About William & Mary University

The College of William & Mary is a state-assisted university of liberal arts located in Williamsburg, Virginia. As the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, it was founded by a royal charter in 1693, making it the second-oldest college in the country after Harvard.

The Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) team at William & Mary acts as a specialized liaison to secure external funding for the university. Their core purpose is to connect corporate and private foundations with the university's academic and research needs to create mutually beneficial partnerships.

The Challenge

Before discovering Instrumentl, William & Mary’s Corporate and Foundation Relations team was buried under the weight of fragmented systems. John Meck, Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations, described it plainly:

“We had several different search databases, tools to manage our workflow, tools to manage data, and others for calendars."

The result? Constant duplication of effort and overwhelming inefficiencies.

"There was a lot of stress or anxiety... Am I looking at the most recent info? The right file? The right database?"

Kyle DeGood, Fundraising Analyst & Writer for Corporate & Foundation Relations, echoed the frustration: 

"Deadline management was in three to four different places... probably three or four spreadsheets alone. Same thing for post-award management. It was just scattered everywhere."

Beyond the technical mess, the real cost was opportunity. As John put it, "It was a story of missed opportunities... We couldn't achieve certain things because of how time was being used."

The Tipping Point

It all came to a head when they conducted a time management study.

"We looked at time spent researching prospects, time from prospecting to grant submission, and broke that into silos," John explained. "We realized we could essentially gain enough time to create a whole new position."

With data in hand, they made their case to senior leadership. The verdict: it was time for a change.

Why Instrumentl

The team surveyed the landscape and found their solution in Instrumentl.

"Instrumentl allowed us to consolidate all our systems into one tool that does it all for us," said John.

What sealed the deal was the promise of Apply, Instrumentl’s AI-powered grant writing partner. The team saw how it could not only save time, but also improve alignment between proposals and funder priorities.

Transformation and Results

Operational Wins

Once implemented, Instrumentl immediately cleared the clutter.

"There were silos [tasks] that used to take half a day to a day to complete," John shared. "We’ve cut some down to eight minutes."

According to internal tracking data, William & Mary's team reduced the time spent per proposal from over 7 hours to just 26 minutes, resulting in a 94% time savings.

"We were able to gain a tremendous amount of time and mental bandwidth."

Instrumentl Apply became central to their new workflow. Kyle described it as "seamless,” saying, "All the documents are already in Instrumentl. I can continue [an application someone started] in Apply, or see where someone was struggling. Even our intern can use it."

Strategic Benefits

John and Kyle instituted a unique grant writing process for their team. To scale how quickly they could write an submit applications, the team implemented an agile Scrum model, dedicating short sprints to apply for 10–12 grants per project.

"We’re submitting around 70 a month now," said John. "And probably 60% (up from 20%) of those are to new funders we wouldn't have found before."

"We could not have done this without Instrumentl, and not even close."

Their team now meets monthly to divide responsibilities, assign tasks, and stay ahead of deadlines—often submitting proposals weeks in advance.

Organizational Transformation

Instrumentl didn’t just streamline workflows. It changed how the institution viewed grantwriting.

"We got a shoutout from the president of the university," John shared proudly. “The work that we're doing with Instrumentl has been strong enough that it's trickled all the way up. Our partners across the academic landscape are saying, 'Hey, these guys are doing something in a way that's new, innovative, and supports us in ways that we've never been supported in the past.'"

"There are areas of campus that never thought external funding was possible. We're proving it can happen."

Departments once untouched by external funding are now raising $15,000+ from grants, thanks to the team’s new bandwidth and tools.

By leveraging Apply to scale output without growing headcount, William & Mary is on track to save $250,000 in staffing costs and raise up to $2.5 million in new annual funding.

"Apply helps us take the disjointed information we get from our academic units, upload it, and generate a proposal," said Kyle. "It used to take a lot of brainpower to comb through all of that disorganized info. Now, we can just let Apply help us do the work."

The Takeaway

For teams juggling complex grant portfolios across a campus or large organization, the transformation at William & Mary offers a roadmap. By centralizing tools, applying AI through Instrumentl Apply, and embracing team-wide coordination, they not only doubled their output—they reshaped what's possible.

"Now we don’t feel like we miss opportunities like we used to. Instrumentl helps us do our work faster and more efficiently."