How Dr. Bev Browning Secured More Than $3M in Grants Thanks to Instrumentl

Dr. Bev Browning has impressive experience when it comes to grant consulting. She is currently the Executive Director of the Integro Bank Foundation, has sold over a million copies of Grant Writing For Dummies, and launched numerous training and coaching programs for nonprofits navigating the challenging world of grant seeking. 

Dr. Bev talked about her modest beginnings and how she wrote her first grant application: 

“I entered the nonprofit world many decades ago. You can tell by my gray hair. I was a board member at a nonprofit organization called the Voluntary Action Center. I didn’t really know a lot and there wasn’t a lot of training on what your responsibilities were as a board member.”

One day, the Executive Director came and said the organization was losing the suicide hotline money. The grant they previously secured was over and they didn’t have any new money to keep the project funded. Dr. Bev was tasked with securing a grant even though she knew nothing about the process.

So, what did she do? She went to the library and copied a little booklet about local foundations. Little did she know she was planting a seed for some 47 publications on grants later.

How Dr. Bev Discovered Instrumentl

Prior to Instrumentl, Dr. Bev was using a solution that she thought was quite cumbersome and out of date. Everything changed when she received an email from the Instrumentl team that intrigued her. After she started using the platform, she never looked back: 

“I started using Instrumentl and thought - oh my gosh, this is a miracle! This is going to save me weeks! It just does everything for me. I insert the keywords, set up a project, and it magically shows me the most relevant funding matches.”

Dr. Bev admits that she initially felt overwhelmed with the amount of data and features in Instrumentl, but then after just three days, she concluded that Instrumentl was her new best friend. As an all-in-one grants platform, Instrumentl helps her save a tremendous amount of time: 

“Instrumentl does in about 20 minutes what used to take me 40 hours.”

We were curious to learn some of the favorite things Dr. Bev likes about Instrumentl given the fact she is one of our most loyal customers. 

Dr. Bev appreciates the ability to work with her team and just how easy it is to provide access to external collaborators:

‍“When I have subcontractors on and they need to use Instrumentl for tasks that are assigned to them or for their own projects. It’s a benefit that I give them and I gladly pay for additional users because I have more than five people on my account.”

In addition to being a customer, Dr. Bev is also an Instrumentl Partner. She’s proud to advocate for a product that she believes in while earning passive income.

Dr. Bev’s Typical Instrumentl Session

Wondering what’s the first thing Dr. Bev does when she is in Instrumentl? She first creates a new Client Profile and a dedicated project for it. She then goes back into the main dashboard and starts setting up the project:

“I give the project a name, define what I’m looking for, and then I look at the keywords. Typically, my clients would give me a few keywords but then I do my due diligence, look at their website, look at 990s, and I add new keywords to the project.”

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Sometimes, instead of having one Project for a client, Dr. Bev will have two or three different ones because she found 20-30 keywords. Then she will start narrowing down and choose the state and location that relates to that specific client. After the project is set, Instrumentl does its magic:

“I love the ability to create a project workspace, select the project's characteristics, enter multiple keywords, and then, sit back and watch Instrumentl do all of the sourcing work! I see that loading sign in front of me, and all of a sudden – there’s like 200+ funding opportunities.”

So, how does Dr. Bev prioritize opportunities? Here are some of the criteria she pays attention to:

• Due date for grant applications
• Average grant award
• History of giving (i.e. checking to see if the funder has previously funded in her client’s area)
• 990s reports
• Previously awarded grants
• Contact person 
• How the funder wants to receive applications

Last, but not least, Dr. Bev focuses on the decision-makers:

“I look at who is making decisions and then when I’m done with research, I move to LinkedIn, put those names into the search, and request a connection. This is how I can give the most complete information to my client.”

Pro tip: You can track your relationship with a funder in a single place. Key funder contacts, funder notes, and an entire history of your application attempts with a funder can be saved in Instrumentl.

Tips for Developing Relationships With Funders

Remember how Dr. Bev was tasked with writing a grant application so she borrowed a booklet about local foundations from her library to learn more about the process? Well, one of the names from the booklet sounded really familiar to her: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

It turned out that Charles was a family friend. After she wrote a grant and submitted the application, Charles said he would have an answer in six weeks. She managed to secure the grant for the organization, but she was puzzled about one thing:

“I asked him – why haven’t you given us grant money before? Why haven’t you supported the volunteer center? And this was the lesson that I’ve learned that stayed with me my entire life: because nobody asked him for it.” 

This is not to say that you can just come and ask for money. As Dr. Bev explained, doing so is a huge conversation turn-off. Instead, you should introduce your organization and seek a partnership with the foundation. You want to make sure your organization aligns with what that funder does and look for a long-term relationship:

“It’s not a one-and-done. You should say – we feel that it’s important to know each other before we explore the possibility of asking for a grant from you. Ask what they want to know about your organization.”

Another thing you should bear in mind is choosing the right person to speak on behalf of the organization. This person should not be a grant writer, shared Dr. Bev. Why is that so? 

“Title to title is what we want to do on the questioning. Typically it’s the grant writer who is calling, getting all the information, giving information about the organization, etc.

But the problem is, because in the grants industry, burnout happens on a regular basis, we’ll see jobs changing a lot. When that grant writer leaves and they’re not there anymore, they take the relationship with him. The ED needs to do it to keep the lines of communication open.”

Tips for Future Instrumentl Users

So far, Dr. Bev has raised more than $3M in grants for her clients thanks to the opportunities she has found from Instrumentl. She has been a loyal customer since 2020 which is why we were curious to learn more about the tips she has for those considering Instrumentl:

“Whatever grant solution you’re using now and you think it’s state of the art, it’s not. Think of all the hours, days, and weeks that take you to come up with 15-20 potential grantmakers that are interested in your specific program. I gained hours by using Instrumentl instead of any other database.”

When asked about what she loves the most about Instrumentl, Dr. Bev explained that she’s never going to stop using the platform and that for her, it’s a true game-changer: 

“Instrumentl will continue to be a game-changer because the technology upgrades are ongoing. You are constantly making the platform smarter and faster, and building algorithms so they pull out the needle in a haystack. That’s what I love the most.”

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Thank you Dr. Bev for sharing your amazing story with us! We wish your grant consulting business a lot of success in the future.