With Instrumentl, finding training and capacity grants has never been easier. All you have to do is share information about your organization and Instrumentl will develop a list of grant matches for you. If you’re ready to try it out for yourself, you can create a 14-day free account on Instrumentl and see if it is the right fit for you!