How To Build A Knowledge Bank On All Your Grant Funders
Instrumentl makes it easy to keep track of all your funder information and manage your entire grant history in one place, including:
- Your funder notes
- Opportunity-specific notes
- Funder contact information
- Current award status
- Award start and end dates
- Funder portal logins
If you’re not currently an Instrumentl user, you can sign up for a 14-day trial. Once you’ve created your account, here’s a detailed breakdown of how you can start tracking your entire funder history with ease:
Step 1: Set Up Your Nonprofit With Instrumentl
Once you have created your free trial with Instrumentl, you will need to set up your first project.
Projects are like a saved search—you enter details about your organization and the types of grants you are looking for, and then Instrumentl uses this information to match you with the best-fit funding opportunities.
In the “1. Organization” section, you will start filling in the details about your organization, such as your geographic location and fiscal year. You can then click “Save and Continue.”
In the next section, “2. Overview” you will name your project. The name can be anything that will help you distinguish your project.
In the example below, we called our project “Promoting Arts and Culture.” Make sure to select “Matches & Tracking” so that Instrumentl can match you with relevant grants that fit your criteria.
After you’ve finished setting up your project, Instrumentl will let you invite your team members to have access to the account. That way, your entire team can review your grant matches and grant funder tracking information together.
Step 2: Upload Your Grants To Instrumentl
Instrumentl will automatically match you with active funding opportunities that align with your search criteria, but if you have existing grants that you want to upload to the platform, Instrumentl makes it easy.
There are two different ways you can go about this:
- You can save hours of manual data entry by uploading your existing grant spreadsheet. To do this, you simply enter your existing grant data into this template, and click “Upload Your Spreadsheet” on the below screen.
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This process can take some time depending on how many grants are in your current grant database. So, be patient! It can take up to a week for your grants to finish uploading.
- Also keep in mind that you can add grants manually if you prefer to do it that way, or if you don’t have very many grants to enter. To do this, you will need to manually search for that funder by going to Instrumentl’s “Quick Find” search tool at the top left of your page.
When you click on the Quick Find area, it will open up a search modal. That is where you can type the name of the funder or grant you are looking for.
You will see a list of results appear below. The top of the list will show any active grant opportunities with names related to your search term, and the bottom portion will list the funders related to your query.
You can select the grant or funder you are interested in and then save them to your Tracker by using the “Save” button.
For example, if we chose the first opportunity on our list, the TFAA: Exhibition Grants, a new box will open up with the specific grant information. If we want to save that grant to our Tracker we simply click “Save.”
Once you upload or manually add in any grants, you will see them and their histories organized seamlessly in your Grant Tracker.
Step 3: Open the Tracker and Select a Grant Opportunity
Once you’ve saved your grants (either by selecting them from Instrumentl’s grant matches, uploading them via your spreadsheet, or manually adding them) they will all appear in your dedicated Tracker.
Instrumentl’s Tracker gives you a comprehensive view of all your funding opportunities, their deadlines, status, tasks, and more. No more disorganized information scattered across different spreadsheets!
When you click into a saved opportunity from your Tracker, you’ll notice that a funder modal populates.
This new view showcases the Funder Profile, as well as the complete history of Funding Opportunities with that funder on the left hand side.
The great thing about Instrumentl is that it allows you to track and keep notes on both Saved Opportunities (active grants) as well as saved Funder Profiles (more on Funder Profiles in the next step!).
When you click on a specific Saved Opportunity (in our example, the Olive Tree Foundation Grant), you’ll be able to see the:
- Status
- Fiscal year
- Project
- Application cycle
- Opportunity notes
- Tasks
for that specific saved grant.
You can also update the status of the grant to keep your whole team organized and on the same page.
By clicking on the “Funding Opportunity” tab at the top of your screen, you will also be able to see important information about the specific grant you’ve selected, including its fields of work, funding uses, location of project, eligibility, etc.
In the “Dates & Amounts” section, you’ll be able to add any dates and monetary amounts associated with the funding opportunity.
Finally, under the “Documents & Resources” header, you’ll be able to add in Funder Portal credentials and any documents for the opportunity.
Step 4: Locate the Funder Profile
Instrumentl’s Tracker isn’t just helpful for tracking your active grant opportunities, it’s also a great way to organize all of your funder-specific information as well!
Simply click on the “Funder Profile” on the top left of your screen.
Clicking into the Funder Profile will populate funder insights, including 990 breakdowns, an overview of their giving, and more.
You’ll also see two new fields, Funder Notes and Funder Contacts. Keep reading!
Step 5: Update Funder Notes and Contacts
Instrumentl allows you to now save funder-specific notes and contacts within your Funder Profiles. These fields can be seen across all opportunities with a funder and can be very helpful for your team when there are multiple grant opportunities from the same funder.
When you click on a Funder Profile, you will see Funder Notes and Contacts on the right hand side where you can store the most relevant and updated information.
You can save all of this key funder information and relationship history so that it is easily accessible anytime there is an opportunity from this funder.