October 23, 2026
The Impact Issue #125: What funders want to hear from you between reports
Hi! Welcome to The Impact
You're ten months into a twelve-month grant, and your finance team flags a concern ahead of the funder report: $28,000 still unspent in a staffing line, because the position sat open for half the year. You need to ask for a budget reallocation or an extension, but the funder will be hearing about the vacancy for the first time.
Rose Rodriguez, Senior Portfolio Manager at the Tepper Foundation, would rather hear about it in month four.
“When a grantee tells me early, this isn’t working the way we hoped, and here’s what we’re doing about it, my trust in them goes up and not down.”
What ends relationships, she told us, is the surprise: finding out about a problem late, or from someone other than the grantee.
Today we’re covering how strategic grant teams can level up their funder relationships between asks, whether those funders are down the street or across the country.
Don't Miss Out!
Instrumentl's Fall Launch is here and you're invited. Join us live October 29th.
Funding shifts. More competition. The AI learning curve. Grant work is changing fast, and you've spent the year telling us what you need to keep up. Now come see what we’ve built.
On Thursday, October 29th* at 2pm ET, Instrumentl Co-founders Gauri Manglik and Angela Braren are sharing a first look at where Instrumentl's grant operating system is headed.
Stay for an optional small-group community session with grant pros navigating the same shifts you are.
You'll get a first look at:
- Instrumentl, everywhere you work. Your grants in Claude and ChatGPT, plus integrations with the CRM and financial tools your team already uses.
- A home for your budgets. Every version of an award budget in one place, and miscoded expenses resolved with Finance in Instrumentl, not over email.
- Account hierarchy and roll-up reporting. One view across chapters or campuses that you can stand behind.
- The New Grant Maturity Matrix: Benchmark your organization and your work against the sector, with practical next steps for leveling up.
You’ll leave knowing what’s new and how to use it, plus make a new connection and a best practice to try the next morning. We’re building the operating system for strategic grant work and the people who’ll lead it. See you in the room.
*Can't make the 29th? Join us Wednesday, November 4th instead.
👉 Save your spot now. It's free!
Pitfalls and Pointers
Last week, three funders joined the Instrumentl virtual stage to talk about AI, invite-only funding, and what keeps them saying yes:
Tyler Hobbs (The Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation), Rose Rodriguez (The Tepper Foundation), and Tim Kashani (Apples & Oranges Arts).
On building ongoing relationships with their grantees, they agreed. They are very open to hearing from grantees more between deadlines, as long as it’s useful and easy to make time for.
⚠️ Pitfall: Ghosting your funders between deadlines
For most grant teams, the deadline calendar sets the relationship. You reach out when something is due, and the funder hears from you once or twice a year.
This rhythm can create three risks:
- Funders only see the polished version. Applications and reports are built to impress, so a funder never sees how your team thinks through a hard quarter.
- Problems arrive as surprises. A challenge that shows up first in a final report reads like something you kept from them.
- The renewal becomes a cold ask. When the last real conversation was a year ago, you’re starting over. With with more funders going invite-only, an organization they haven’t heard from is easier to pass over for the next round of funding.
💡 Pointer: Make the off-season count
The strongest funder relationships run on small, regular touchpoints. Here’s how to create them, whether you're local or across the country.
- Offer a short site visit.Tyler receives hundreds of gala invitations a year, and they start to blur together. Reach out to your local funders: “Hey, we’re running this program all day on Thursday. If you can drop by for 5 or 10 minutes, we’d love to have you.” Seeing the work in action, he said, becomes “a core memory,” and he walks away knowing exactly what your organization does.
- Present where funders are in the room. Rose often discovers organizations when they present at community events she attends. Look for convenings, panels, and coalition meetings your funders show up to, and get on the agenda.
- Send a one-minute check-in between reports. Tim’s advice: lead with an emotional beat. A short phone video of your program, a few photos, or a quick story from a participant tells a funder more than a page of updates.
Each of these takes less time than a report, and each one makes your next report, renewal, or ask easier.
👉 Watch the full funder panel recording
Expert Perspectives
Rose Rodriguez, Senior Portfolio Manager, Tepper Foundation
When Rose decides which grantees to keep investing in, she looks past the results of the current grant. The organizations that stand out “have a clear-eyed vision for what needs to happen next, even a wish list of what they’d do with more support,” she told us. “That tells me that they’re thinking beyond this grant.”
You can build that into the touchpoints you already have. In your next report or check-in, add a short “what’s next” section:
- The next milestone your program is working toward
- A challenge in the way, and how you’re working through it
- What more support would unlock, whether that’s funding, staffing, or tools
When it comes to asking for capacity support, Rose put it simply, ask. “The worst thing I can say is no.”
👉 Download the guide: How to Talk to Your Funders About Capacity Building
Open Grant Opportunities Spotlight
Frankenmuth Insurance Foundation Charitable Grant (Frankenmuth Insurance Foundation)
Grant Amount: ~ $4,000 (based on past giving)
Next Deadline: Rolling deadline
Who It's For: 501(c)(3) nonprofits and governmental units serving communities in the 12 states where Frankenmuth Insurance operates: AL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MI, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, and WI
The Details:
- Funds community betterment and basic human needs, with a strong focus on food access, food banks, and food kitchens serving low-income individuals and families
- Also supports affordable housing, health and wellness programs, disease research, and the arts.
- Past grantees include Meals on Wheels, domestic violence shelters, and Boys & Girls Clubs.
- Gives most heavily in Michigan, and 64% of awards in the last three years went to first-time grantee
Pledge the Pink Foundation Grant (Pledge the Pink Foundation)
Grant Amount: $10,000 (median grant size based on past giving)
Next Deadline: October 31, 2026
Who It's For: Nonprofits providing breast cancer screening, treatment, outreach, or research, especially for people who might otherwise go without care
The Details:
- Funds free mammograms, medical assistance, and outreach services that fill gaps in access to breast cancer care
- Grants can’t be used for event sponsorships, salaries, or overhead, so plan for a direct program or services request
- Annual awards have nearly doubled over the past two years (from 36 in 2023 to 64 in 2025), with 43% going to new grantees
Ready to find more good-fit opportunities? 🔍 Explore 35,000+ active grant opportunities now!
Networking Nook
💻 GrantSummit 2026: Time to level up with Instrumentl!
November 4–7, 2026 | San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter | San Antonio, TX
Instrumentl is coming to San Antonio, and we’re bringing the arcade. Stop by Booth 41 and mention this email for brand-new swag.
Then head to the Instrumentl Arcade (Empowerment Zone) to take a turn on the claw machine, snag some retro candy, and pull up a seat to see GrantOS live. See you there!
👉 Let us know if you're coming to GrantSummit!
💻 The Power of Compression: Writing with Weight
November 19, 2026 | Virtual Webinar | Free for Grant Professionals Association members, $49 for non-members
This webinar examines compression as a core element of expert grant writing practice: the ability to convey high evaluative meaning with density, clarity, and precision. Learn how grant writers pack more meaning into fewer words, using one diagnostic question: “What am I actually trying to say?”
You’ll leave with practical tools to revise proposal language so reviewers trust your case faster.
To check out more recent and upcoming live events, go here.
When the Conversation Between Asks Pays Off
While planning next year’s budget, one of Rose’s grantees asked whether the Tepper Foundation would consider funding their Instrumentl subscription.
It was the fifth time Rose had heard about Instrumentl from a funder or nonprofit in her network, so her team took a closer look. In January 2026, Tepper funded Instrumentl accounts for 46 of its grantees.
Since then, that cohort has:
- Sourced 3,400+ opportunities through Instrumentl
- Actively managed nearly 4,800 grant opportunities from first discovery through award
- Tracked 550+ awarded grants worth more than $59 million, including long-standing funder relationships now managed in one place
With their full grant portfolio in one system of record, Rose's grantees spend less time digging through spreadsheets and more time on the relationships that bring the next grant in. And the whole organization can see where every grant stands.
👉 See how Instrumentl can centralize your grants practice in one workspace
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