What Counts as a Win? Nonprofit Grant Outcome Reporting That Funders Read

You don't need an annual report to catch a funder's eye.

October is almost the end of the year

October is almost the end of the year. If you don't have the dollars in the door, you’re probably starting to think about where next year’s funding is coming from.

If you're on a calendar fiscal year, you're tidying up the annual report right now, at least the narrative pieces. You can add the final numbers once the year ends.

But October is also a good time to think about something else: reporting and stewardship.

What we always recommend at this point is: let's report. Let's do some stewardship, even with the funders who've already given to you. You want to make sure those funders hear from you before the next proposal lands in their inbox.

October gives you a good window to get some of this work done before the end-of-year rush. Here's how we think about it.

Two kinds of nonprofit grant outcome reporting

Oftentimes there's reporting that's required. Those are easy. You log into the portal, they ask the questions, and they're asking about numbers. (We've written about keeping that process from turning into a scramble.)

Stewardship is different. In the fundraising world, stewardship is the touchpoint we want to make with a funder you already have. It's for the funders who don't have a requirement.

Those are the funders you have to remember to reach out to.

The goal is to make sure you're communicating with those funders before you apply again next year. You don't want your next communication to be, "Hi, we'd love $25,000."

If you have an annual report, this is easy

You send them the annual report. That usually tells the story in a way a funder enjoys.

Many of the organizations we work with don’t have an annual report. They're collecting all the information, but they don't necessarily produce a publication.

An annual report, in our mind, is a marketing piece. A report to a funder is a different communication around the same story, and it helps to know which one you're writing.

You don't need to create an annual report if you don't have one. You can create a simple funder update.

Send every funder a snapshot

What's nice at this time of year is that you can give every funder a simple snapshot of what you've been able to accomplish.

If you projected you’d serve 400 people, are you on track? Maybe you ran into challenges. Be transparent about that.

Keep your snapshot simple: Where did you say you'd be? Where are you now? And what got in the way?

Numbers catch the eye

It's hard, because a lot of funders are interested in numbers. We think of reports and grant proposals a little like resumes. When you're hiring and you're looking at a resume, numbers are the easiest way to catch someone’s eye. The same is true in the funding landscape.

But in the AI era, when so many people dash off something quick, there's an opportunity to really connect. Adding a photo or telling a story, something that draws their attention emotionally  and that’s what keeps a funder excited. Those are the things that can make an update feel more personal and memorable.

This goes for all nonprofit grant outcome reporting, whether it’s required or not. If there's a chance to tell a story right now, take it. What you're trying to do is encourage curiosity about your organization, particularly as you head into your next funding year. The numbers matter, but don't let the numbers be the whole update.

Ask for a phone call

Another option is trying to get a phone call with someone at the foundation so you can talk through your organization's health and how the funder is planning for next year.

That's the ideal scenario. It doesn't always work out that way. Ask anyway.

Before you send the snapshot or ask for the call, get a hold of program staff. That's the first thing we think about. The numbers in a funder update come from them, and we try to get mid-year updates before July if we can, or August, because everyone's gone and hard to track down, and program work often slows down then too. If you didn't get those numbers over the summer, October is the next logical window.

Remember, what you're asking for is the numbers you projected against what has actually happened, along with any challenges and a story from the work the grant supported.

That's the update a funder wants, but it's also useful internally. Those are the same numbers you'll want in front of your board this fall.

What counts as a win

A win in October is a funder who has heard from you before your next proposal shows up. They know what you accomplished, what got in the way, and what you're working toward next year, and they're curious.

That's the goal. You're keeping the relationship warm before you need something from them.

If reporting and stewardship are the pieces of your grant program that keep sliding to the bottom of the week, that's the ongoing work a Perennial Partnership is built to carry. See how a Perennial Partnership works.

What Belongs on a Realistic Fall Grant Calendar

Fall Grant Calendar for Nonprofits: 5 Most Important Items to Include

As the summer months progress, many nonprofit leaders sit down to map out fall grants. The process usually results in a long list of funders, a handful of hard deadlines, and the hope that there’s enough time to get to all of it. 

The list may feel like progress. It may even look like a plan. But…. a list isn’t a plan, and a calendar isn’t a strategy. 

The organizations who move through fall with the least panic aren’t the ones chasing the most grants. They’re the ones who built a prioritized calendar, including protecting the time to run it. If you spend the summer thoughtfully building toward a calmer fall season, this is where that planning pays off.

So, before you start filling in submission deadlines, let’s take a step back and ask what belongs on a fall calendar in the first place. 

Here’s how we work through it with clients.

1. Start with what’s already owed

Reporting deadlines come first, before any new opportunity. A late report is one of the fastest ways to damage a funder relationship you already worked hard to earn.

Pull every reporting obligation for grants you currently hold and put those due dates on the calendar before anything else. They’re non-negotiable, they’re already committed, and they protect the funding you have. I get it. New money is exciting. … but keeping the money you’ve already been trusted with matters more.

2. Lock in renewals next

If you receive grants that renew early in your fiscal year, fall is usually when those renewals come due. Map it out now. These are your highest-probability dollars, because the relationship and the track record already exist, and they’re the easiest to lose simply by missing a window.

Renewals rarely feel urgent the way a new opportunity does, which is exactly why they can fall off your schedule. Treat them with the same seriousness as a first-time application.

3. Protect the time the work actually takes

A grant calendar that only tracks deadlines assumes the people doing the work have unlimited hours. They don’t.

Fall is gala season. It’s board retreat season. For a lot of small and mid-sized organizations, the same person writing the grants is also running the event, prepping the board deck, and answering everything else that comes up. 

When we project time for a client, we plan for at least 15 minutes on every cultivation task, and there are usually three to five of those a month, plus proposal reviews that can run anywhere from a quick fifteen minutes to a full hour for a collaborative task. It all adds up. A realistic calendar accounts for the time it takes to do the work.

Look at where your fall events fall, then build your grant deadlines around the weeks your ED or development director will actually be available. 

A deadline you can’t staff isn’t a deadline you’ll meet.

4. Prioritize hard deadlines, then evaluate what to slot in

Once you document reports, renewals, and your realistic capacity, you can see what’s left for new applications. Start with the grants that have fixed deadlines, since those are the ones you lose by waiting. Some of these will start with a letter of intent before the full proposal, so build that earlier step into the timeline too.

Then look at rolling opportunities and grants without a hard cutoff. Many corporate funders and bank and CSR programs fall here, with flexible giving cycles. They often take more digging to find on funders’ own websites, but they’re the grants you can move into the gaps, the weeks when the event is over and there’s room to write.

This is also the moment to check in about volume. If grant writing isn’t someone’s full-time job, applying for seven or eight fall grants sets you up for disappointment. We’d rather see a client submit four strong applications than eight rushed ones. Your calendar should reflect what’s realistic, not what’s aspirational.

5. Plan for the budget gap before it surprises you

Know your numbers so you’re not caught off-guard. A lot of what you apply for this fall won’t arrive until well into next year. 

This is why relationship building is so important. 

A funder who knows you will accept a proposal with current numbers and a note: ‘here’s what I have today, and I’ll send updated figures the moment they’re ready.’ That kind of communication only works if the relationship is already there, which is why you can’t hold off on the relationship until the application is due.

The calendar only works if someone manages it

You can have the cleanest calendar in the world… BUT, it does nothing if it sits in a drawer collecting dust. Grant work is about half relationship-building and half writing the application. The writing has a clear deadline on the calendar. Relationship-building is the part that can get overlooked when things get busy, even though it’s just as important in determining whether the application has a real chance. 

Unfortunately, we’ve seen it happen. A client receives a cultivation task, doesn’t act on it, and reaches out months later. The funder responds right away and asks for a meeting. The client doesn’t respond. By the time they circle back, the funder has lost confidence, not because the work wasn’t strong, but because the follow-through wasn’t there. 

Skipping cultivation doesn’t just delay a grant. It can reduce the likelihood of receiving one at all.

A well-managed fall calendar protects you against that. It puts the cultivation touches on the page alongside the application deadlines, so the relationship work has a place and a time instead of landing on the ‘someday list.’

Build the calendar you’ll actually use

A realistic fall grant calendar is shorter than the laundry list of tasks most organizations create. Be sure to include the essentials:

• Reports

• Renewals

• Relationships

• Project/work time

• Deadlines

Then, you can slot in rolling grant applications. And finally, don’t forget to handle budget conversations through relationships and followups (rather than delaying proposals).

Don’t have time to do this? Contact us to learn how we can expand your capacity.

The Quiet Months: A Calm Plan for the Summer Nonprofit Fundraising Slowdown

By the time June settles in, the rhythm of grant work changes. Foundation deadlines tend to thin out. Program officers set their out-of-office replies, and the funder you’re trying to reach is on vacation.

For a lot of nonprofit leaders, the pipeline goes quiet, and the momentum you built through the spring feels like it is slipping away.

The summer slowdown is one of the few stretches of the year when grant work gives you three gifts: time, attention, and space before the next deadline.

What you do this summer shapes how the fall goes. We’ve found the organizations that use June well tend to walk into September steady. 

Want to stress yourself out? Wait until August to catch up for a tireless (and tiring) fall.

Here are three things you can do during the summer nonprofit fundraising slowdown. 

Your summer gift: space, time, and attention.

1. Plan while you have the room

Summer doesn’t mean no deadlines. Some funders run a cycle straight through July, and a late-July due date doesn’t care whether your staff is out of office. That’s why it’s critical to look at what’s due and plan around it.

Start with your calendar:

• Mark the summer deadlines and staff them now, while you can plan around vacations. Set clear priorities and assign responsibility so everyone knows who writes, who reviews, and who signs off, before anyone goes on vacation.

• Pull mid-year program numbers. It’s so much easier to track this down now than it is to wait for colleagues to wade through emails after vacation. 

• Give yourself permission to prioritize the rest. If a proposal can wait until September without costing you the opportunity, let it wait. Forcing a grant through a slow stretch can cost more than it returns.

There is a quieter piece of summer planning that pays off later: the board. 

Many boards take August off and come back ready for a fall retreat, and whatever you plan to hand them then is far easier to assemble now. A mid-year financial read, a sense of where the strategic plan stands, a clear picture of what the numbers need to look like by year-end. 

Although fiscal calendars vary, you can still use the time to plan. 

For example, an organization closing its year on June 30th is starting fresh, while a calendar-year organization is already prepping for the retreat. Either way, most of the work of looking prepared in October gets done in June.

If your grant calendar still lives in your head (or a tab you haven’t opened since March), our breakdown of the grant funding timeline is a good place to start.

2. Decide which funders are worth your fall

The quiet months are the best research months you will get. With fewer live deadlines competing for your attention, summer is when we do the bulk of our prospect work: reading 990s, mapping funding ranges, and sorting the funders who are a real fit from the ones who only look like one. 

A strong fall starts with a list you believe in.

It is also a relationship season, even though it rarely feels like one. The strongest funding partnerships get built between the grants, not at deadline time. We believe in building relationships. Summer is the best time to move from transactional to trust-based funding.

Here’s a few ways to start:

• List the funders you need to check-in with and confirm their availability. A short June email to find a meeting window saves a September scramble.

• Move your cultivation activities to June or September. When we build a client’s grant tracker, we deliberately shift relationship touches into June or September, when people are more likely at their desks. 

• For funders with no warm contact yet, queue a round of introductory letters. They are low effort, they can be sent in volume, and they tend to aid inquiries later in the year. They also give the team a sense of progress during a slow stretch.

This is the work that grows revenue rather than only maintaining it. We apply for roughly three times the funding a client wants to raise. We achieve this by building prospect lists ahead of the deadlines instead of during them. 

During the summer, mark what's due, and prioritize the rest.

3. Sharpen your story before the rush

When the fall deadlines arrive, the organizations that perform well are usually editing a strong narrative, not writing one from scratch the night before it is due. Now is when you build the raw material.

Pull your boilerplate and read it the way a funder would. Is the needs statement current, or is it still describing the organization you were two years ago? Does the impact language match what your programs do now?

This is also the moment to check your framing. The most persuasive grant writing describes communities by their strengths and their goals. That’s what separates a proposal a funder believes in from one they skim. Refreshing your voice across your core documents in July means every fall proposal starts from a stronger place.

The good news is none of these activities takes the whole team. It takes a few focused hours while your inbox is a little quieter.

Summer nonprofit fundraising slowdown: let's make fall manageable

The summer months are the planning window that makes the fall manageable. And for organizations weighing what next year should look like, summer is the right time to start a bigger conversation about a steadier, less reactive grant program.

If you want a simple way to get started, our Grant Readiness Checklist walks through where your calendar, your funders, and your materials stand. It will help you understand how ready you are for the months ahead.