October 2026

👻 Is Your 2027 Grant Strategy Ghosting You?

January may feel far away, but in grant strategy terms, it’s right around the corner. If your organization wants to pursue funding more strategically in 2027, now is the time to start asking:

Where are our best-fit funding opportunities?
What belongs on our 12-month grants calendar?
Which opportunities deserve our limited time—and which do not?
Which funder relationships should we begin building now?
What proposals, concepts, and reusable materials can we prepare before deadlines arrive?

Carinci Consulting is opening a limited number of new Strategy Client engagements beginning January 1, 2027.

These partnerships are designed for nonprofits and higher education institutions that don’t simply want to apply for more grants. They want a smarter, more sustainable system for identifying, prioritizing, pursuing, and winning the right funding opportunities.

Instead of spending another year reacting to deadlines and chasing opportunities as they appear, let’s build your roadmap before the year begins.

🎃 No tricks—just a stronger grant strategy.

If your organization is interested in beginning 2027 with Carinci Consulting, I invite you to schedule a discovery call. We’ll discuss your goals, current funding priorities, and whether a Strategy Client partnership is the right fit.

Schedule a Call with Us

Let’s make sure your most valuable 2027 funding opportunities don’t disappear before you see them. 👻

Many orange pumpkins resting on dry soil in a sunlit field

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The Scariest Funding Strategy? Putting All Your Pumpkins in One Patch 🎃

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.” — Helen Keller

October is the season for haunted houses, jump scares, and questionable amounts of candy.

But for nonprofit leaders, one of the scariest things lurking in the shadows may be hiding in plain sight:

A funding model that depends too heavily on one revenue source.

To find out more about revenue diversification and why it matters, check out The Scariest Funding Strategy? Putting All Your Pumpkins in One Patch

✍️ Grant Writing Tips:

No Tricks, Just Grant Strategy Treats 🎃

For smaller nonprofits, getting foundation funding can sometimes feel like knocking on door after door and hearing nothing back.
And there’s a reason.

Recent Candid research found that only 22% of very small nonprofits received even one foundation grant between 2019 and 2023, compared with 72% of other nonprofits. Very small nonprofits collectively receive only about 0.4% of foundation funding.

But here’s the important part: that doesn’t mean small nonprofits simply need to write better grants.

Candid describes many of these organizations as an “invisible majority”—doing meaningful work in their communities but often outside the networks, data systems, and relationships that put organizations on foundations’ radar.

So instead of another list of proposal-writing tricks, here are five strategy treats that can help your organization become easier to find, know, and fund:

🍬 Treat #1: Make Yourself Findable
A funder can’t become interested in an organization it never encounters. Claim and regularly update your Candid nonprofit profile, but don’t stop there. Make sure your website, social media, annual reports, GuideStar/Candid information, and other public-facing materials tell a consistent story about:

Who you serve
What problem you solve
What makes your approach distinctive
What results you are achieving

Think beyond applications. Your digital footprint is part of your grant strategy.

🍫 Treat #2: Get Out of the Grant Database and Into the Community
Prospect research matters. Relationships matter too. Some of the best ways to build these relationships include:

Attending community events
Participating in coalitions
Speaking at conferences
Engaging with local businesses and philanthropic networks
Following prospective funders and thoughtfully interacting with their work.

Sometimes the first step toward a grant isn't an LOI.

It's becoming someone a funder already recognizes when your LOI arrives.

🍭 Treat #3: Follow the Warm Leads
Your existing network may be more valuable than a list of 500 cold prospects. Take a look at current funders, donors, board members, corporate partners, community leaders, and collaborators and ask:

Who do they know who should know about us?

Ask existing funders for introductions to other foundations supporting similar work. A warm introduction isn't a guarantee of funding—but it can move you from an unfamiliar name in an inbox to an organization worth learning more about.

🍪 Treat #4: Put Your Board to Work—Specifically
“Help us fundraise” is an intimidating assignment.

“Do you know anyone at these five foundations?” is actionable. A few action steps you can take include:

Giving board members a targeted prospect list
Asking them who they know
Providing language they can use to make an introduction
Giving them a social post to share

Make it easy for your champions to champion you.

🍎 Treat #5: Build the Right Funding Path—Not Just the Biggest Prospect List
More prospects don't automatically mean more funding.

A strong pipeline considers fit, relationship potential, realistic award size, competitiveness, timing, and your organization's capacity to pursue and manage the funding.

And remember: grants should be one component of a diversified funding strategy—not the entire strategy.

The goal isn't to knock on every door in the neighborhood.

🎃 It's to know which doors are most likely to have the good candy!

Adapted from Candid's July 2026 analysis, “The big challenges of getting funding for small nonprofits.”

Grant Opportunities

Expeditions in Computing

Award Amount: Up to $15,000,000 for a duration of seven years

Deadline: Preliminary proposal required by December 2, 2026

Full Proposal – July 27, 2027

Description: Supports large, multidisciplinary teams pursuing ambitious, long-term foundational research to drive transformative advances in computing, information science and engineering.

Translation to Practice (NSF TTP)

Award Amount: NSF - TTP-E projects estimated at ~ $600,000 per award for up to 24 months; NSF TTP-P projects estimated at ~ $1,200,000 per award for up to 36 months; NSF TTP-E projects estimated at ~ $2,000,000 per award for up to 48 months

Deadline: November 17, 2026

Description: Supports use-inspired research, translational activities and partnerships that turn scientific discoveries into real-world solutions. Researchers can gain market insights, launch commercial applications and/or facilitate industry adoption.

Fostering Interdisciplinary Networks to Develop Emergent and Responsive Solutions Foundry (NSF FINDERS FOUNDRY)
Award Amount: Planning awards of up to $50,000 each for up to 2 months; Development awards of up to $300,000 each for 1 year

Deadline: November 18, 2026

Description: Supports interdisciplinary partnerships among educators, technologists and researchers to co-design and scale evidence-based, technology-driven solutions — particularly those involving AI — that strengthen K–12 learning and help build a skilled workforce.

MPS Astronomical Sciences Research Programs (MPS Astro)

Award Amount: Unspecified

Deadline: November 16, 2026; Proposals are accepted at any time. However, proposals received after the target submission date may be reviewed in the following fiscal year.

Description: Supports multiple research programs in the astronomical sciences. NSF MPS funds foundational astronomical sciences research and instrumentation focused on exploring space and advancing fundamental understanding of the universe.

Strategically Responsive Grants

Award Amount: $50,000 to over $1 million; average grant size about $500,000

Deadline: Rolling LOI; full proposal by invitation

Description: Supports projects aligned with ECMC Foundation’s postsecondary education priorities, including learner success, equity, institutional capacity, career pathways, and workforce-connected education.

Letter of Inquiry Process

Award Amount: Varies; requests above $200,000 are typically developed for board review

Deadline: Rolling LOIs for most proposals

Description: Supports research and policy/practice projects to improve health care access, coverage, delivery, affordability, equity, behavioral health, Medicare/Medicaid, and health system performance.

Humanities in Place

Award Amount: Varies; the program’s launch cohort awarded more than $15 million across 19 projects

Deadline: Rolling funding inquiries

Description: Supports organizations, artists, institutions, and storytellers that illuminate underrepresented histories, places, communities, and cultural narratives through humanities-centered public work.

🏆 Grant Win Spotlight

Carinci Consulting is proud to have served as a reviewer in support of a Maryland health system that was awarded more than $28.5 million through Maryland’s Rural Health Transformation Program.

The $28,509,415 award is part of Maryland’s first round of Rural Health Transformation funding, an initiative designed to strengthen access to high-quality healthcare and improve health outcomes for rural communities across the state.

This significant investment will help advance efforts to transform rural healthcare delivery, strengthen the healthcare workforce, expand access to essential services, and build more sustainable systems of care for Maryland residents.

Carinci Consulting was honored to contribute its expertise as a reviewer in strengthening the application and supporting work that will have a meaningful, lasting impact on rural communities.

Lessons Learned:

Scary Good Proposals Start Before the Deadline

A grant deadline appears.

Your team opens a blank document.

Someone pulls up last year's proposal.

Someone else asks AI to “make this more compelling.”

And everyone starts writing.

👻 Scary, right?

Because the proposals that really stand out usually don't begin with the application.

They begin with connection, concept, and strategy.

Candid recently asked what separates advanced grant writing from simply knowing how to assemble the standard need statement, project narrative, budget, and evaluation plan.

Their answer? Connecting.

Here are three ways to make that happen:

🕯️ 1. Connect With the Reviewer Immediately

Reviewers may read dozens—or hundreds—of proposals. Give them a reason to care about yours.

That might be:

A surprising statistic
A powerful quote from someone you serve
A brief real-world example
One sharply framed fact that makes the problem impossible to ignore.

The goal isn't drama for drama's sake. It's to help the reviewer understand why this matters before asking them to absorb pages of explanation.

🧛 2. Tell the Story Only You Can Tell

This matters even more in the age of AI.

AI can help brainstorm, organize, edit, synthesize, and strengthen writing.

What it can't independently know is what happened in your community last Tuesday.

It doesn't know what your program director learned after ten years of doing this work.

It didn't hear what a participant told your team.

And it doesn't instinctively understand the history, relationships, failures, adaptations, and insights that make your organization uniquely qualified to solve this problem.

Those details are your competitive advantage.

Use AI to strengthen your voice—not replace it.

Otherwise, you risk creating the proposal equivalent of a ghost: technically present, but with very little life in it. 👻

🕸️ 3. Connect the Proposal to the Funder

Funders aren't ATMs with application portals. They're partners trying to accomplish something, too.

A strong proposal demonstrates that you understand:

What the funder wants to change
Why your work advances that goal
What you've learned from previous conversations or partnerships
Why this particular project + this particular organization + this particular funder make sense together.

That's difficult to manufacture three days before a deadline.

Which brings us back to the lesson:

Scary good proposals start before the deadline
The research happens before the RFP
The relationship starts before the ask
The stories and evidence are collected before someone needs a need statement.

And the strategy exists before your team has to decide whether an opportunity deserves 40 hours of everyone's time.

When those pieces are already in place, proposal writing becomes less about scrambling to create a compelling case—and more about assembling one you've been building all along.

Want help shifting from scrambling to strategy?

Book A Call to Transform Your Grants Strategy and
Enhance Your Impact

Adapted from Candid's July 2026 article, “What does advanced grant writing look like? It looks like connecting.”

👻 Is Your 2027 Grant Strategy Ghosting You?

January may feel far away.
In grant strategy terms? It's right around the corner.

If your organization wants to pursue funding strategically in 2027, now is the time to determine:
🔎 Where are the best-fit opportunities?
📅 What should be on our 12-month grants calendar?
🎯 Which opportunities deserve our limited time—and which don't?
🤝 Which funder relationships should we start building now?
📝 What proposals, concepts, and reusable materials should we prepare before deadlines arrive?

Carinci Consulting is opening a limited number of new Strategy Client engagements beginning January 1, 2027.

Our strategy partnerships are designed for nonprofits and higher education institutions that don't simply want to apply for more grants—they want a smarter system for identifying, prioritizing, pursuing, and winning the right funding.

Instead of spending another year chasing opportunities as they appear, let's build the roadmap before the year begins.

🎃 No tricks. Just better grant strategy.
📩 Interested in starting 2027 with us?

Book a discovery call now to discuss your organization's goals and whether a Grants Strategy Partnership is the right fit.

Schedule a Call

Let's make sure your biggest 2027 funding opportunities don't disappear before you see them. 👻

Whether your organization needs a complete grants strategy, support pursuing a priority opportunity, or an expert review before submission, we can help ensure your team is prepared for the journey ahead.