We know that communities around the country are capable and resilient – and that nonprofits will continue to be a positive force during this season of suffering and scarcity. But it is incredibly hard right now for our sector.
The need is deep, wide, and growing. Private funding is as constrained as it has been in decades. Federal funding has evaporated. Expenses are at an all-time high after years of inflation.
Elevate is digging deep to meet the moment comprehensively for our established nonprofit clients and prospective clients. We have been a trusted expert and partner to hundreds of nonprofits for over a decade, resulting in over $1 billion dollars raised from grants. Today, we are focused on reducing risk for nonprofit leaders as they make critical decisions for their organizations. I intend for Elevate to be the lowest-risk option for your grants program at this moment of revenue uncertainty.
With this in mind, we are introducing the most responsive and flexible service packages we have ever offered because we know clients need options right now. We have more affordable options that focus on just the support you really need and we have increased our options for adding more support for even our already comprehensive scopes of work.
We are also helping nonprofit leaders tap into the information they need to project future revenue and decide which programs and revenue sources to prioritize. Together, we will meet this moment.
We have been talking to our nonprofit clients all year. Below is a summary of what we are hearing and how we are adapting. My hope is that you see your organization and your distinct situation in one of the below themes – and that you can chart tangible next steps that are available for you right now.
If you are a prospective Elevate client who sees your organization in one of the scenarios below: we want to talk! Please reach out to Jessica Culverhouse, the head of our Business Development team.
If you’re an established Elevate client: we are so proud to partner with you at this critical moment. If you need to discuss your options, particularly during difficult budgeting periods: we should talk! Please reach out to Jaime Roscoe, the head of our Client Relations Team.
And of course, everyone reading this right now is invited reach out to me personally to discuss what you need and how Elevate can respond!
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
The overall funding landscape is contracting for our work. There is less money now. What should we do?
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
Elevate is helping clients define and fund their core programs. During contraction, nonprofits need to protect their mission-critical programs, something we highlighted in a conversation series earlier this year. Wherever possible, they should re-direct time, attention, and investments to support this essential work.
Through our Comprehensive Grant Writing Services, we are supporting this work by:
- Preparing data-driven revenue projections and assessing the feasibility of programmatic and organizational grant revenue targets;
- Conducting peer landscape analyses to explore whether re-framing current work or focusing on a previously lower-priority program’s funding needs could replace other funds that are disappearing from the marketplace;
- Offering an external perspective on an organization’s essential programs and how we can best communicate what is at stake if those programs disappear to a funder audience;
- Monitoring key indicators of grant program effectiveness so we can help clients pivot more quickly if one strategy is not working as intended.
Through our Ongoing Writing Retainer Services, we are supporting this work by:
- Taking the work of maintaining an existing grant program off of a senior leader’s plate, so they can focus on securing resources from new sources or on stabilizing an organization undergoing dramatic change.
Through our custom solutions, we are supporting this work by:
- Reducing the cost of our comprehensive grant writing services model by removing revenue growth services – prospecting and cultivation – for organizations that want or need to focus on just maintaining what they have;
- Offering time-bound projects or series of projects to address specific needs, rather than ongoing support services. For example, we can assess your existing budgets to identify what may be turning off funders in a competitive market. Or, we can research a handful of priority funders you would like to pursue independently.
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
We need to downsize or restructure our development department or fundraising function. We are looking for ways to delegate essential tasks so that our limited internal capacity can focus on the most important work.
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
Elevate has long been a good solution for organizations that need to restructure their overall development department or grant function. In the current context, we can provide both short- and long-term staffing solutions that give organizations a lot of flexibility to choose an option that meets their needs and budget now and add or subtract from that option in the future as their needs change.
Through our Comprehensive Grant Writing Services, we offer a low-risk staffing solution by taking on the work of hiring, training, and establishing the workflows for an entire grant department. You pay for a fraction of a senior strategist, a writer, and a data manager rather than three distinct positions. And, if any of those staff members are no longer available, we find another team member for you while maintaining continuity for your overall grant program. If your budget is limited right now, you can choose one of our smaller scopes of work and scale up later if your circumstances change.
Through our Ongoing Writing Retainer Services, we also take on the work of finding stellar grant writing talent and establishing a streamlined process for outsourcing part or all of your grant writing and submission needs. Like our Comprehensive services, we can scale our support up or down as your needs change. We are now offering our most cost-conscious package – 2 grants or reports per month for $3,500 per month. Finally, if you ever need more strategy or prospecting support, we will help you transition to a more comprehensive engagement or recommend a one-time project to meet your needs.
Through our custom solutions, we can further ensure your development function is positioned to meet the moment. For example, we can add additional data tracking to your Comprehensive services to track every deadline you need to keep tabs on for your grants program, even the work you do internally. Or, we can engage in a one-time project to assess your development needs and map those functions onto your available staff roles and capacity.
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
We are cutting programs, activities, or interventions and need to understand what funding can be retained or re-deployed.
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
Funder positioning is one of Elevate’s strengths: we are the best at figuring out how to tell an authentic story to a funder in a way that helps them really understand how they can have an impact.
Through our Comprehensive Grant Writing Services, we take a critical look at every upcoming deliverable to assess whether the previous year’s strategy is still the right one in this context. Through intentional revenue target development and funding projections, we can recommend whether we need to focus upcoming asks on a new program or initiative that is underfunded.
Through both our Comprehensive and our Ongoing Writing Retainer Services, our draft process helps us understand funders’ current giving priorities. We can make data-driven recommendations about which funders will be most receptive to a request that looks a bit different than in years’ past.
Through our custom solutions, we can work with you to build a defined project or ongoing retainer focused on communicating organizational pivots to current and potential funders. This work can include template outreach emails, a project plan with deadlines for reaching out to key funders in advance of planned solicitations, and research into evolving giving priorities.
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
Our nonprofit was reliant on public funding. We’ve realized we need to diversify our funding sources.
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
Elevate has worked with many clients over the years who are stepping into private funding for the first time, after years of building organizations through corporate, individual, or public funding. That expertise positions us well to support organizations’ pivot away from public funding sources that have disappeared.
Through our Comprehensive Grant Writing Services, we are working with organizations that have a strong private funder base to increase gift sizes from dedicated supporters and pursue focused strategies to secure funding from new supporters. Through peer landscape analyses, prospect research, draft emails to new and renewal funders, and cultivation project management, we can help nonprofits further strengthen their private grant revenue stream in the short-term.
Through our custom solutions, we are working with organizations that did not previously have a strong private funder base to:
- Assess the long-term funding potential in their space through Peer Landscape Analysis Projects;
- Prioritize relationship-building and solicitation of well-aligned funders through Prospect Qualification Projects;
- Provide one-time or ongoing support to strengthen their funder relationship-building by developing funder outreach materials, providing coaching, offering ongoing task management, and working with you to prep for funder calls.
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
Our programs are resonating with funders right now, thankfully! We are looking for support with revenue growth while staying within our budget.
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
Elevate is gleaning real-time insights from our expert staff who work with a large base of clients. Based on weekly staff huddles facilitated by our President & Managing Director, we are seeing nonprofits in the following spaces find success pursuing new revenue streams:
- Mental/Behavioral Health, particularly in connection with housing programming;
- Substance Abuse recovery and prevention; and
- Grassroots organizing, convening, and education around timely issues, particularly resisting corporate greed, supporting workers, economic mobility, and creating a more just democracy.
At the same time, we know that even this revenue growth may not be grounded in a high volume of new grant submissions. Instead, it may require strategically re-framing existing work to align with the most timely issues facing their communities and targeted outreach to a small pool of well-aligned funders.
Through our Comprehensive Grant Writing Services, we can re-frame your work for more promising funder spaces, analyze what is and isn’t working about past strategies, and recommend appropriate revenue targets grounded in data-driven revenue projections. For the first time, we can also scale all aspects of this model up or down – do you need less drafting but more funder research and cultivation support? We can make that happen.
Through Ongoing Writing Retainer Services, we can take routine renewals and reports off of your to-do list so you can focus on the cultivation and solicitation of new funders for new work or priorities.
Through our custom solutions, we are working with organizations to assess the long-term potential of grant funding in their space prior to deciding whether to invest in building a private grant program. Let us take some of the guesswork out of what your next move should be as you acclimate to a different revenue profile.
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
Our funding seems stable, but we need to understand our funding potential for specific geographic regions, or programs, or the next 3-5 years to aid our current planning.
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
Elevate offers a variety of analyses that can help nonprofit leaders understand what funding is available in which geographic regions or for what programs, in order to make more strategic decisions about both investing in and decreasing investments in specific programs. In particular, we are helping nonprofit decision makers understand the long-term funding potential in their space through Peer Landscape Analysis Projects and prioritize relationship-building and solicitation of well-aligned funders through Prospect Qualification Projects.
WHAT WE ARE HEARING:
I just need more information about what is happening in the sector in real time.
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
Elevate remains a resource for original data and research through our blog and email list. For example, a recent post from our President & Managing Director reports what we are seeing regarding the impact of the federal funding freeze. One potentially surprising finding was that Elevate clients secured comparable public funding in 2025 as they had in previous years. Additionally, we hosted a Conversation Series earlier in the year and have a series of posts about the big questions nonprofit leaders are asking and guidance from seasoned professionals about leading through periods of uncertainty. We also host workshops and trainings, including a free introduction webinar available on demand and other educational webinars available through our partnership with GrantStation.
About the Author:
Founder & CEO
