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Unlocking the transformative impact of funder evaluation is key to propelling your nonprofit’s grant application success to new heights.
In this article, we’ll delve into the pivotal role that funder evaluation plays in elevating your proposals from good to great!
Come along and discover how this approach not only reduces your likelihood of rejection but also significantly increases your chances of securing funding. So, buckle up as we explore 7 reasons why you should absolutely evaluate grant funders before you submit a grant proposal.
When Should You Evaluate a Funder?
Grants can be a huge source of funding for your nonprofit—but they're not always easy to win!
Because of their competitive nature, it’s important to be incredibly strategic when choosing which grants your nonprofit applies to. You don’t want to waste time and effort developing proposals for funders that weren’t a good fit to begin with.
This is where funder evaluation benefits come in!
Once you have compiled a list of potential grant opportunities, you can evaluate the different funders to help narrow down your list to those that best align with your mission and funding needs.
Instead of blindly throwing your hat in the ring, funder evaluations allow you to focus your efforts on the most promising opportunities.
In the following sections, we will explain why it’s so important to evaluate funders before applying to their grants.
Reason 1: A Secret Weapon
In the world of nonprofit grant writing, funder evaluation is your secret weapon against rejection.
By diving deep into potential funders, you can ensure that your proposed project aligns with their priorities and preferences.
Thoroughly researching a funder’s guidelines, criteria, and past funding patterns also allows you to tailor your proposal to fit each funder’s unique expectations. This not only makes your proposal stand out but also increases its competitiveness.
Makes sense, right? But I bet you’re wondering—how do I find all this information? This is where Instrumentl can help!
Instrumentl analyzes and breaks down funders’ Form 990 data into bite-sized, easy-to-read pieces that make trend-spotting super easy.
Instrumentl pulls funders’ key financial data from their 990 forms and displays them in super intuitive bar graphs. For example, the screenshot above shows you the number of grants awarded by the New York Life Foundation per year so that you can see their giving patterns over time.
When you’re searching for grant opportunities for your nonprofit, it’s important to make sure that you find opportunities that align with your nonprofit’s mission and values. This may seem basic, but it’s an important concept to keep in mind.
Nonprofit organizations sometimes fall into the trap of “chasing money”, AKA—applying to grants even if they don’t align with their mission. This can cause your organization to stray from its intended impact in favor of securing funding, which is not sustainable long-term.
Grantmakers—whether they are governments, corporations, or foundations—often have their own missions and focus areas, and it’s likely that they will prioritize grant proposals from applicants who align with those beliefs.
For example, Bank of America offers grants to nonprofits—but they must be aligned with their funding priorities of community development, health, jobs, and small business resiliency.
It is worth your time and energy to research a potential funder’s values before submitting an application. It will save you time and energy in the long term since you will be able to cross off grant opportunities where there is no alignment.
One way to do this is to look at the types of projects that a funder has supported in the past. This is another place where Instrumentl can help!
Instrumentl’s funding by NTEE Code breakdown shows you exactly what kinds of projects a foundation has chosen to fund in the past.
Looking at the New York Life Foundation, the top 3 NTEE codes that they give to are Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundations; Education; and Arts, Culture & Humanities. You can also see the overall amount awarded to these areas, the average grant amount, and the number of grants awarded. So helpful, right?!
Reason 3: Save Time (and Money!)
We’ve all heard the phrase “time is money”, right? Well, it’s true! The time that you spend researching and applying for potential grant opportunities costs your nonprofit money.
Juggling limited resources—including time—is often a nonprofit’s biggest challenge. This is another reason why funder evaluation is critical.
When you apply for grants without taking the time to determine if the funder is a good fit, you risk applying for opportunities that you have no chance of winning. That is a huge waste of time!
Evaluating a funder and making sure that they are a good match allows you to prioritize opportunities that you have a greater chance of winning. This results in a higher return-on-investment for your organization as a whole.
Check out this success story to learn how the nonprofit Oasis-A Haven for Women and Children was able to save 83% of their time with Instrumentl.
Reason 4: Higher Quality Grant Proposals
Conducting funder evaluation can also enhance the quality of your grant proposals by helping you tailor them to the specific areas of interest, priorities and guidelines of any potential funder.
When you are armed with this information, you can develop your proposal content to directly address the funder’s concerns and resonate with their interests, increasing the relevance of your application.
Speaking of relevance, funder evaluation will also enable you to highlight the specific aspects of your project that are most in alignment with the funder’s mission. This will help the funder see the direct connection between their giving priorities and your grant proposal.
Reason 5: Stay Trendy
As you research potential funders, you will undoubtedly begin to identify trends and patterns regarding their past giving. Evaluating these trends will help you determine if a particular grant is worth applying to.
For example, some funders prefer to award grants to the same nonprofits year after year. If this is the case, and you’ve never received a grant for this funder before, you probably should prioritize applying to a different funder who is more open to new grantees.
Pro Tip: Use Instrumentl to see how a funder has allocated funding to new vs. repeat grantees over the years.
As with most things, funding priorities and trends will shift over time. Regular funder evaluation will help you to stay competitive in the grant seeking process.
Reason 6: Compliance & Accountability
Just about any grant that you are awarded will come with strings attached, i.e., reporting requirements.
We have a lot of resources out there about how to ensure grant compliance post-award, but this is also a place where funder evaluation can assist you.
Funder evaluation will give you key insights into how grantmakers expect you to demonstrate accountability and report on the use of funds.
Funders often have varying expectations regarding reporting and accountability, so it’s important for you to know what you’re getting into before you submit a grant proposal.
Analyzing a funder’s grant guidelines and reporting requirements will help prepare you to meet those expectations. Additionally, evaluating these requirements before you apply for a grant will ensure that there are no surprises when it comes time to report on how you spent those grant funds.
Reason 7: Stay Focused & Be Strategic
Thorough funder evaluation is a critical component of a strategic and targeted grant-seeking approach.
By systematically assessing potential funders, their priorities, and preferences, nonprofits can enhance their ability to identify, pursue, and secure funding that aligns closely with their mission and goals.
Rather than adopt a broad and generic approach, funder evaluation enables you to conduct focused research on potential funders, ensuring that time and resources are invested only in applying for opportunities that yield a high ROI.
For example, Instrumentl’s dedicated grant tracker allows you to organize and stay on top of upcoming deadlines, statuses, and next tasks, and it even has a place for notes!
You and your team can access all of your grant and funder-related information in one centralized location.
Wrapping Up
In a nutshell, diving deep into funder evaluation can seriously boost your nonprofit’s grant game! It’s like giving your grant process a turbocharge.
By thoroughly researching potential funders, tailoring your proposals to their preferences, and aligning your requests with their priorities, you’re not just shooting in the dark anymore.
This isn’t just about winning grants; it’s about strategically positioning your nonprofit for success through strategic, meticulous funder research. And don’t forget to check out this guide to writing winning grant proposals once you’ve identified the right funders to apply to.
