So you’ve done your research and have established a strong list of funders where there is a clear alignment with your organisation, your leadership team are on board and you’re ready to proceed (read more about identifying prospective funders in our blog From Closed Door to Opportunity: How Prospect Research Supports By-Invitation Grant Success). But what next? What exactly does tailored prospect engagement look like in practice?
As a reminder, by-invitation funders are grant-makers who directly invite organisations to apply for funding and do not accept unsolicited applications or proposals. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to engaging with these funders or securing an invitation. However, grant-seekers can improve their chances by tailoring engagement to each prospective funder and ensuring priority funding needs are well developed in advance, aligned to the organisation’s strategic goals.
To explore next steps, and illustrate what best practice funder engagement can achieve, what follows is a series of case studies – all real (but de-identified) examples of how a for-purpose organisation has progressed steadily from a funder being unaware of them, to funding success.
Tailoring your approach every time
Once aligned by-invitation funders have been identified and qualified, your first step is to share the trustee names with your senior leadership team and board to determine whether anyone has a recent, meaningful connection.
It is important to set clear guidelines for what qualifies as a connection in this exercise. Ideally, your executive leader or board member will have the trustee’s phone number or email address and have engaged with them recently enough to feel confident reaching out.
Case study #1: existing connection
After a by-invitation funder was qualified to be a well-aligned prospect, the names of the Foundation’s trustees were presented to the organisation’s board and senior executives to see if any had a relationship.
A senior member of staff identified that they sat on a committee with one of the Foundation’s trustees. This staff member understood the value of the relationship for the organisation and fostered it well, staying engaged and reporting back to the Fundraising Manager as conversations developed with this prospective funder.
Once the conversation turned to funding opportunities, the Fundraising Manager was invited into the conversation and introduced to the Foundation Manager. This then led to multiple meetings, an invitation to submit a proposal and then a presentation, ultimately resulting in a six-figure grant.
The whole process took almost eight months. The partnership has since grown over many years, contributing millions of dollars to this organisation’s mission delivery.
Sometimes, however, the connection is not direct but through a mutual relationship of the organisation and funder.
Case study #2: mutual relationship
An organisation identified an aligned by-invitation funder through prospect research, and after a deeper dive realised a board member had a common link with one of the foundation’s trustees, both being members of an industry network.
At an event they both attended, the board member secured a warm introduction in person to the trustee. This conversation resulted in an invitation to submit further information about a specific project, which the organisation knew aligned with the funder’s interests.
An initial gift of $25,000 was received and through high-quality impact reporting and further relationship development, the funder is now a true friend to the organisation, attending their events and continuing to provide financial support.
When no connection is identified, it does not mean the end of the road. Firstly, consider what the funder says publicly about how to engage them and their preferred contact methods. If ‘cold’ contacting via the phone or email, utilise information from the prospect research conducted to show you understand the funder’s priorities and to demonstrate your organisational alignment.
Case study #3: cold outreach via trustee company
A prospective funder was identified based on shared alignment; no trustee connections were found, however it was identified that this foundation was managed by a trustee company (examples of trustee companies include Perpetual, Equity Trustees, Australian Philanthropic Services and others).
The organisation reached out to the trustee company to ascertain how to present a proposal to the funder, outlining two of their funding priorities (summarised in bullet points) that aligned with the funder’s focus areas.
The trustee company responded with an invitation to the organisation to submit a proposal outlining one of the services only, which they said the funder’s board of trustees would be interested in learning more about. This resulted in an initial grant of $20,000.
Over the life of the grant, the organisation built a relationship with the trustee company and at the end of the 12-month funding period a tailored report was submitted. In developing the relationship, the organisation had learnt when the funder’s annual board meeting was and scheduled a time to contact their trustee company one month prior. They explained that the existing project supported did not require additional funding and enquired through the trustee company if the funder would be happy to receive a proposal for an alternative need.
The organisation was once again invited to submit a funding proposal, for a new project, and this time for multi-year support. This was successful and at an increased amount. In total, the organisation received $80k in less than three years from this funder, with whom they previously had no relationship.
Case study #4: cold outreach via individual trustee
A by-invitation family Private Ancillary Fund (PAF) was identified as local to this organisation and with shared interests in the community. The organisation reached out via email to request a meeting, identifying their shared focus and inviting the family for a tour of their new facility, hosted by the CEO. A trustee accepted and at the tour, discussion ensued with the CEO and Philanthropy Manager about a project that was a high priority for the organisation. This particular project didn’t resonate with the funder, so the organisation enquired further, asking what the funder would be interested in supporting instead, and identified an alternative project that was more appealing to them. A proposal was submitted for consideration. An initial gift of $10,000 was received and the organisation is currently stewarding this. The funder has expressed interest in both continuing support and also increasing the dollar amount contributed.
Key learnings to remember when planning your by-invitation engagement
While each pathway to by-invitation success in the case studies above was different, these examples have several things in common:
- Prospect research played an important role in identifying funders well aligned to priority projects, and informing initial approaches, giving each organisation’s representative confidence to engage the funder.
- Multiple conversations or interactions occurred before an invitation to apply for funding was received. Sometimes this engagement was face to face, other times it was not, but all engagement was planned, meaningful and tailored.
- Each organisation was able to respond promptly to funder requests for more information or a proposal invitation because their organisation’s strategic funding priorities were established and detailed project plans were already developed – this pre-planning ensured they were identifying funders well aligned to their needs and were able to effectively and efficiently develop a tailored proposal each time.
- By-invitation funder engagement was not the responsibility of one role at any organisation. Always leverage existing connections but when no connections are identified, consider who the funder might be most interested in hearing from or meeting with.
- Prioritising stewardship helps to ensure long-term and high-value relationships with by-invitation funders.
Want to engage more by-invitation funders?
If your organisation wants to engage more by-invitation funders, but needs support to identify well-aligned prospects, develop your project plans, prepare for a meeting with a strategic funder, or write a proposal, we can help.
Contact our team if you’d like to learn more about these services.
Strategic Grants has been working with for-purpose organisations across Australia and New Zealand for over 17 years to build their capacity and support their success in grants fundraising.
About the author
Lauren Vertigan is a Grants Strategist and Prospect Lead at Strategic Grants with 18 years of experience across the for-purpose and education sectors. She specialises in grant-seeking, prospect research, relationship development and fundraising strategy, with a particular focus on building organisational capability and sustainable funding practices.
Lauren was accredited as a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) in 2021. She holds a Graduate Certificate Business (Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies) from the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology and a Bachelor of Communications (Public Relations).