The Secret Sauce: Strategies & Tactics to Engage Institutional Funders

Heather and I presented this topic to the Association of Fundraising Professionals DC Chapter recently and then decided to capture these best practices to share our institutional fundraising “secret sauce.” Whether you’re a longtime fundraiser or newer to the field, take a look at these key elements that are critical to successful institutional fundraising. And if there’s an ingredient we missed (or that you prefer), please drop us a line to let us know what’s worked for you!

Note: While institutional fundraising includes both corporations and foundations, we focus on private foundations here. 

The Process of Institutional Fundraising

To be successful, it’s helpful to understand each element of the institutional funding process including how to move from prospecting to initial outreach meetings, to staying connected and through the proposal submission stage. 

Prospecting 

Building - and continually updating - your list of prospective funders will help you maintain a robust pipeline. Consider investing in grant-seeking software like Instrumentl or Candid’s Foundation Directory Online. This article from Funding for Good compares a number of grant databases, so it’s worth a read. You should also consider asking your current funders for prospective foundation suggestions by asking “Who should I be talking to?” and exploring conferences or industry gatherings to attend. 

To stay organized, we encourage you to use a prospect research template that summarizes each potential funder you’ve reviewed. A spreadsheet will let you sort prospects by focus area, potential gift amount, deadline, and more. Here’s a prospect research template to stay organized if you need it. 

Initial Outreach

A cold letter of inquiry or a proposal submitted without any advance connection has very little chance of getting funded so you should always reach out to a new prospective funder in advance of any submission. Always research the program officer most closely aligned with your work, and look on Linked In to see who you know that may be connected to them. Having a contact to help make an introduction can be a great first step in your outreach. If you don't have a contact, you should still draft a brief email highlighting your work and your alignment with the funder’s priorities and send it to the program officer. In the email, let them know you’ll be following up with a call (yes, a call!). While you may not get someone on the phone, it’ll be another opportunity to share details and have them hear your name and that of your organization. After that, send follow-up emails from time to time, including articles or other info that may be of interest. At this point you’re trying to establish a connection; remember, you should be persistent but not a pest and have a robust list of potential funders that you’re reaching out to regularly! 

Preparing For Your Meeting

When you get a prospective funder meeting, there are several things you can do to prepare. First, make sure you, senior leadership, and your program team staff are aligned on the meeting’s goals. Confirm the kind of grant you’re seeking (programmatic, general operating); the approximate amount of your request; and the anticipated impact: both on specific beneficiaries and the broader systemic impact you’re hoping to achieve.

In your meeting, make sure to have your talking points and questions prepared in advance. You want to help the funder understand your organization and you need to learn about the funder’s goals and priorities. A short slide deck can be a good way to organize details about your impact and work but you can have an effective meeting without one. As the meeting is concluding, confirm next steps and be sure to ask the funder how they’d like to stay in touch and receive updates on your work.   

Staying Connected

One reason you need a funder pipeline is that you may have engaged several prospects who seem interested in supporting you, but for one reason or another, they aren’t able to consider a proposal in the near term. That is just how the process goes; institutional fundraising takes time and persistence! So -- plan for ways to stay in touch with prospective funders by using moments like events, recognition awards, or legislative wins or milestones achieved as an opportunity to reach out. You could also share details on new strategic plans or leadership changes or articles/information that might interest them. And, consider creating an impact report or other piece to summarize your annual work to share with prospective funders as well as those who support you.

How to Write Compelling Grant Proposals

Write proposals that stand out, meet the funder’s goals, and offer compelling narratives that focus both on your impact with key beneficiaries as well as the systemic impact of your initiative. 

What type of proposals get funded?

Proposals that get funded typically include several important elements:   

1. Your organization is presented in a strong light, and you emphasize key elements of your programs and services; 
2. You share metrics used to track impact; 
3. Your narrative is easy to read, includes clear goals, and doesn’t include acronyms that aren’t defined or jargon, etc. 

Further, you want to make sure your funder sees themselves in your grant language. If the prospective funder wants to “make sure no youth sees the inside of a prison cell” your program language should specifically share how you’re doing that. You should also be clear about what success looks like for your project and share that vision of success in your proposal. And, include an informed and realistic program budget so the funder knows the true cost of achieving your proposed outcomes. Work with your programs teams whenever possible so your language, examples, budget, and plans are based on real work plans and expected outcomes.

Some proposal strategies that have led to funding include: 

• Seeking input from a program officer at a foundation who is willing to review a proposal before you’ve submitted the final draft;
• Asking a program officer “Can you confirm that these elements we’re planning to focus on in our proposal is the right approach?”
• Working with a program officer to determine how best to demonstrate and track impact, especially for work that is hard to quantify.

Your proposals may need to include impact stories, so think through how you’ll identify subjects and who will craft the narrative. Even if one proposal doesn’t require a story, you should build a “story library” that highlights your impact and demonstrates the progress you’re making. 

We typically include these elements in impact stories:

1. Opening that gets the reader’s attention;
2. Context explaining why the issue is important and why the reader should care; 
3. Explanation detailing what happened and how your organization contributed to the impact;
4. What’s next - let the reader know what actions they can take to further your impact.

Once you’ve received funding, put strong processes in place to implement the grant flawlessly. This means tracking both expenses and activities to ensure they align with your grant proposal and continually keeping your funder engaged with your work. 

• Once you have secured funding (and done your happy dance!), you need to make sure finance has the final budget for tracking and that all of the grant deliverables are in the staff’s work plans. 
• Development staff should conduct regular check-ins with your program teams to make sure the specified grant work is on track. If you don’t think you’ll be able to meet a proposed deliverable, let the funder know as soon as possible. Often, you can ask for a “No Cost Extension” to have more time to complete the work if needed.

Institutional Fundraising Tips

A few notes from our experience….

• Foundation staff often don’t have time to read through all the information you send them – make sure to use graphic bolding and underlining to create visual interest and draw their attention to key elements if you can!
• Multi-year projects require strong project management skills and are a win on many fronts. If you are able to submit a proposal for multi-year support, make sure you account for inflation, increases in salaries, and other planned organizational growth in your budget.
• Sometimes funders change their giving priorities or a program officer who has been a major advocate for your organization leaves their role. If they’ve changed priorities, you can ask for a “tie-off” grant and you should also ask if there are other funders in the space that they can introduce you to. When a program officer leaves, find out who is taking their place and try to get a meeting right away (usually that will be a meeting just with the new person). Learn as much as you can about the new person and their priorities in advance of your meeting.

We know this is a pretty long “ingredients” list for our special funder sauce! Please let us know your thoughts and share any other elements you’ve found effective to add to the mix.