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Advice for Funders

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Funder asks for too much information for too little money.

From Vu Le of “Crappy Fundraising Practices”

Athletes For Animals awards grants averaging $1,000 (not a typo). Applications require: a specialized cover sheet; a narrative with evaluation methods; a budget on their form; board and key staff descriptions; and organizational financials plus the IRS letter. (And if you’re awarded funds there’s a required final report.)

This will take a few hundred dollars in staff time, operating expenses, and overhead yet Athletes for Animals pays for none of that.

One Comment from a reader on the LinkedIn post: “When non-profit leaders better understand their cost structure and cost recovery model, they will stop wasting time on things like this.”

Equitable Grantmaking Assessment Guide

To further educate foundations, Vu Le also teamed up with RVC, an organization he founded in Seattle to promote social justice, to create “Making Philanthropy More Equitable: Introducing the Equitable Grantmaking Continuum.”

It outlines funding practices ranging from the most equitable to the most inequitable. The tool can be used by funders to assess their funding and grantmaking processes, and to clearly identify steps they can take to improve them.

Tips on Reaching Corporate Funders

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1. Build Corporate Partnerships.

From Mario Hernandez

  1. Shift your posture from needing help to offering opportunity. Change “We’re looking for sponsors” to “We’re building a movement around [cause], do you want to co-author the story?”
  2. Ditch the gold-silver-bronze garbage. Create partnership experiences that feel custom-built. Fund an innovation lab, co-host a thought leadership series, or launch a branded scholarship program.
  3. Play offense on LinkedIn. Don’t expect them to find you. Go to them, name them, thank them.
  4. Build a Corporate Advisory Council. Once they feel bought-in, the dollars will follow.
  5. Make it ridiculously easy to say yes. Your ask should be crystal clear: “We have a $25,000 project funding gap. Here’s what you’ll get in return. Here’s how your brand will be celebrated.”
  6. Follow up like a human, not a robot. Send them micro-wins like “Just wanted to share, we hit 100 youth served this month!” or “This story made me think of your team’s values.”

2. Pitch a Mutual Benefit for Corporate Funding.

From Kevin L. Brown.

Corporations give $21 billion annually, most want a mutually beneficial partnership. Propose a two-way street across four dimensions:

Philanthropy:

  • You get: Thoughtful, strategic, aligned grants.
  • They get: A trusted home to invest their mandated giving.

People:

  • You get: Volunteers and expertise.
  • They get: A happier staff.

Platform

  • You get: New audiences.
  • They get: Strengthened brand positioning and powerful differentiation.

Product (In-kind Giving)

  • You get: Free resources and tools.
  • They get: To leverage their core business in the service of others.

Is the Grant Worth Going For? & What do Funders Want to Know?

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How do you decide what grants are worth your time?

From Lauren A. Burke

A matrix, essentially a scorecard, to help you rate how well your organization matches a grant criteria. It includes:

  • Issue Area
  • Geographical Scope
  • Connections
  • Application Lift
  • Amount of Funding

Six steps to finding the true costs of programs.

From Bridgespan

A Nonprofit Cost Analysis Toolkit: walks through a one-week to one-month process for performing a true cost analysis, which includes looking at indirect, or overhead, costs (e.g. administration, marketing, operations), not just programs.

How to approach funders for collaborative grants.

From: Amanda Davis

  • Why funders value collaboration
  • What they expect in proposals
  • Practical steps your nonprofit can take to successfully secure collaborative grants

Have these ready when that grant opportunity appears.

From Matthew Johnston

  1. Financial systems documented and audit-ready
  2. Program outcomes clearly defined and measurable
  3. Partnership agreements formalized
  4. Impact data collected and analyzed.
  5. Starting this capacity building doesn’t require massive investment. Begin with fundamentals every application asks for: create a simple logic model connecting activities to outcomes, establish basic data tracking, document your financial processes, draft template partnership letters, and compile organizational documents into a grant-ready folder.

Track the right numbers for nonprofit success.

From Allison Gregory

Metrics that cut through the noise and stabilize fundraising:

  • Board Giving & Fundraising Participation
  • Donor Retention Rate, New Donor Conversion, & LYBUNT* Recapture Rate
  • Donor Engagement Score & Recurring Donor %
  • Donor Lifetime Value & Average Gift Size

*Last Year But Unfortunately Not This

Differentiate your ask.

From Emily Gaylor

  • Renewed Donors: Ask for a second gift, an upgrade, or a targeted contribution to a special program.
  • Event Donors: Keep the ask simple and concrete – something like $50–$100 for a program that connects directly to the event they attended.
  • Current Donors: Remind them of their last gift and ask them to increase it by 50% or enroll in your recurring giving program.
  • Lapsed Donors: Reintroduce them to your mission, acknowledge their past support, and make a specific, emotionally resonant ask that matches their last gift amount.
  • Non-Donors (prospects): Make a simple, tangible first ask ($50–$100) tied to a visible outcome.

A graphic “Wheel of fundraising success”.

From Sarah Squire

Every spoke of the wheel, from systems and stewardship to messaging, needs:

  • Clarity of purpose
  • A roadmap
  • Consistency
  • Measurement
  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Materials Available from Past Workshops

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The Power of Strategic Prospecting

$100

Stop chasing “eligible” and start chasing “ideal” with smarter research and sharper insights
Finding the right funders takes more than checking eligibility boxes. Strategic prospecting means digging deeper into a funder’s past giving, geographic focus, values, openness to new grantees, typical grant sizes, key contacts and relationships, and nuanced language.

The Workshop provided practical tools that go beyond surface-level research and build stronger, more targeted prospect lists. Also, how to identify funders that truly align with your mission, increasing your chances of meaningful and lasting support.

Materials Include:

  • Presentation Slides & Video Recording
  • Packet of Prospecting Resources
  • 990 Demo
  • Grants Calendar Template
  • Responses to the Workshop Q&A

Small Family Foundations

$175

Small family foundations are defined as giving less than $2M, annually. More than 1,000 of these foundations support Minnesota nonprofits.

The Workshop delivered information and insight on Small Family Foundations that fund in MN: What they are funding. What they want from you, and how to approach them – first steps, strategies, and building relationships.

Materials include:

  • A pdf book of 100+ funder profiles
  • A downloadable Powerpoint presentation
  • A recording of the 3-hour event
  • The Q & A

National Funders

$135
In February, ’25, Access Philanthropy presented its 17th edition of the Minnesota National Grantmakers, our annual workshop on funders who are not based in Minnesota, but are funding in Minnesota. Feedback has been very positive. Nearly 1 IN 3 grants to Minnesota groups are awarded by funders outside of Minnesota. Find out who the most interesting funders are and how to reach them

Materials include:

  • AP’s 2025 National Directory of Top 100+ National Funders in Minnesota
  • Advice on approaching corporate, mega, and family funders
  • A copy of the presentation slide deck
  • A look at national funding trends
  • Q&A with answers
  • 30-minute free consultation with AP researchers & writers.

MN Arts & Culture Funders

$95

The two-hour workshop featured highlights on Access Philanthropy’s new book of MN Arts Funders, along with insights from AP’s Steve Paprocki, Sharon DeMark, Program Manager, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, Braxton Haulcy, ED, Walker | West, and Lia Rivamonte, Arts Administration Consultant.

Materials include:

  • Book of the top 150+ resident and non-resident Arts, Culture, and Humanities grantmakers who award grants in MN.
  • Slide deck and recording of event with overview of 60 MN Arts funders.
  • Q&A with answers