What Funders Really Look For in Nonprofit Grant Applications — 5 Common Mistakes Nonprofits Are Making
Key Takeaways
- Funders are managing risk before they’re funding impact – Strong ideas matter, but proposals that feel unclear or risky rarely move forward.
- Your proposal has to be easy to carry internally – If someone can’t quickly explain your work, it becomes harder to champion.
- Credibility builds before funding grows– Smaller, achievable asks often open the door to larger opportunities later.
There’s a quiet frustration that sits underneath a lot of nonprofit fundraising work. You can spend hours, sometimes days, on a grant application. You follow the guidelines, tell a compelling story, and still hear nothing back.
Matt Cherry of Your Nonprofit Advisor has seen this from both sides. And as Matt explains, the gap is often not the idea itself. It’s how that idea is being understood, assessed, and carried through a funder’s internal process. What Matt names, again and again, is that strong proposals are not just well written. They are easy to trust.
Below are five common mistakes Matt sees in grant applications, and how he suggests approaching them differently.
1. Mistake: Leading with Impact Instead of Risk
Many nonprofits lead with the importance of their work. The urgency. The impact. The need. But as Matt explains, that is not the first filter funders are using. “They don’t have time to deeply investigate every proposal… a lot of their decision-making is about reducing risk.”
Program officers are often managing dozens, sometimes over a hundred active grants at once. That shapes how quickly they need to assess what feels safe to fund.
What to do instead:
- Show that your plan is stable and thought through
- Be realistic about scope and capacity
- Clearly outline how challenges will be managed
Matt’s advice is simple: before your proposal can feel exciting, it has to feel safe.
2. Mistake: Making Your Proposal Too Complex to Retell
Matt highlights something many nonprofit professionals never see. Your proposal will not stay in its original form. “Sometimes in a paragraph, sometimes in a single sentence.”
It will be summarized internally. Passed between colleagues. Advocated for in rooms you are not in. If your idea is hard to explain, it becomes hard to support.
What to do instead:
- Write a one-paragraph version of your proposal
- Focus on one clear problem and one clear approach
- Remove anything that distracts from the core idea
As Matt often emphasizes, clarity is not just about writing well. It is about making your work easy for someone else to carry forward.
3. Mistake: Overvaluing Innovation Without Proving Credibility
Nonprofits are often encouraged to be bold. To innovate. To try something new. But Matt notes that funders are asking a different set of questions underneath that. “If we fund this… will they deliver?”
That question shows up in different ways:
- Have you done something like this before?
- Is your leadership stable?
- Does your budget make sense?
What to do instead:
- Reference past work, even if it was smaller in scale
- Highlight leadership consistency and experience
- Connect new ideas to what you have already proven
Matt’s perspective is not that innovation does not matter. It is that innovation without trust is difficult to fund.
4. Mistake: Asking for Too Much, Too Soon
There is a dynamic Matt sees frequently, especially with organizations newer to grant funding. You aim for the top of the funding range. Because the need is real. Because the work is important. But funders are also looking for signals of credibility. And one of those signals is what you ask for.
“If there’s a range of 5,000 to 50,000… ask for 5,000, not 50.”
That smaller ask can feel counterintuitive. But it can increase your chances of getting a first yes.
What to do instead:
- Start with a clearly achievable project
- Request an amount that feels aligned with your track record
- Build funding history over time
Matt frames this as a longer game. The goal is not just one grant. It is building a pattern funders can trust.
5. Mistake: Treating Grants as Transactions Instead of Relationships
Many nonprofits are told to “build relationships” with funders. But in practice, that can feel inaccessible.
Matt acknowledges that reality. So instead of starting with formal relationships, he points to visibility and consistency. “You’re guaranteed to be ignored if you don’t reach out.”
Relationships are not built in one conversation. They build over time, often in small ways.
What to do instead:
- Attend funder events or webinars
- Engage thoughtfully with funders’ work and priorities
- Share your own perspective and updates consistently
- Reach out with a question or insight, not just an ask
Matt’s point is not that every outreach will lead somewhere. It is that silence guarantees nothing will.
What Funders Are Really Evaluating
| What nonprofits often focus on | What funders are actually asking |
|---|---|
| How big is the impact? | Does this feel realistic and achievable? |
| How compelling is the story? | Can I confidently explain this to others? |
| How innovative is the idea? | Do I trust this team to deliver? |
| How much funding do we need? | What level of risk am I taking on? |
What Matt Cherry Suggests You Focus On Instead
Across all of this, Matt comes back to a few simple filters that shape how proposals are assessed.
- Clarity — Is this easy to understand quickly?
- Credibility — Do we believe they can deliver?
- Feasibility — Does this feel realistic?
- Alignment — Does this match what we fund?
When those are clear, the proposal becomes easier to move forward internally.
As Matt puts it: “Funders are trying to reduce uncertainty.”
That shifts the question. Not how do we impress. But how do we make this easier to say yes to.
A Final Thought
This perspective comes from a recent Nonprofit Hive Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Matt Cherry, where nonprofit professionals asked direct, honest questions about what actually happens inside grantmaking.
What stands out in how Matt shares this is not just the insight, but the tone. It is grounded. Practical. And rooted in the realities nonprofit professionals are navigating every day.
If you have ever felt like strong work is not translating into funding, you are not alone.
And conversations like this are part of how nonprofit professionals begin to make sense of the gap, together.