14-Day Grant-Readiness Stack for Lean Teams
If you lead a small social enterprise or nonprofit, you don’t need a museum of paperwork. You need a lean, living grant-readiness stack that proves legitimacy, clarifies outcomes, and shows you can steward dollars—without burning a month of staff time.
This is a guide, not a lecture. In two focused weeks, you’ll build one folder that answers 90% of funder questions. Where a fiscal sponsor helps, I’ll note it—quietly—because the star here is your readiness.
What “grant-ready” really means (and what it doesn’t)
Grant-ready means a reviewer can decide “likely yes” in five minutes because you demonstrate three things:
Legitimacy — clean org snapshot, governance, and financials that rhyme.
Outcomes — a tiny, credible plan to measure what matters.
Stewardship — policies, controls, and a budget that reflect real costs.
It doesn’t mean encyclopedic binders, jargon, or a 40-page evaluation plan. If a document doesn’t reduce perceived risk or improve clarity, it’s not part of this sprint.
Principles for the next 14 days
One source of truth. All docs live in a single folder.
Plain language. If a teenager can’t read it, a midnight reviewer won’t either.
Full cost, no drama. You can’t deliver outcomes on phantom budgets.
Create your folder before you start:
/Grant-Readiness-Stack/2025-10/
Use short, versioned filenames (e.g., Org_OnePager_v1.1.pdf).
The 14-day plan (concrete artifacts, day by day)
Day 1 — Your one-liner and problem statement
Write three short paragraphs you’ll reuse everywhere: (a) one-sentence mission; (b) the problem in plain English (who’s affected, what changes without your work); (c) the two or three outcomes you exist to move. Export as Org One-Liner (PDF) and keep a text version for portals.
Day 2 — Organization one-pager
A single, clean page: who you serve, what you do, outcomes snapshot, service area, leadership names/photos, and a grants contact. Think of this as your leave-behind after any call.
Day 3 — 2–3 program briefs
For each flagship program, draft one page with purpose, who benefits, annual reach, two or three outcome signals, and a thumbnail budget showing direct costs and a reasonable share of shared services. Keep it calm and numeric.
Day 4 — Full-cost organizational budget + narrative
Build a twelve-month budget with a half-page narrative explaining assumptions. Include shared services (finance/HR/IT/compliance), reserves, and change capital (one-time investments in systems/talent). If you’re fiscally sponsored, match headings to the sponsor’s chart of accounts to avoid “translation” later.
Day 5 — Financials/990/audit (or best available)
If you have a recent 990 and audit/review, add PDFs. If you don’t, include a clean YTD P&L and balance sheet plus the last fiscal year, signed by the treasurer.
Quiet accelerator: A fiscal sponsor’s 990/audit and your project-level statements can satisfy diligence while you mature.
Day 6 — Governance packet
Board roster with affiliations and short bios, current org chart, meeting cadence. Include one-paragraph summaries of your conflict-of-interest and whistleblower policies (link to full docs if you have them).
Day 7 — Policies that actually matter to grants
Plain-language summaries (1–2 paragraphs each) for privacy & data, safeguarding, nondiscrimination, accessibility, and consent & compensation for stories.
Sponsor assist: Many sponsors provide vetted templates and storage for signed releases; leverage them.
Day 8 — Tiny measurement plan (three indicators)
Pick a small set that travels across programs:
Reach/Access: who’s coming in (with ethical, optional demographics).
Engagement: repeat participation or completion rate.
Outcome signal: one short pre/post item or a 60-day follow-up aligned to your work (e.g., days housed; job placement; a 7-item well-being scale).
Write one page explaining how you’ll collect, consent, store, and share a monthly, public-safe snapshot (no PII).
Day 9 — Proof assets
Two 200-word case snapshots with consent, one “you said → we changed” example, and a dated, attributed testimonial. These demonstrate that you listen and iterate.
Day 10 — Capability & people
A two-page capability statement (services, past partners, awards/contracts) plus 3–5 bios tuned to the program briefs. Make it obvious why your team can deliver the outcomes you promise.
Day 11 — Partnership proof
Add current MOUs/LOIs or one-page letters of support. Name the role and timeframe. Funders want to see you don’t stand alone.
Day 12 — Administrative backbone
Drop in the IRS determination letter or fiscal sponsorship agreement, EIN/W-9, UEI/SAM (if relevant), and insurance COIs (GL/EPLI; event riders if needed).
Quiet accelerator: Sponsors like Angels for Angels can receive and issue receipts, issue W-9s/acknowledgments, provide COIs, and sub-grant, reducing friction for pooled or pass-through funds.
Day 13 — Standard grant answers (boilerplate)
Assemble a 1,000–1,500-word “Standard Answers” file: mission, problem, solution, outcomes, equity, evaluation, capacity, governance, and a paragraph on fiscal/administrative backbone. Keep numbers consistent with Day-4.
Day 14 — Red-team and publish
Have someone outside the grant team read for clarity and consistency. Fix mismatched numbers. Zip the folder and host it at a short URL (e.g., /trust). Add the link to your email signature: “Grant materials: angelsforangels.net/trust”.
Full-cost budgeting, without drama
Funders aren’t allergic to overhead; they’re allergic to surprises. Budget calmly for both the program direct and the infrastructure that makes programs safe and durable:
Shared services: finance, HR/benefits, IT, legal/compliance, security/privacy.
Reserves: a policy target (e.g., 2–4 months) and a line that shows progress.
Change capital: one-time investments (data system, accessibility upgrades, training).
Accessibility & participation: translation/interpretation/ASL, childcare, transit stipends.
Community voice: stipends for advisory members and storytellers.
Label these clearly in program thumbnails to avoid the “where did these costs come from?” dance at award time.
Where fiscal sponsorship quietly accelerates you (subtle by design)
You don’t need to sell fiscal sponsorship; simply use it as backbone. A good sponsor can:
Receive, receipt, and sub-grant funds (including from collaboratives).
Provide separate fund accounting and project-level statements.
Maintain 990/audit, W-9, and COIs that satisfy standard diligence.
Offer policy templates and storage (privacy, safeguarding, releases).
Keep a monthly reporting cadence, so your numbers are always fresh.
One short sentence inside your boilerplate is enough: “Administrative infrastructure (receipting, sub-grants, insurance certificates, monthly reporting) is provided by our fiscal/administrative partner.” It signals maturity without hijacking the story.
Packaging tips that boost win rate
Keep the experience reviewer-friendly:
Plain language over polish. Verbs beat adjectives.
Numbers must rhyme. Your one-pager, briefs, and budgets should repeat the same figures.
One link to rule them all. A single, read-only folder link shortens diligence.
Light design, heavy clarity. Legible fonts, logical headings, white space.
Accessibility earns trust. Translate the one-pager and snapshot into your top second language; add alt text.
Common pitfalls to skip
Overstuffing the folder. If it doesn’t reduce risk or improve clarity, it’s clutter.
Inconsistent narratives. A program brief that claims 500 served while the budget funds 200 will unravel confidence fast.
Unpaid lived expertise. If you use community stories or advice, compensate and document consent.
Waiting for the perfect audit. Use clean management statements (Day-5) and your sponsor’s 990/audit in the interim—with an honest timeline for your own.
Maintenance cadence (so your stack stays alive)
Monthly (30 minutes): Refresh the public-safe snapshot and swap in the latest YTD budget.
Quarterly (60 minutes): Update program briefs, partner letters, and the grant calendar.
Annually: Post new COIs, 990/audit, and board roster.
Once you run this rhythm for a quarter, new opportunities feel like copy-paste—because they are.
Call to action
Open a fresh folder. Put Day-1 on the calendar for tomorrow, assign owners for Days 1–14, and protect 90 minutes per day. By the end of two weeks, you’ll have a concise, credible stack that tells a simple story: we are legitimate, we learn, and we steward dollars well. If you’re working under fiscal sponsorship, lean on that backbone to move faster—then put the stack to work.
