This Peer Organization Landscape Review template was developed by Kelsey Barrera, Founder of Canopy Nonprofit Consulting, and shared in partnership with Instrumentl to help nonprofits streamline the peer prospecting process.

In today’s competitive funding environment, nonprofits need more than a strong mission statement; they need a strategy to identify aligned funders, stand out from peers, and build partnerships. That’s where Kelsey Barrera, Founder of Canopy Nonprofit Consulting, brings her expertise. With over a decade of experience in fundraising and grant strategy, Barrera helps nonprofits go beyond surface-level research to develop focused, fundable strategies.

As she explains:

“We go through the full process with clients from grant readiness and building a grant calendar all the way through cultivation, writing, and then helping them steward grants that they've won.”

One of her most practical tools is the Peer Organization Landscape Review template—a simple yet powerful framework to uncover funding opportunities and sharpen a nonprofit’s positioning.

Each step of the template maps directly to elements of a winning grants strategy: understanding your peers, building a strong funder pipeline, and articulating your organization’s unique value.

🎧 Want to go deeper? Check out our podcast interview with Kelsey Barrera as she introduces her peer prospecting method — a practical, step-by-step approach to identifying funders by studying who supports your peer organizations. She shares how this strategy blends with tools like Instrumentl to create a focused, high-quality prospect pipeline.

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Mapping Peer Organizations to Understand the Landscape

The starting point of the template is identifying a handful of peer organizations that share a mission or serve a similar audience.

Barrera explained how she guides clients through this process:

“So we start by trying to find five to seven organizations that could be considered peers. And the definition can vary a little bit depending on the organization. But typically, this is an organization doing similar work to you in a similar geography.”

Knowing your peers allows you to benchmark programs, identify emerging trends, and anticipate what funders may already be supporting in your space.

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Turning Peer Research Into Funder Discovery

Once peer organizations are identified, the real gold comes from reviewing their funders.

Many nonprofits openly list their foundation and corporate partners on their websites or in annual reports. By collecting these names, you can begin to build a funding pipeline grounded in real evidence.

For Barrera, this “old school” approach remains one of the most reliable ways to uncover new funders:

“The best indication of what a funder would give to is what they've already given to in the past. And seeing them show up across several of your peers is like a big green flag waving saying we care about this type of work.”

In one example, she described a client in Washington, D.C. where many top funders were invite-only and had no websites:

“By looking at the peers, we were able to find four or five kind of under-the-radar funders that have consistently funded their peers and add them to our strategy. And then… we hop back into Instrumentl to go through that giving data. That is my favorite part of Instrumentl. It's the best place that I found to go and actually digest the data that's in the 990 in a way that makes sense to vet them out further and then also to track them.”

By combining this peer-sourced prospecting with platforms like Instrumentl, nonprofits can both discover and validate opportunities.

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Defining What Makes Your Nonprofit Unique

Beyond funder discovery, there is also a place in the template to articulate the key differences between your organization and its peers. This might include a unique geography, a specific audience served, or an innovative approach to programming.

The goal here is to better understand what makes your nonprofit unique and what kinds of partnerships may be most beneficial in the future.

Barrera underscores how powerful this reflection can be in grant proposals:

“We're looking at how an organization stands out among their peers and how they contribute to that kind of overall ecosystem of impact being created and being able to articulate this to a funder in a grant proposal can be really powerful.”

For more resources on collaborating with other organizations, check out this guide to successful community partnerships.

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Takeaways for Grant Professionals

Ultimately, the Peer Organization Landscape Review template offers nonprofits a roadmap for identifying aligned funders, building a manageable pipeline, and positioning your organization with clarity.

Here are some tips for leveraging it effectively:

• Start small and strategic: Look for five to seven peer organizations as your starting sample. This ensures focus and prevents overwhelm in your research phase.
• Build a prospect list from peers’ funders: Prioritize funders that repeatedly show up across multiple peer organizations. These are high-probability prospects worth deeper cultivation.
• Clarify your unique value: Use similarities and differences to sharpen your organization’s case for support and ensure your proposals highlight what only you can deliver.
• Engage your board: Board members often have relationships or networks that can open doors to key funders.
• Use the right tools: Once you identify potential funders, platforms like Instrumentl make it easier to review giving histories, vet alignment, and manage the pipeline. This transforms raw research into a streamlined, actionable grants strategy.

Nonprofits don’t need to chase every possible funder; they need to identify the right ones and invest their energy wisely. Barrera sums it up best:

“I would love to debunk this idea that more is better. It's really about focus and quality and figuring out where your time is of the highest value.”

When used intentionally, the Peer Organization Landscape Review template can help you create a foundation for a smarter, more sustainable grants strategy.