How your board can help you win grants
How can our board help us win grants?
By opening doors. Grants follow relationships, and board members often know foundation officers and trustees without realizing it. Find those connections, ask each member for one introduction, and bring them to the first conversation with the funder. Board members can also read drafts and sign as officers. When they give themselves, a funder sees that the people closest to the work believe in it.
Last reviewed October 2, 2026.
Turning a board into door-openers
Find the connections they already have
Paste your board list into Quillify and it checks every name against the officers and trustees on the filings of 122,000+ foundations. Names can coincide, so confirm each match with the board member before you use it.
Ask for one introduction at a time
A specific request is easier to say yes to. Name the foundation, explain why your work fits what it funds, and ask the member to make an introduction by email or phone.
Brief them before the call
Give the member the funder's giving history, a two-line summary of your request, and the one question you want answered. Quillify's funder profile has the giving history in one place.
Keep the board in the pipeline
Share the list of funders you are pursuing at every board meeting, with the introductions each member has made. Here is how to build that pipeline.
Other ways board members help
- Read the draft
- A board member who does not work in your field is a good test of whether a reviewer will follow the argument.
- Keep governance documented
- Minutes, a current roster and a conflict of interest policy are among the documents funders ask for.
- Give
- Many funders ask whether every board member gives. A yes at any amount answers the question.
Who asks this most
The answer above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
Related
- Your board is asking for a grant pipelineMy board wants to see our grant pipeline. How do I build one?
- Start from the funder, not the opportunityHow do I find funders who would actually fund my organization?
- Reaching a foundation that does not take applicationsHow do I approach a foundation that does not accept unsolicited proposals?
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