The Impact Issue #45: Work Smarter, Not Harder!

Hey there!

We’re all looking for ways to work smarter, not harder—making our limited resources stretch further.

This week’s issue is all about being more efficient. You’ll learn from experts, explore new tech tools, and receive the latest resources to help you manage your time better. 

Welcome to The Impact.

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Pitfalls and Pointers

⚠️ Pitfall: Relying on Manual Task Completion

As nonprofit professionals, it’s so easy to get stuck in a routine. We complete tasks and processes a certain way because we’ve always done them like that.

We know they work, so we forget to question if there’s a better way and end up defaulting to manual task completion—which can eat up a lot of time and resources.

💡 Pointer: Automate Routine Tasks to Help Free Up Capacity

Automation can be your best friend when you want to do more with less. Consider the following steps as you look to integrate more automation into your workflow.

• Assess your manual processes: Common examples include regular reporting, donor outreach, form emails, and data analytics. These processes often only require you to click a few buttons or manually pull information together to update.
• Review what tools and resources you already have that can help: You don’t always have to break the bank by investing in new tools. Look at what you already have. There could be automation capabilities in your tools that you’re missing out on just because you’ve never explored them.
• Set up the automation: Schedule reports to run automatically or send autogenerated emails after a gift. Create pivot tables with autofed data to help with your data analytics. All of these efforts will help save you time and energy in the long run.
• Check in on the process: Routinely check in on your automation processes to ensure they’re running smoothly. You can build fail-safes into the process, like BCCing yourself on emails or getting alerts when data feeds are compromised. This will help you catch errors before they become a problem.

👉 Check out even more tips to help you with your time management!

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Tech You Should Know

What: Virtuous is a responsive fundraising platform that helps unlock donor personalization. It integrates with Instrumentl, allowing you to scale donor engagement seamlessly without adding more staff to your team.

How Grant Writers Can Use It:

• Leverage fundraising automation, developing personalized donor outreach based on their preferences.
• Review data and quickly discover actionable insights to help improve donor engagement with an easy-to-understand dashboard.
• Automate select tasks, including donor journey builders, best-practice templates, task creation, and more.

Keep in Mind:

• While Virtuous seamlessly integrates with many applications, it is an investment. Ensure you have a strategy in place to effectively utilize the platform prior to signing up.

👉 Explore what Virtuous can offer you with a free demo!

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Expert Perspectives

🏆 How to Save Time and Win More Grants With Instrumentl

It’s a new year, and with that comes a fresh opportunity to review your grant strategy and set yourself up for success in the year ahead. The Instrumentl team shared expert tips on how to determine your ROI and use it to become a PRO.

Here’s their expert advice:

ROI isn’t just your return on investment. It’s also a way to measure whether your organization’s grant strategy is thriving or lacks momentum.

• Relevant: You’ve demonstrated the community's need, including the gaps your organization will serve.
• Optimize: You’ve developed a strong infrastructure and have systems in place to support continued growth and the regeneration that grants can provide.
• Interact: You’ve established strong relationships and are fostering meaningful connections within the community and with funders.

Once you have your ROI in place, you can use it to become a PRO through preparation, realistic expectations, and organization.

• Preparation: Are your programs clearly identified? Do you have supported research and a concise explanation of need? Applying for funds before these things are in place will just serve as a lesson of what not to do.
• Realistic Expectations: Are you ready for the time it takes to sort through potential funding opportunities? A strong list of prospects doesn’t automatically equal funding. You’re not going to win every grant, so make sure that your team and your board have realistic expectations about what you can accomplish.
• Organization: Do you have a place to keep and update information? Do you have a person dedicated to starting relationships with potential funders? The more organized you are, the easier it will be to manage multiple grants.

👉 Check out the entire workshop for more expert tips!

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Opportunities Spotlight

🚜 Kubota Hometown Proud Grant

Who It’s For: Local nonprofits driving community development projects within 50 miles of a Kubota dealer

Next Deadline: March 31, 2025

Grant Amount: Up to $100,000

The Details: This grant focuses on empowering nonprofits to bring their community-enhancing projects to life. They are focused on initiatives to help make neighborhoods thrive, including beautification, playgrounds, agricultural education, food literacy programming, and more. Kubota Tractor Corporation will award five grants in 2025.

👉 Apply Here!

✨ Bargaining & Advocacy Grants

Who It’s For: Affiliated nonprofits focused on workplace rights, advocacy, and collective bargaining efforts

Next Deadline: August 31, 2025

Grant Amount: Up to $50,000

The Details: The National Education Association Staff Organization awards grants to help design and implement student-centered initiatives. These grants should focus on collective bargaining, helping to advocate and bargain for educational programming and resources and improve educator working conditions.

👉 Apply Here!

🔍 Explore thousands of other grant opportunities now!

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Networking Nook

💻 Webinar: Two Goals, One Grant: Maximizing Grant Impact for Resilience and Beyond

January 29 | 1-2 p.m. ET

Join Hagerty Consulting for a live webinar to learn how your grants can do double duty, accomplishing multiple goals simultaneously. When done strategically, you can maintain compliance and maximize your return on investment. 

Don’t Miss Out

✅ Register Now!

To check out more recent and upcoming live events, go here.

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In Case You Missed It

📑 Article: Best Practices & Strategies for Securing Invite-Only Funding

This article demystifies securing invite-only funding, providing a strategic playbook you can follow. You will learn strategies to help you build relationships and lay the groundwork to receive future invite-only grants.

✅ Get the Full Story!

📼 Video: How to Craft a Standout Grant Application

Join Dawn Lego from OneCause to learn how to make your grant application stand out. She shares a behind-the-scenes look at how funders evaluate applications, what they prioritize, and what common pitfalls you should avoid.

✅ Watch the Master Class!

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Work Smarter, Not Harder With Instrumentl and AI

Say goodbye to manual processes.

With Apply by Instrumentl, you can automate your grant application process without compromising your organization’s tone.

You’ll be able to use your past applications to generate new content, saving countless hours of work pulling together the information you already have.

👉 Start your 14-day free trial now!