Smarter Grant Prospecting with GrantStation + AI.pdf

An effective grant strategy isn’t just about identifying potential funders — it’s about doing so efficiently, strategically, and with the right tools to support your decision-making.

In this webinar, Alice Ruhnke and David Gates will demonstrate how to harness the combined power of GrantStation’s funder database with AI tools like ChatGPT to streamline your prospect research and outreach efforts.

1. Smarter Grant
Prospecting: Using
GrantStation + AI
Tools to Streamline
Your Grant Strategy
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2. Agenda
●Intro
○Grant Strategy Overview
○AI Best Practices: Providing Source Material
●Plan Your Project
●Using GrantStation and AI to Research
●Analyze and Prioritize Funders
○Reviewing a GS Profile & 990s
○Grant Fit Evaluator GPT
●Connect and Build Relationships
○Developing outreach emails
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“AI Workshop”
Created by Dall-E

3. Introduction
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4. STEP 3
Steps in an Effective Grant Strategy
●Plan
○Clarify your project and generate a wide range of search terms
or “angles” to ensure your search is comprehensive
●Research
○Identify a list of potential funding leads that are aligned with
the scope of your project.
●Analyze / Prioritize
○Dig into funder’s giving history, analyze their application
guidelines, and compare leads so you can focus on your
highest-potential prospects.
●Connect
○Craft a tailored outreach plan for each funder
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“Steps in Research”
Created by Dall-E

5. Why It Matters?
○Giving AI background information about your organization helps generate more accurate, relevant, and
tailored responses while reducing the risk of misinformation ("hallucination")
How to Do It?
○Upload key documents: Grant proposals, case statements, annual reports, program descriptions, or other
relevant materials
○Provide website links:Direct AI to specific webpages with accurate information about your organization
When to Do It?
○If you need responses that align closely with your organization’s mission, programs, and language
○If you’re concerned about AI “hallucinating”
***You don’t always need to provide source material—sometimes AI can be useful for brainstorming or drafting general templates.***
AI Best Practices: Providing Source Material
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6. Examples of Source Material
“sources”
Created by Dall-E
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●Your Annual Report
●A Comprehensive Grant Template
●Previous Grants/Proposals
●Case for Support
●Organization’s Website
●Strategic Plan
●Logic Model / Theory of Change
●Program Evaluations / Reports
●Press Release / Media Coverage
***Source material will be unique to each nonprofit. Your goal is to provide the context / info needed for
a LLM to take your content and “repackage” it according to a specific situation****

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8. Plan
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9. STEP 3
Plan Your Funding Search
●Best Practices:
○Don’t just dive into research. Spend some time thinking about
your project.
○Goal: Find a variety of search terms to ensure you’re not
overlooking any options
●Viewing Your Work Through Different “Lenses”
○Consider your project from different angles. By thinking
broadly about the impact of your work, you can identify a wider
range of potential funders who share your goals.
○Example: A tutoring program for foster youth shouldn’t limit
its search to funders who support education. It should also
explore opportunities with those who invest in youth services,
child welfare, or efforts to strengthen families. Each lens
reveals new pathways to potential funding.
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“Funding Research”
Created by Dall-E

10. STEP 3
Plan: Using GrantStation and AI
●GrantStation has 200+ different search terms that you
can use to tailor your searches
○These include terms that are broad (i.e. Health and
Wellness General) and others that are more specific
(i.e. STEM education).
○Common mistake is to focus on the most obvious
search terms and/or overlook some that might be
relevant to you.
●AI can streamline this process and help you view your
project through different “lenses”
○This can save time and make your research more
effective by giving you another set of “eyes”
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“AI + Grant Database”
Created by Dall-E

11. How Can AI Help?
●Option 1: Upload GrantStation’s Search Term List + Provide an overview of your organization (source material of
your choice)
Prompt:
I’ve uploaded a list of GrantStation search terms. Please review the entire document, including the descriptions under each term, to
understand the context—but in your response, only list the search term labels, not the descriptions or example topics. Based on the
overview of my organization’s mission and programs, which search terms should we use in GrantStation to find potential funders?
I’m looking for both: Directly relevant terms that closely align with our core work and Broader or less obvious terms that mightstill
lead to good opportunities. Please think expansively, and feel free to include terms that connect indirectly but meaningfullytoour
programs. Justify each search term.
Sample: https://chatgpt.com/share/689a4074-e1b8-8005-9133-6bfac2bfa0f0
●Option 2: Test out our custom Search Term GPT (requires a ChatGPT account)
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12. Demo
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13. Research
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14. STEP 3
Research: Cast a Wide Net
●Best Practices: Build a list of leads
○Identify as many funders who are potentially aligned with your work
as possible.
○Leads are not necessarily a perfect fit or ones you will end up
applying to. These are funders you’d like to invest more time
researching.
●What makes a good lead?
○Alignment in geography
○Overlap in mission
○Accepting applications or LOIs (or you have the internal capacity to
solicit an invite)
○Compatible grant cycles
○Org needs fit with funders giving priorities (i.e. supporting direct
service orgs, capacity building, capital campaigns etc)
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“Wide Net”
Created by Dall-E

15. STEP 3
Combine Tools
●You can use AI for a quick overview of the funding landscape (i.e.
can you identify family foundations that support youth
development in West Virginia)
○Pros: Much better than Google as it understands
intent/nuance in your mission and programs.
○Cons: Results will often be the funders with the largest online
presence. LLMs are trained on publicly available content.
Suggestions are drawn from patterns in public information—
not live, up-to-date information.
●Use a grant database (like GrantStation) to run structured
searches
○Systematically go through various keywords you identified
○Save top leads for next step
○Can find detailed funder info after doing a search using a
chatbot
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“Research”
Created by Dall-E

16. Demo
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17. Analyze + Prioritize
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18. STEP 3
Identifying the Best Opportunites
●Goal:
○Determine if your leads are actually a good fit for your
program and the ROI of writing a proposal and managing an
award worth it?
○Set a priority for funders based on fit (i.e. Strong, Reasonable,
Weak | A, B, C).
●Questions to Analyze:
○Who they’ve given to in the past?
○How much they’ve given?
○How challenging is their application process? Do you have the
materials you need?
○Can you build a relationship with this funder? Or do you have
one?
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“Futuristic Question Mark”
Created by Dall-E

19. STEP 3
How to Rank Funders?
●Prioritizing is Unique to Each Org
○There’s no universal formula for ranking funders. What counts as
a top priority for your organization depends on your unique
strengths, capacity, and situation.
●An “A” funder might be…
○A strong mission fit with a detailed application process you’re ready to
tackle
○A moderate fit but with a simple application and fast turnaround
○You have a trusted relationship or insider connection
○Local “low-hanging fruit” to build your record of grants success if
you’re just getting started
○A competitive funder with a large award amount that will make a big
difference.
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“Ranking”
Created by Dall-E

20. STEP 3
AI + GS: Analyzing Funders
●Use GrantStation profiles for:
○Detailed summary of their priorities / giving history
○Links to 990s
●Use ChatGPT to:
○Analyze info on a GrantStation profile
○Summarize / Interact with a 990 (Note: I’ve seen more
“hallucinations” than normal with 990s.
○Analyze an RFP
●Quick Analysis
○Test GrantStation’s Custom GPT: Grant Fit Evaluator (free but
requires a ChatGPT account)
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“Online Analysis”
Created by Dall-E

21. STEP 3
Example Prompts
●Analyze info on a GrantStation profile:
○Prompt: Based on the information in this GrantStation profile and our case for
support do you think this funder is a good fit? Provide justification.
○Sample: https://chatgpt.com/share/689a41e2-9590-8005-91d0-
688fe89c863d
●Analyze an RFP (useful if you can easily view RFP)
○Can you briefly analyze the fit for the Family Roots Alliance according to the
NOFO’s requirements? Provide a short justification as well as any areas to be
aware of before getting started.
○Sample: https://chatgpt.com/share/689a441d-164c-8005-8464-
73dd992ded2d
●Interacting with a 990
○Prompt: Please review the attached 990 and provide information only from the
grants awarded section. Based on that data: What is a reasonable grant
amount to request for an after-school educational program? What amounts
did other grantees receive for similar youth-focused or educational
programming? Only reference grantees specifically listed in the 990.
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“Online Analysis”
Created by Dall-E

22. Demo
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23. STEP 3
Build a Grants Calendar
●An effective calendar should:
○Prioritize top-tier funders first, ensuring their deadlines are clearly tracked
and built into the timeline.
○Plan ahead for the next 6 to 12 months, giving your team ample time to
prepare high-quality proposals.
○Align with your internal capacity, balancing ambition with what your team
can realistically manage. Fill in additional opportunities—such as lower-tier
or exploratory funders—as capacity allows and deadlines emerge.
●Track opportunities using GrantStation’s Dashboard:
○You can add tiers (A,B,C) and notes. Deadlines are auto-populated
○AI can assist with building a calendar, but it is unlikely to speed up the
process as you will have a better intuitive understanding of internal capacity.
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“Calendar”
Created by Dall-E

24. Connect
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25. Connect with Funders
●Goal:
○Build a relationship with funders
●Outreach Emails Should Be:
○Concise & Actionable
○Tailored to the funder (i.e. areas of interest / mirror their
language)
○Focus on mission alignment
●Tips:
○AI can quickly create tailored emails for different stages (initial
outreach, follow up, thank you, update, event) & from different
individuals (i.e. board members / program staff)
○Provide source material to ensure accurate customization
Personalized Outreach
Created by Dall-E

26. Sample Prompts
Example 1
●Please visit: https://www.coorsfoundation.org/grant-priorities/ Help me craft a
compelling introductory email to this funder. Please help me craft a concise,
compelling introductory email to the Adolph Coors Foundation. My nonprofit runs an
after-school tutoring program for at-risk youth in Colorado. This will be my first email
to the funder, and I don’t have an existing relationship. My goal is to show alignment
with their funding priorities, and request a short meeting to explore potential
partnership.
●Sample: https://chatgpt.com/share/67d981a5-6250-8005-ab4a-08bca3584050
Example 2
●Write a warm, engaging invitation email to this funder:
https://www.therossfoundation.org/programs/educationinviting them to an open
house about our Steps to Success program. Review their website and attached case for
support to align our work with the funder’s goals.
●Sample: https://chatgpt.com/share/67d98248-2bdc-8005-aa05-e20c234ce343 Personalized Outreach
Created by Dall-E

27. Demo
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28. Final Thoughts
●AI is a versatile tool: It can support nearly every stage of
your grant-seeking process.
●Don’t reinvent the wheel—enhance it: Before overhauling
your approach, explore how AI can amplify what you're
already doing.
●More than just research: One of AI’s most powerful use
cases is accelerating the grant writing process.
○Best Practices: Feed AI high-quality, comprehensive
source material to ensure strong, relevant, and
funder-aligned applications.
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“AI Discussion”
Created by Dall-E

29. .
Questions?
Alice Ruhnke, President
[email protected]
David Gates, Director of Online Education
[email protected]
www.grantstation.com
877.784.7268
[email protected]
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30. GPT Links
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Search Term GPT: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-689476a5899c8191b0d247455dfbf942-
grantstation-search-term-finder
Grant Fit Evaluator: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-682b615e8e988191bf3bdb32d26a4e30-
grant-fit-evaluator