How I Increased Grant Funding 172% During the Toughest Giving Year

When I accepted an Executive Director position at an art center in Portland, Oregon, in June 2024, the first thing I reviewed was the organization's Profit & Loss statements.

The numbers told a clear story. The organization had struggled financially for years. We were in the red every year unless extraordinary funding, such as a bequest, came through. The organization had transitioned from a membership society to a nonprofit in 2007. Many former members had generously included it in their wills. Those gifts had helped keep the doors open, but they were becoming less frequent as time passed. We couldn't build a sustainable financial strategy around our constituents passing away.

Contributed income—including grants, donations, and fundraising events—accounted for only about 15% of annual revenue. A healthy arts nonprofit should aim for at least 40%.

The timing wasn't ideal. A presidential election was approaching. Inflation had reached 3.3% in May 2024. Donors were understandably cautious about their investments and giving. I knew increasing donations would be difficult, so I turned to grants.

I had spent years working in nonprofit grants within the arts sector. I knew the major funders at the federal, state, county, city, and private foundation levels. I knew their funding cycles. I knew the deadlines. I knew who wanted digital applications and who still preferred snail mail. Most importantly, I had built relationships with their staff.

It was time to build a new grants strategy. One of my first applications was for a Microsoft nonprofit grant. We were quickly approved and gained free access to the full Microsoft suite, including cloud storage for all of our files. You don't need expensive grants software to stay organized. A simple Excel spreadsheet works remarkably well. I created a new grants tracker spreadsheet that gave me a snapshot of our new grants plan, including deadlines, amounts, and expected response dates. Every opportunity was organized chronologically and color coded.

The office was also overflowing with paper files. The grant records occupied only a small corner of those cabinets, but they held valuable history. I scanned every file and uploaded everything to our Microsoft server so staff could access documents from anywhere. While sorting through decades of paperwork, I discovered several small private foundations I had never encountered before. They didn't even have websites.

Using the contact information buried in old correspondence, I reached out. I learned about their application processes. Then I started building relationships.

One conversation with a former board president led to a particularly valuable discovery. I'll call the funder "Foundation X." Years earlier, one of Foundation X's trustees had met with a previous board president and awarded the organization $10,000. Then...nothing.

Why weren't we asking every year?

Somewhere along the way, the relationship had faded as board members and staff changed. I reconnected with the foundation, rebuilt the relationship, and secured another $10,000 grant. More importantly, we were back in their funding pipeline for years to come.

As Executive Director, I simply couldn't write every proposal myself. I hired a grants writer on contract to help manage our new annual workload of 25 to 30 grant applications. We built a shared Microsoft OneNote library containing narratives from every successful application. She spent five to ten hours each week drafting and submitting proposals. I reviewed and updated them with current program information and organizational data.

She paid for herself four times over.

I've never understood why nonprofits often cut development staff first during difficult times. Without funding, there are no programs. Without programs, there is no mission. Development isn't overhead; it’s the money-making side of business operations. It's what makes the mission possible.

Earlier in my career as a Grants Manager, my portfolio was more than twenty times the cost of my salary.

I also identified a brand-new funding opportunity through the Mid-America Arts Alliance, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Soon after, the Trump administration announced changes to federal grant funding. Applications containing certain words related to identity, demographics, DEI concepts, and various social and medical terms were flagged for additional review. We carefully worded our application and received the maximum award of $25,000. This covered half the cost of one of our programs for a year.

However, the federal application changes disrupted funding for nonprofits across the country and pushed many organizations to seek private foundation support instead. Competition for all grants increased almost overnight.

In June 2025, a foundation administrator friend told me their organization had received more than 300 letters of inquiry in a single funding cycle—more than double their usual volume. A few months later, we secured our regular grant from that same foundation, which I partially attribute to my dinner with that administrator. Relationships matter.

Near the end of the year, I also reached out to a friend whose family foundation supports a range of causes, including the arts. The foundation awarded us $25,000. He also encouraged the foundation's executive director to join our board. She brought deep philanthropic experience and served on three other nonprofit boards. She quickly became an invaluable member of our leadership team.

By rebuilding relationships, identifying new opportunities, and creating a more intentional grants strategy, we developed a diverse funding portfolio that included federal, state, county, city, and private foundation support. Grant revenue reached $90,193—an increase of 172%—despite federal funding uncertainty and growing competition across the nonprofit sector.

Strong programs, of course, are essential - they give funders a reason to invest. Relationships open doors. In grant fundraising, knowing the application process is important. Knowing the people behind it can make all the difference.

The Figure Ground Collective is not just a design firm. We offer services for arts nonprofits through institutional visioning and grant writing. Learn more about our services.

Jen Dale
Figure Ground Collective