Grants at Scale: Pipeline & Relationships
Treat institutional funders like the major donors they are: research, cultivation, and a pipeline that smooths the revenue curve.
Through the International NGOs lens
Government and multilateral funders can represent a majority of the pipeline here rather than a supplement to it, which makes watching concentration, no single funder above roughly a fifth to a quarter of revenue, a matter of real consequence given how disruptive the loss of one major institutional partner can be. Program officer relationships frequently span multiple country offices at once, and coordinating the annual rhythm, updates, field intelligence, forwardable gratitude, across those offices keeps a funder from hearing five uncoordinated versions of the same relationship.
Continuing education
1.00 points
Securing the Gift · Current and Prospective Donor Research
Learning objectives
- Size a grants pipeline backward from a revenue goal using coverage of 2.5x to 3x, a mix of renewal, warm-new, and stretch funders, and a concentration flag on any funder above 20 to 25% of grant revenue.
- Run an annual rhythm of four to six purposeful touches per funder, including one proactive update between reports and one field-intelligence question, and log each in the tracker's relationship column.
- Build the portfolio tracker with fit score, probability, weighted value, board calendar, and multi-year columns, and walk its five-number dashboard in a 60-minute quarterly review.
- Write a grant report that opens with a one-paragraph verdict, tables promised against delivered, reports one miss honestly, and closes with a renewal bridge naming the month you will call.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 20 min
Video lesson
Building a 12-month grants pipeline
II See · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 17 min
Field guide· PDF
Program officer relationships
VI Accompany · Relationship Building
- 15 min
Template· XLSX
Grants pipeline tracker
III Discern · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 18 min
Template· DOCX
The renewal-maximizing report
V Receive · Securing the Gift
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
More in this stage
Major & Principal Gifts
Building a Major Gifts Portfolio
Move from reactive asks to a managed portfolio: qualification, moves management, and a caseload you can defend.
Donor Communications & Stewardship
The Case for Support That Writes Itself
One master case document that powers every appeal, proposal, and conversation, built from your mission's real evidence.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Annual Giving Systems: Calendar & Segmentation
Graduate from one-off appeals to a segmented, scheduled program with lapsed-donor recovery built in.