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.
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.
- Financial systems documented and audit-ready
- Program outcomes clearly defined and measurable
- Partnership agreements formalized
- Impact data collected and analyzed.
- 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.
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.
- 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”.
Every spoke of the wheel, from systems and stewardship to messaging, needs:
- Clarity of purpose
- A roadmap
- Consistency
- Measurement
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)