Grant Prospect Research Spreadsheet: Which Funder to Apply to Next

Shortlists that keep every promising funder end up with more bids than the team has hours to write, and the best ones get rushed.

Two habits keep a pipeline realistic. First, treat eligibility as a gate: a strong relationship can't outweigh a failed eligibility test, so screen those out before anyone spends writing time. Then estimate bid hours for each remaining opportunity, add them up, and compare the total with the writing hours your team actually has.

Our sample file shows the before and after. Before: 45 opportunities logged across 40 funders. After scoring, the workbook returns 8 GO, 23 CONDITIONAL GO, 4 HOLD and 10 NO GO, so 22% are screened out before any bid time is spent. The top 20 still need 1,658 hours against a 600-hour capacity, and the sheet marks where the cut-off falls.

That is the Funding Intelligence System for Excel and Google Sheets. Each opportunity is scored out of 100 on strategic match, funding match, eligibility, competition and relationship. Seven rules, applied in order, give a verdict with its reason, the one condition that would change it, and a next action.

It doesn't find opportunities for you, and it doesn't predict whether you'll win. You do the research and the workbook does the deciding.