In year one, we didn’t ask for a single dollar.
I reached out to the program officer with zero demands on their ledger. No pitch deck. No 15-page draft. No urgent plea about a budget gap.
Instead, I asked this question:
“We’ve been monitoring your foundation’s strategic shift in workforce housing. We’re testing a model on the ground that surfaced two unexpected challenges. Would you be open to a 20-minute conversation about what we’re learning?”
They said yes.
Over the next two years, we didn’t treat that program officer like an ATM.
We treated them like a partner in the work:
- When our pilot hit an operational bump, we shared what didn’t work and what we adjusted.
- When we gathered new outcome data, we sent a three-bullet summary without an invoice attached.
- When they hosted a regional community roundtable, we showed up, listened, and contributed without self-promotion.
We built something that an online application portal can never generate:
Trust.
Twenty-four months after that first contact, the program officer reached out to us directly.
They had an unannounced funding priority. They had discretionary capital. And they needed an organization they knew had the competence and integrity to deliver.
The result wasn’t just an award.
It was an annually renewable, six-figure grant that has the potential to transform our operating baseline.
Related: Let’s start advocating for long-term relationships
This one is for experienced, established grant professionals who want to grow their skills, scale their business, and master this industry. If this is you, click below to learn more…
Cold applications convert at roughly 10% to 20% across the sector.
Warm, deeply cultivated funder relationships convert at rates that make traditional pipelines look obsolete.
If your entire grant strategy depends on discovering an RFP three weeks before the deadline, you are playing a lottery.
The fastest way to burnout is chasing cold RFPs. The most reliable way to build transformative funding is cultivating real relationships.
Here are a few ways to cultivate these relationships:
-Start conversations with zero pressure.
-Share failure constructively to prove credibility.
-Keep funders engaged between cycles without being intrusive.
-Turn one-time grants into renewable investments that anchor your budget for years.
Stop pitching cold forms. Start building relational capital.
Until next time,
Write Epic Grants