Many agencies make the mistake of not treating grant funders as they do their major individual and/or corporate donors. This is understandable, especially with larger foundations, given the formal nature of requesting funds and the disconnect that can result from the typical grant process. Nonetheless, there are many important and valuable strategies to develop, maintain, and cultivate strong relationships with your grant makers that can increase the chances of ongoing funding. Through this session you will ultimately learn how to shift your agency’s perspective on grant makers from just being “funders” to viewing them as true partners in your work.

You’ll Learn: 

  • How to align your mission to grant funder priorities and identify ways to approach various foundations
  • Discuss communication strategies to cultivate relationships with current grant makers, report your progress, and recognize their contributions through a transparent and open relationship
  • How to prepare and structure tours and site visits and get others at your agency involved in that process
  • Dive deeper into new trends in funder relationships such as participatory grant-making and trust-based philanthropy


Presented by:
Leah Hyman, GPC

Course curriculum

    1. Welcome: Let's Get Started

    2. Video: Grant Funding Basics - Relationships with Grant Funders

    3. Session Evaluation

    4. Quiz: Grant Funding Basics - Relationships with Grant Funders

About this course

  • $25.00
  • 4 lessons
  • 1 hour of video content

The trainers for these sessions are all credentialed grant professionals (GPCs) through the Grant Professional Certification Institute, Approved Trainers with the Grant Professionals Association, and/or credentialed Certified Grant Management Specialists (CGMS) through the National Grant Management Association. All of the trainings in this series align with the CGMS exam classification system and the Grant Professionals Certification Institute’s competencies and skills, and are approved for Continuing Education Units (CEU) by GPCI and CFRE International.