grants

How to Turn Grant Funders into Long-Term Supporters

Ann Green Communications, donor engagement, donor relations, grants, gratitude, stories , , , , ,

Securing grant funding is difficult and requires significant nonprofit resources. Fortify grant funder connections to minimize effort while attracting funding.

By Erin Murphy

Winning a grant is no small feat—it takes time, effort, and a compelling proposal to secure funding. But the real payoff lies in turning that one-time grant into a long-term partnership. Building strong, lasting relationships with grant funders not only saves your nonprofit valuable staff time but also stabilizes revenue and creates opportunities for greater mission impact.

With the right approach—one rooted in care, transparency, and a thoughtful communication strategy—you can transform grant funders into loyal supporters who champion your cause for years to come.

1. Align Proposals with Funder Priorities

The foundation of any strong funder relationship is alignment. Grant funders want to see that your nonprofit understands their mission and values, and that your programs directly support their priorities. This requires more than just a well-written proposal; it demands thorough research and a tailored approach.

Start by diving into each funder’s stated goals and past grantmaking. What types of projects have they supported in the past? What outcomes do they prioritize? By identifying the overlap between their mission and your nonprofit’s impact, you can frame your programs as mutually beneficial.

Then, you’ll have enough information to start creating your proposals. When crafting them, avoid the temptation to rely on generic templates. Instead, customize each proposal to reflect the funder’s unique priorities and demonstrate shared values. This not only builds trust but also sets the stage for a partnership that feels collaborative from the outset.

2. Demonstrate Impact Through Consistent Reporting

Winning a grant is just the beginning. Funders need to see that their investment is making a difference. According to Thompson Grants, transparent, timely reporting is essential for complying with funder requirements while also strengthening their confidence and trust in your organization. 

When reporting to funders, go beyond the basics. Provide both qualitative stories and quantitative data to paint a full picture of your impact. For example, an educational nonprofit could share a compelling story about a student who gained access to college through their scholarship program, alongside metrics showing increased graduation rates.

Also, don’t be afraid to highlight unexpected results or lessons learned. For example, if a housing initiative aimed to renovate 50 units but only completed 40 due to supply chain delays, explain how you adapted and built stronger vendor partnerships. Or if a workforce program discovered higher demand for digital skills training than anticipated, show how you pivoted resources to meet community needs. Funders appreciate this kind of honesty and value learning alongside you. 

3. Cultivate Relationships Beyond the Grant Cycle

A common mistake nonprofits make is only engaging with funders during the grant cycle. To turn funders into long-term supporters, you need to build relationships that extend beyond the check. Get started by:

  • Scheduling regular updates to keep funders informed about your work—not just when reports are due. These updates can take the form of emails, phone calls, or informal check-ins to share progress, challenges, and upcoming plans. Transparency in these communications builds trust and keeps your nonprofit top of mind.
  • Inviting funders to experience your work firsthand through site visits, events, or behind-the-scenes tours. Seeing your programs in action deepens their emotional connection and reinforces the value of their contributions.
  • Ensuring personalized communication. A thank-you call, handwritten note, or spotlight on their contribution in your newsletter can make funders feel appreciated and recognized. Tailoring your outreach to their preferences shows you value them as individuals, not just financial backers.

By treating funders as true collaborators in your mission, you can build trust, show gratitude, and turn first-time funders into long-term allies.

4. Involve Funders in Strategy and Storytelling

When funders feel like active partners in shaping your nonprofit’s future, they’re more likely to stay invested. Involving them in your strategy and storytelling deepens their connection to your mission and fosters a sense of shared purpose. You can do so by:

  1. Telling your story. Share compelling stories that highlight the human side of your impact—stories that make the outcomes of their funding tangible and relatable. These stories can be shared in newsletters, impact reports, or even during one-on-one conversations. Just ensure you use real human testimonials to strengthen your story’s emotional appeal.
  2. Soliciting their feedback on new initiatives or strategic plans. Asking for their input not only shows that you value their expertise but also helps them feel like collaborators in your work. This can be as simple as inviting them to brainstorming sessions or sharing drafts of upcoming projects for their review.
  3. Spotlight funders in your communications (with their permission) to publicly acknowledge their contributions. You can also invite them to share their expertise by serving as advisors or guest speakers at events. This not only gets existing funders more involved with your story but can also serve as social proof for potential funders.

By involving funders in both your strategy and storytelling, you create a deeper sense of partnership and ensure they feel personally connected to your nonprofit’s success. 

5. Strengthen Stewardship with Systems and Teamwork

Sustainable stewardship requires strong systems, clear processes, and a team-wide commitment to maintaining funder relationships. By building the right infrastructure, you can ensure no funder falls through the cracks.

Start by creating internal workflows for tracking funder interactions. A centralized system, such as a CRM or grants management platform, can help you keep records consistent and accessible. Use these tools to log communications, track deadlines, and monitor progress on grant deliverables.

Next, assign stewardship responsibilities to specific team members so funders have a clear point of contact. Whether it’s sending updates, scheduling check-ins, or preparing reports, having dedicated roles ensures funders feel prioritized.

Regardless of their exact role on your team, training your staff on stewardship best practices is also essential. Equip your team with the skills to communicate effectively, personalize outreach, and demonstrate gratitude via workshops and training resources. Additionally, educate your team on how to use your CRM data to strengthen stewardship with regular upskilling sessions.

Turning grant funders into long-term supporters is one of the most impactful steps your nonprofit can take to ensure reliable funding and lasting partnerships. With the right approach, you can transform one-time grants into enduring partnerships that drive your mission forward. 

Erin Murphy, MBA, is the Vice President of Marketing at Thompson Grants, where she leads strategic initiatives to expand the organization’s reach and impact. She leads initiatives that connect grant professionals with expert guidance, training, and tools designed to simplify compliance and strengthen funding strategies. Erin combines her background in marketing with a passion for supporting nonprofits, governments, and institutions as they navigate the complex world of grants management.

5 Revenue Streams to Strengthen Nonprofit Sustainability

Ann Green corporate giving, events, fundraising, grants, mobile giving, monthly donors, planning , , , , , ,

Diverse revenue streams provide a sustainable financial foundation for nonprofits. Explore revenue streams your nonprofit should pursue in this guide.

It’s important for you to diversify your revenue sources. This is especially important now because of the current chaos of eliminating (and then not eliminating, at least for now) federal grant funding. We also saw disruption five years ago when the COVID-19 pandemic started.

This guest post by John Killoran covers a variety of revenue sources to help you diversify your funding. I’d like to emphasize the importance of recurring/monthly giving. This is a great way for nonprofits of all sizes to bring in a steady stream of revenue.

By John Killoran

Leaders across the nonprofit sector face a common challenge: striving to serve a growing community of beneficiaries with constrained budgets. The good news? Revenue diversification unlocks financial sustainability for nonprofits, providing a powerful alternative to relying on limited funding for your mission.

With various funding sources, your organization can develop dependable revenue flows that not only sustain your organization’s day-to-day operations but also enable it to grow. In this guide, we’ll explore five revenue streams your nonprofit can access to strengthen its financial sustainability.

1. Mobile Giving Campaigns

The future of fundraising is mobile, with a growing number of donors using their smartphones to find new nonprofits, complete transactions, and tell their friends about their experiences. That’s what makes mobile giving campaigns so successful—these fundraisers make contributing convenient for donors.

According to Snowball Fundraising’s mobile giving guide, there are five steps nonprofits should follow to start a mobile giving campaign:

[Alt text: The steps to start a mobile giving campaign, which are explained in the following text.]

  1. Evaluate your mobile fundraising logistics. Begin by defining the basics of your fundraiser, such as which staff members will oversee the campaign and how you’ll promote it to donors.
  2. Choose mobile giving channels. Determine which mobile giving strategies resonate most with your supporters, such as a mobile-responsive donation page on your website or a text-to-give campaign.
  3. Select a mobile giving provider. Connect with relevant software providers to streamline your mobile giving strategy. For example, you’ll need to partner with a text-to-donate provider before launching a text campaign to receive a shortcode and accept donations.
  4. Incorporate mobile giving into your fundraising plan. Plan how you’ll integrate mobile giving campaigns into your existing fundraising initiatives, such as by adding a QR code to your flyers so direct mail donors can easily donate online.
  5. Track and adjust your strategies. Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) as donors interact with your mobile giving campaigns to determine the most effective strategies.

Since mobile giving is self-sustaining—meaning donors can contribute to these campaigns with little intervention from your nonprofit—these campaigns allow you to collect revenue in the “background” of your other initiatives. In other words, you can focus on your mission while revenue pours in from your mobile donation page or text-to-give campaign!

2. Fundraising Events

While your nonprofit can host countless types of profitable fundraising events, focus on the ideas that are most likely to appeal to your target audience. Create an event calendar to plan the timing of each fundraiser, including time before and after for event planning and follow-up.

Follow these best practices to maximize your event revenue:

  • Invest in event-specific technology. Tools with capabilities specific to the type of event you’re hosting are purpose-built to maximize your event’s success. For example, event registration software can help with ticketing for an auction. However, your nonprofit will unlock other functionalities by choosing auction software, such as an item inventory, mobile bidding, and other auction-specific tasks.
  • Offer tiered ticket pricing. Create flexible ticketing options that cater to a range of budgets so your event remains accessible to a broad audience. Encourage greater contributions by offering perks to higher-priced tickets, such as exclusive access or premium seating.
  • Plan events in various formats. Donors prefer different event formats for various reasons. Perhaps the majority of your donors are local, but others want to participate from another geographical location. Some of your supporters are excited for an outing, while others don’t want to leave their house. Plan a mix of in-person, virtual, and hybrid events to maximize event participation.

The best part? Fundraising events pair perfectly with more passive forms of fundraising, such as your mobile giving campaigns. Promote your text-to-give shortcode at an auction or feature QR codes on event posters that link to your mobile donation page for increased donations.

3. Recurring Donations

While securing new donors is crucial, most nonprofit leaders know that acquisition is more costly (and less reliable) than retention. In fact, research from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project shows that only 23% of first-time donors ever make another gift, while 58% of repeat donors stick around for another year.

Successfully encouraging your existing supporters to give again, especially on a recurring basis, creates a stable financial foundation of predictable revenue. The most effective way to secure continued support is through a formal monthly giving program, which includes:

  • Defining tiers and benefits. Attach benefits to specific giving levels to incentivize repeated donations. For example, donors giving $10 each month could receive quarterly impact updates, while those giving $50 monthly are invited to exclusive events.
  • Emphasizing the impact of small, regular contributions. Use real-world impact to demonstrate the value of monthly donations. For example, $10 monthly might feed a family for a week, while $50 monthly funds one day of emergency shelter for a family in crisis.
  • Automating communications to retain recurring donors. Send regular messages to thank donors for their repeated support, acknowledge their commitment, and celebrate milestones regarding their involvement.

In addition to the steps outlined above, remember to highlight the convenience of recurring gifts. Once donors join your monthly giving program, the process will run automatically, eliminating the need to donate manually. They can even opt-in to recurring donations through your text-to-give campaign for an easier sign-up process!

4. Corporate Contributions

While it’s tempting to think of individual donors as your nonprofit’s target audience, revenue can come from other sources, too. Companies and businesses often contribute to nonprofits as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR), or a company’s efforts toward improving society.

According to Double the Donation’s CSR guide, there are five main facets of CSR:

  • Philanthropic, which involves a company directly supporting a nonprofit through charitable contributions, such as matching gifts
  • Volunteerism, in which a company encourages employees to engage with nonprofits by offering grants or paid time off
  • Environmental, in which a company adjusts its values and practices to be more environmentally conscious
  • Ethical, which involves companies looking after the welfare of their employees
  • Economic, through which companies invest in their communities

Collaborating with businesses can unlock new revenue and boost visibility since your nonprofit will gain the attention of a company’s employees and customers. To get started, identify companies with values that align with your mission and pitch mutually beneficial opportunities for them to support your cause. For example, request the company sponsor a fundraising event and offer to promote their brand at the fundraiser in exchange for their support.

5. Grants

Grants provide substantial funding for both general operations and specific projects. When your nonprofit secures a grant to cover an essential cost, you’ll have more room in your budget for other financial needs, like funding your programs and services.

Start by researching foundations or programs that align with your mission. You can also search according to your nonprofit’s needs. For example, search for marketing grants if you spend too much on marketing. Follow the grantor’s instructions for applying while highlighting your nonprofit’s unique need for funding.

For support with the application process and grant usage (if awarded), enlist the help of a professional grant agency. Their expertise is especially useful for grants with extensive eligibility and usage requirements. For example, a grant agency might be helpful when applying for the Google Ad Grant, especially if your nonprofit has never participated in the program or created a Google Ad.

Each revenue diversification strategy mentioned in this article offers unique benefits. Implementing numerous ideas provides multiple revenue streams and allows your nonprofit to tap into more benefits than possible with just one or two fundraising ideas. Plus, promoting these giving opportunities via multiple channels ensures you reach the largest audience possible with fundraisers that appeal to them. 

John Killoran is an inventor, entrepreneur, and the Chairman of Clover Leaf Solutions, a national lab services company. He currently leads Clover Leaf’s investment in Snowball Fundraising, an online fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations. 

Snowball was one of John’s first public innovations; it’s a fundraising platform that offers text-to-give, online giving, events, and peer-to-peer fundraising tools for nonprofits. By making giving simple, Snowball increases the donations that these organizations can raise online. The Snowball effect is real! John founded Snowball in 2011. Now, it serves over 7,000 nonprofits and is the #1 nonprofit fundraising platform.

3 Technology Tools For Improved Nonprofit Grant Management

Ann Green database, grants, planning , ,

Are you looking for tips to elevate your grant management strategy in 2023? Explore three technology tools that can level up your grant fundraising efforts.

By Carl Diesing

Alongside moves management and capital campaigns, grant fundraising is one of the most intricate fundraising activities that a nonprofit organization will undertake.

Rooted in a foundation of strong relationships with grantmaking organizations, successful grant fundraising requires nonprofits to manage and track multiple priorities— specific application requirements, timelines, funding usage guidelines, and reporting expectations. The process is complicated for nonprofits managing a single grant, and that’s before considering that often organizations are juggling many applications and ongoing donor relationships at the same time.

In this guide, we’re going to briefly cover three popular technology tools for grant management. For an in-depth look at grant management and how these tools can assist your nonprofit, explore DNL OmniMedia’s guide on the topic.

Here are the tools we’ll review:

  • Salesforce’s foundationConnect
  • Blackbaud’s Financial Edge NXT
  • EveryAction

Whether you’ve received a foundation grant to be used for a specific project or you’ve been accepted into the ongoing Google Ad Grants program, all grants come with ongoing stipulations and reporting requirements after they’re won. Effective grant management is crucial to remain compliant, but it’s incredibly difficult to stay organized with sub-par grant management software.

The following three solutions are distinguished from the competition in the world of grant management software. 

Salesforce’s foundationConnect

Though Salesforce first emerged as a provider of corporate business solutions, the vendor ventured into the nonprofit world when it created its Nonprofit Success Pack— an overlay that configures the main Salesforce constituent relationship management solutions to be useful for philanthropic organizations. Investing in software can help your nonprofit raise more funds. 

Since then, several nonprofit-specific Salesforce Apps and overlays have emerged to further align with the specific needs of philanthropy. One example is Salesforce’s foundationConnect, a grant management system created to be useful for both grantmakers and grantees alike.

Salesforce’s foundationConnect elevates the grant management process by:

  • Giving grantmakers the tools to track grant funding through all of the major stages in the process, from receiving applications, to dispersing funds, to measuring the outcomes achieved with dispersed funds.
  • Providing applicants with a portal made specifically for grantees, in which they can not only submit completed applications but save in-progress applications while documentation is finalized.
  • Generating status reports for both grantmakers and grantees at each step in the process, so both sides can access ongoing updates as needed.

As a nonprofit, it’s unlikely that you’ll be purchasing and implementing foundationConnect for your own organization’s software lineup. Rather, you’ll interact with it if you choose to apply for a grant with a foundation that uses the system. Regardless, from the grantee’s perspective, it’s still a solution that will elevate your nonprofit’s grant management process when you encounter it.

Blackbaud’s Financial Edge NXT

Blackbaud is a highly-regarded provider in the world of nonprofit technology, with numerous constituent relationship management, marketing, and fundraising solutions available for mid-sized to enterprise organizations. Its grant management solution is called Financial Edge NXT and was created to assist grantees with post-award management once they’ve been granted funding.

To illustrate the importance of post-award management, consider the example of challenge grants.

Double the Donation’s guide to challenge grants defines them as “donations that are made to a nonprofit by a grant-making party once the nonprofit organization has successfully fulfilled a predetermined list of requirements.” Most often, these requirements revolve around raising a specific amount of funding independently before the nonprofit can receive the grant. But, that initial fundraising often has specific parameters as well— including the timeframe in which it must be raised, which types of donations are eligible, and how updates about the process need to be communicated with the grantor. Meeting the “challenge” is reliant on effective post-award management.

Challenge grants are only one example of the importance of post-award management. Most grants require dispersed funds to be used on a specific timeline and for a project or area of operations. The exact use of dispersed funds needs to be reported back to the funder on a predetermined timeline and in the reporting style of the funder’s choice.

Financial Edge NXT was created with an understanding of the complexity of post-award management and has the following functionality to make the process less harrowing for grantees:

  • Multi-Grant Management: Nonprofits that have received numerous grants, each with unique usage, reporting, and timeline requirements, can easily add each grant opportunity to the system to track and meet the requirements.
  • Detailed Records: Record the history of the grant, associated projects, usage thus far, and more within each grant record. This information can be used for your annual report.
  • Reimbursement Management: In the instance that some costs are to be reimbursed by the grantmaker, grantees can record both direct and indirect costs associated with the grant.

Because Financial Edge NXT can be used to manage numerous grants at once, it’s the ideal solution for nonprofits looking to create evergreen grant fundraising procedures. You can create processes within the system, train your team, and use the same procedures for years to come.

EveryAction

EveryAction provides a constituent relationship management solution that’s known most for its advocacy features. However, within this CRM are a number of useful major gift and grant management features to improve the process for nonprofits.

What’s most interesting about EveryAction’s CRM is that, rather than investing in an additional grant management solution, you can access the tools built-in to your CRM. This includes features such as:

  • Workflows to guide your team through identifying and researching funding opportunities prior to submitting applications.
  • The ability to track deadlines and documents from the applications through fund usage and outcomes reporting.
  • Results analysis to help your nonprofit understand areas of improvement for future campaigns.

For advocacy organizations looking to implement grant fundraising into their efforts, it’s hard to find a grant management solution better suited than EveryAction.

Bonus! Tips for Choosing the Right Grant Management Software For Your Nonprofit

We’ve discussed three different grant management tools in this guide, and there are numerous other solutions available for nonprofits. However, it’s important to recognize that not all solutions are created equal— and, when funding as significant as a grant is on the line, choosing the right solution for your specific circumstances is crucial.

To wrap up, keep the following three tips in mind when researching grant management tools for your nonprofit:

  • Partner with a consultant. A nonprofit technology consultant can examine your current software solutions alongside your grant fundraising goals and help you choose the right management software with both in mind. Further, this partner can manage grant management software implementation to ensure your team is positioned for success.
  • Integrate your grant management tools with your other solutions. Your constituent relationship management solution contains the most comprehensive view of your nonprofit’s activities, including how funds are allocated and used for different projects and expenses. An integration between your grant management solution and your CRM ensures that there is a seamless transfer of information between your nonprofit’s main database and your grant solution.
  • Create a grant management plan before funding is awarded. Don’t invest in grant management software after you’ve already won a grant. It takes time to implement new software and train your team to use it, and that time could slow down the management of your grant. Aim to fortify your grant management software and processes before you begin applying for grants, so you can reap the benefits from the start of the application process through disbursement and beyond.

Whether you choose to implement a complete grant management system or simply seek grant management-specific tools when you upgrade your CRM, the choice will be worthwhile in advancing your grant management procedures.

Carl Diesing co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with ongoing web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.