Enter the Grant Research & Funding Strategy. Your roadmap to guide the grant opportunities you will pursue for the year. By implementing a strategy and preparing the associated deliverables, your organization can be thoughtful about where you invest your time, energy, and resources to apply for grants that are well-aligned to your program or project. The goal here is a return on investment, so focus on grants your organization has a strong chance of winning and ticks all the boxes for aligning with your mission, funding needs, and grant management scope.

By creating a calendar, you can keep track of each grant opportunity for advance planning. This is especially important when you have competing priorities — which is literally every nonprofit, right? You want your grant calendar to be a document you can lay side by side with your fundraising calendar, program calendar, and perhaps even your content calendar so you have a clear picture of everything your organization has going on.

Where can new nonprofits look for grants? One of my best pieces of advice for the grant process: start locally. Reach out to businesses in the community you serve. Especially those who align with your mission. Especially if you are in your early stages of pursuing grant funding for your organization. These organizations tend to be more invested in your work because it supports their community. What better way to build a relationship?

Content repurposing helps your nonprofit communicate with constituents and grant makers without constantly recreating the wheel and stressing you out. Nonprofit employee burnout is a real thing, so, let’s do what we can to minimize that. Beyond the time-saving aspect, there’s another compelling reason to repurpose your grant application content: ensuring a consistent message on all your communication channels. You want your constituents to receive the right message, clearly, and consistently.