About the Goodwill Excel Center in Memphis

The Goodwill Excel Center is part of a growing network of high schools across the U.S. that give adults a second chance at earning their diploma and building a sustainable career.

Unlike traditional schools, the Excel Center model removes barriers that often prevent adults from returning to education. Students receive free transportation, free on-site childcare, and access to more than 20 industry certifications, all while working closely with life coaches to prepare for meaningful employment.

As Vice President of Education, Chuck Molinski leads the effort to secure funding for the wraparound services that make this transformation possible.

The Challenge

As enrollment at the Excel Center surged and three more campuses were approved, Chuck’s funding needs were growing faster than his bandwidth.

“It’s going to be a huge challenge for myself trying to get all this funding for all four schools… about a million and a half dollar budget for every school location.”

Every application, funder lead, and deadline lived in spreadsheets. Tracking submissions meant sifting through scattered notes and emails, while the actual research came from time-consuming Google searches and a board member’s network.

“Everything was just going into a website trying to find funding basically through a Google search. It wasn’t very effective.”

The more the Excel Center grew, the harder it became to manage restricted funds for childcare, certifications, and life coaching. Chuck needed structure and a way to coordinate team members’ needs and keep every dollar accountable.

The Tipping Point

The breaking point came as expansion accelerated. The Memphis campus had already secured $12 million in grants from the state of Tennessee and $1.5 million from FedEx, but the next phase required even more — nearly $7 million in wraparound service funding.

“I looked in the horizon and said, our financial need is going to be significantly more… me and my board member can’t get all this done locally.”

That’s when Chuck started searching for a better way to manage it all — a scalable system that could help him find new funders, bring teammates into the process, and stay compliant from start to finish.

Why Instrumentl

When Chuck discovered Instrumentl, the impact was immediate.

What stood out was Instrumentl’s automation and structure. Features like Intelligent Grant Matching, Document Library, and Application Cycles give Chuck visibility and control.

“What I like about it is some of the automation type things when you’re doing applications. It’s so quick and easy. You can load documents in your library and use those to really generate quicker responses.”

Chuck particularly finds value in Apply, Instrumentl’s AI-powered grant writing tool that generates high quality proposals by pulling responses from your previous applications.

“Funders will ask the same questions over and over and over. Well golly, we got the answers. Why sit there and write it up again? [With Instrumentl], it's automation. It's quicker. It's just like boom.”

He also sees the potential for collaboration. Instrumentl’s Collaborator Access and User Permissions allow him to invite his staff to contribute funding ideas while keeping control over final approvals.

“We don’t want everybody in the whole system doing applications. So we needed a controlled environment. Instrumentl will help us give control of what we’re doing here.”

Transformation and Results

In just a few months, Chuck moved from static spreadsheets to a living grants pipeline. Using the Grant Tracker, he now organizes opportunities by project and tracks every stage from research to reporting.

Instrumentl’s Tasks View and Automatic Deadline Reminders keep him aware of what’s coming next.

“You can figure out which tasks you need to do, which grants are coming up, and record all those. Tasks are a very important piece of it.”

The shift from solo fundraising to team-based prospecting is already paying off. With over 300 potential funders identified for one project alone, Instrumentl’s Foundation Discovery and Advanced Funder Insights have opened doors to funders beyond local relationships.

“Right now I’m working on workforce development and wraparound services, which is a very wide request. I have over 300 funders right now on that particular project.”

Even in the early stages, Chuck sees the compounding impact of centralized grant management.

“I am doing more, absolutely. It’s significantly more.”

As his fundraising team grows, Instrumentl will serve as their shared command center, ensuring every new school’s funding is organized, tracked, and compliant.

“In the next three years, we’ll be needing seven million dollars for wraparound services and workforce development programs for our school. So this tool is going to help us do that.”

The Takeaway

For Chuck Molinski, Instrumentl is more than a grant research tool. It’s the infrastructure for scaling a life-changing program across Memphis — connecting funders, managing accountability, and empowering his team to think bigger.

For nonprofit leaders balancing rapid growth with limited staff, Chuck’s story shows what’s possible when you trade spreadsheets for strategy.

And for fellow Goodwill Excel Centers and community-based education programs, the message is clear: the path to sustainable impact starts with visibility, structure, and a shared system of truth.