Explore practical, plain-English guides on running and funding nonprofit programs — from grant management and impact reporting to foundation research, grantee due diligence, and reading IRS filings.
How it fits in the grant lifecycle.
Tailored solutions for local funders.
Four capability gaps that follow from the shape of a grants directory, and what we built instead.
Key differences by region.
Logic model definition — how it maps inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact for charity programmes.
A review of AkoyaGO — foundation management built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 with all-inclusive pricing.
A concise checklist of capabilities that matter and why.
Ensuring encryption, privacy, and trust.
A review of GivingData — portfolio analytics and grant lifecycle management for private foundations.
Aligning CSR budgets with community needs.
Pros, cons, and hidden costs.
How UK funders can prevent, detect and respond to grant fraud using proportionate controls, automation and audit trails.
Be systematic and proportionate; act early with clear escalation routes.
The best Foundant GLM alternatives for foundations in 2026 — mid-market grant management platforms compared on features, UK compliance and pricing.
Digital-first expectations.
Choose proportionate methods and feed learning back into design.
How private foundations can legally fund foreign NGOs, LLCs and non-charities — the five-step process under IRC 4945(h).
How AI reduces energy use and carbon impact compared with manual work.
Explaining the concept clearly.
What Candid's Foundation Directory does well, where the alternatives differ, and how to pick without overpaying.
An honest comparison of grantmaking platforms for US private, family, corporate and community foundations.
A five-year review is a project, not a report. How to reconstruct the record, benchmark it, and reach findings a board can act on.
Tips and tools for streamlining grantee due diligence checks using technology.
How funders can combine AI efficiency with human judgement — covering triage, due diligence, assessment, and feedback.
Most foundation benchmarking compares the wrong things to the wrong peers. Building a defensible comparison set and reading the results.
How bias shapes grant funding outcomes, where AI helps and where it introduces new risks, and practical steps to make decisions fairer.
Balancing tradition and technology.
Who counts as a mandated reporter, what triggers the duty, and how case records should handle it.
How digital tools are reshaping giving.
Balancing numbers with stories.
Handling complexity at scale.
Guidance for reviewers.
Overlaps, differences, and when to use both.
Strengthening the sector.
Using insights for future funding.
Breaking down the features that define complete systems.
Funding portals give applicants one public front door that screens and routes them to the right fund. How they work, and why funders running multiple funds use them.
The best Blackbaud Grantmaking alternatives for UK funders in 2026 — platforms with lower cost, faster deployment and built-in UK compliance.
How AI helps funders detect fraud risks through anomaly detection, reputation checks and duplicate flagging — while keeping processes fair and proportionate.
How automation changes the reporting cycle.
Practical ways funders can use AI to reduce burden, improve equity and strengthen grantee relationships while keeping trust and power-sharing central.
The best alternatives to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for grant management in 2026 — purpose-built platforms that cost less and deploy faster.
Building resilience for 2030 and beyond.
The best SmartSimple alternatives for grant management in 2026 — purpose-built platforms with faster deployment and UK compliance built in.
Small changes with big impact.
NTEE codes drive most sector analysis and are wrong more often than people assume. How the hierarchy works and how to use it safely.
Doing more with less.
Most grant applications fail on fit, not writing. A research process using public IRS filings to qualify prospects fast.
The three duties every US nonprofit board member owes, and how Form 990 made governance public.
The best Submittable alternatives for grant management in 2026 — compared on deployment speed, UK compliance, post-award depth and pricing.
How technology drives social impact.
How audit trails in grant management software protect accountability, reduce fraud risk and satisfy regulators across the full grant lifecycle.
Supporting CSR budgets.
How funders can choose impact measurement tools that collect proportionate data, reduce grantee burden, and turn outcomes into actionable insights.
Simplified explanation.
Costs, efficiency, and value.
How reliable are AI-generated impact reports? We examine accuracy, hallucination risks, grounding techniques, and when to trust AI-written summaries.
Using open data sources like Companies House.
Individual grant decisions are usually sound. The portfolio they add up to is often nobody's decision. How to analyze it.
Errors, delays, and wasted staff time.
Essential UK compliance requirements and practical controls for funders.
Charitable capital that comes back. The three-part test, why PRIs count toward the 5% payout, and when a grant is the better tool.
Identifying, monitoring, and mitigating risks early.
A practical guide for funders on publishing criteria, documenting decisions, sharing feedback and maintaining audit trails to build trust with applicants.
The most frequent grant management mistakes funders make, from unclear criteria to disproportionate reporting, with practical fixes backed by sector research.
How UK charities can use AI to research, shortlist and prioritise trusts and foundations to apply to — and where human judgement still matters.
Policies, checks, and safeguards.
A comprehensive guide to grant management from application through impact, featuring AI-powered solutions.
Forecasting grant outcomes with AI.
A step-by-step guide to the grant application process, including preparation, submission, and follow-up strategies.
Making personal giving structured and impactful.
A review of Bonterra Grants Management — corporate foundation and high-volume grantmaking platform.
Options for those with limited budgets.
Disciplined habits that make programmes fair, fast and auditable.
Why cloud beats on-premise.
Practical guide to automating reviewer assignments, scoring, and feedback while keeping expert judgement central.
Running local programmes effectively.
What makes Plinth different?
A review of CommunityForce — an AI-powered platform for managing scholarships, grants, and awards together.
A clear definition and why it matters for funders and charities.
Comparing practices across regions.
Restricted grants, unrestricted income, full cost recovery, and SORP accounting for UK charities.
Bringing structure to personal giving.
Balancing automation with ethical oversight.
Steps to make processes faster and fairer.
A side-by-side comparison.
Making eligibility easy to understand for applicants.
A candid comparison of grant management platforms for US foundations, and how to judge vendor AI claims.
Ensuring compliance and learning before ending.
A review of Optimy — European CSR platform combining grant management with volunteering and sponsorship.
What qualifying distributions actually include, why published payout figures disagree, and what the aggregate data shows.
Best practice guide for digital grant-making — from application through assessment to monitoring and reporting.
Where artificial intelligence helps and where caution is needed.
How compliance technology benefits funders.
Both are 501(c)(3). The difference is where the money comes from — and it drives payout rules, excise taxes and disclosure.
A review of OpenGrants — a grant discovery tool for applicants, not a grant management system for funders.
Definitions and essentials.
Providing value even to those declined.
Risks of fines, reputational damage, and lost trust.
Barriers for small organisations.
The evolution from spreadsheets to AI tools.
DAFs hold hundreds of billions and face no distribution requirement. How they work, what the payout data shows, and why they complicate research.
Covering pre-award, award, and post-award phases.
Scaling without increasing staff costs.
How artificial intelligence is changing the way foundations and philanthropists allocate funds.
Why specialisation matters.
Turning long text into quick insights.
Discovering what drives success.
From grant management to fundraising.
How funders can make applications proportionate while still getting the data they need for accountability.
A review of WizeHive (Zengine) — highly configurable grant and scholarship management, now part of Submittable.
From application to impact reporting, step by step.
How leading platforms compare on due diligence, assessment and impact.
Making funding more inclusive for small or minority-led charities.
Off-the-shelf tools vs custom systems.
How community foundations and funders administer donor-advised and named funds — fund ledgers, fees, statements, transfers, and donor-facing portals.
A review of Benevity — the leading platform for corporate employee giving programmes that includes grant management.
Using data visualisation for quick insights.
Your 990-PF is public and machine-readable. What outside analysts can compute from it, and what it says about your grantmaking.
The benefits of one source of truth.
A practical guide to ethical AI in grantmaking covering governance, bias, transparency, data protection and human oversight for UK funders.
AI-powered due diligence automates register lookups, policy reading and financial analysis to cut check times from hours to minutes.
Special considerations for sustainability-focused funds.
Optimising each stage of the cycle.
Which is right for your organisation?
A grant to a revoked organization may not count as a qualifying distribution. The checks that matter, in order.
Proportionate monitoring approaches that reduce admin for charities while keeping funders accountable. Includes frameworks, comparison tables, and AI tools.
Insights from the other side—what helps and what creates friction for applicants.
A review of eCivis (EUNA Grants) — US government grant compliance software not suited to UK funders.
Mixing tech with human insight.
Breaking down the basics.
Improving communication and reporting.
Tools to assess outcomes.
Define outcomes, collect the minimum useful data, and tell the story.
Why it matters for accountability.
Plan, track and report budgets with assurance and simplicity.
Training volunteers and experts for consistent scoring.
A practical roundup of free or open‑source approaches for small rounds.
Avoiding heavy reporting for small sums.
A quick reference for funders and grantees.
Every grant connects a funder to a nonprofit, and every nonprofit back to its other funders. What that network reveals.
Lasting lessons.
Addressing cross-border compliance.
A step-by-step guide to moving grant management from Excel to a dedicated system — the parallel-running approach, what to migrate, and how long it takes.
The best Fluxx alternatives for grantmakers in 2026: Foundant, SmartSimple, Plinth and others compared on features, pricing and UK compliance.
Ensuring funding supports mission goals.