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For Capacity-Building Foundations Choose your cohort

For capacity-building foundations

Help your grantees build a funding plan that reaches beyond your grant.

Sharke helps each organization identify its next sources of grant funding, build the pipeline its goal requires, and keep the work moving throughout the year.

Ten organizations for $9,500, or five for $5,025. No cost to participating organizations.

Choose your cohort

See the version for associations and nonprofit centers.

See how it works 3:19

Read the transcript

When a nonprofit you fund loses another funding source, its work can be interrupted. A funding pipeline helps it plan other options before that happens.

Sharke supports a group of five or ten nonprofits for a year. Within ten business days of the agreed start, you receive an initial brief. It shows how much funding each nonprofit needs and what information still needs checking. It also lists grants open now that each nonprofit could pursue, with amounts and deadlines.

Each nonprofit gets a funding pipeline: a plan of grants to pursue and funders to approach. We deliver the plan for each quarter during the month before it starts. We keep deadlines and next steps up to date throughout the year. Each nonprofit provides its program information and writes and submits its own applications.

This sample shows ten nonprofits side by side. Your first progress report arrives at month three. It compares pipeline progress with each nonprofit's target and shows applications pursued and grants received separately. That helps you see where support is needed.

At month six, we review progress with you and the participating nonprofits. We decide which funding gaps to focus on, which grants to pursue next, and which funders to contact. Support continues, with progress reports at months nine and twelve.

Over the year, each nonprofit learns how to work out how large its funding pipeline needs to be to meet its funding goal. Its team also gets practice choosing grants to pursue, planning applications, and following up with funders. The goal is to finish the year better able to manage that work on its own.

The annual report looks across your geographic and programmatic footprint. It helps identify where nonprofits may need more funding options, especially if a major funder changes its priorities or reduces support. Nonprofits can use that to consider other sources. Your team can use it in conversations about where more funding options are needed.

I've worked as a strategy consultant for Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies, and as a technology executive and an investor. Across those roles, I helped businesses decide where to put their time and money. I've also done the grant work firsthand, winning more than one million dollars in federal funding across several awards. I founded Sharke to help nonprofits build a pipeline capable of funding their mission. We work out how big that pipeline needs to be, find the right funding opportunities, and support the work needed to pursue and win them.

The price for ten nonprofits is nine thousand five hundred dollars for the year. For five nonprofits, it is five thousand and twenty-five dollars. The participating nonprofits pay nothing.

Choose five or ten nonprofits you'd like us to support. We'll prepare a written proposal explaining their funding needs, what Sharke will do, what the nonprofits will do, and the price for the year. You have no commitment until you receive and agree to the invoice for the twelve-month program.

Visit Sharke dot A I slash foundations to request a proposal for the nonprofits you support. We'll set out the work and annual price, helping them build stronger funding pipelines to sustain their missions.

Capacity that stays with the organization

A funding plan, followed by the work to build it.

Help grantees prepare for the next funding cycle while your support is still in place.

For your grantees

A plan. A pipeline. Skills that last.

  1. 01 / PLAN

    Know what the goal requires

    An initial Assessment of their funding position, available runway and the pipeline their funding goal requires.

  2. 02 / PURSUE

    Focus on the right opportunities

    Grants to pursue and funder relationships to develop, with evidence behind each recommendation.

  3. 03 / MAINTAIN

    Keep the work moving

    Deadlines and next steps kept current throughout the year.

Each organization contributes its program knowledge and makes its funding decisions.

See a sample individual Assessment (PDF)
For you

A clear view of progress and funding gaps.

  1. BEFORE YOU COMMIT

    See the starting point

    Each organization's starting point before you commit.

    All ten nonprofits
  2. QUARTERLY

    See progress and support needs

    Quarterly reports showing progress against pipeline targets, grants received and where organizations need support.

    Reliance on major funders
  3. ANNUALLY

    Understand the funding landscape

    An annual analysis of funding across your geographic and programmatic footprint. See where nonprofits depend heavily on a few funders and where limited funding options may call for additional sources of support.

    Funding options by area

Pipeline progress and grants received are reported separately.

See the reporting schedule
Sample report: ten-organization cohort

A clear view of progress and funding gaps.

Explore the sample one question at a time.

Open the complete report

The analysis behind the plan

We build the pipeline with your grantees. They write the applications.

ProgramsGeographyFunders' giving history
Sharke's
funding-fit model
Reviewed togetherSharke + the nonprofit

Sharke's funding-fit model analyzes how well grants and funders match each nonprofit, drawing on its programs, geography and funders' giving history. We review that analysis with the nonprofit so its team understands why an opportunity is worth pursuing.

SharkeKeeps the pipeline, deadlines and next steps current.

Each nonprofitWrites and submits its applications, using its own staff or a grant writer.

Built through the work

A funding pipeline for today. Skills and relationships for what comes next.

We work with each nonprofit to calculate the pipeline its funding goal requires and determine appropriate amounts to request. Together, we identify grants and funders, assess fit, weigh the evidence and decide where to focus effort.

By year's end, each team has grants to pursue, new funder relationships underway and a practical approach to finding and selecting future opportunities. They leave with both a working funding pipeline and the skills to keep building it.

  • 01Size the pipeline
  • 02Assess grant and funder fit
  • 03Set realistic request amounts
How we work with your grantees

Sharke works directly with each nonprofit to build its funding pipeline and develop the skills to maintain it.

We start by assessing its funding position, available runway and the pipeline its funding goal requires. Together, we identify grants and funders, assess fit and determine appropriate request amounts. Each team learns how to make those decisions through work on its own funding needs.

Throughout the year, Sharke keeps the pipeline, deadlines and next steps current. Each nonprofit contributes its program knowledge, makes its funding decisions, and writes and submits its applications.

Your foundation receives reports showing pipeline progress, grants received and where further support is needed.

Your next step

Choose your cohort. Review the plan before you commit.

Request a written proposal showing each organization's starting point, what Sharke will do, what each nonprofit will do, and the price for the year. No call required.

Would you start with ten grantee organizations, or five?

Funded by your foundation. Participating organizations pay nothing. Both options cover a year of pipeline support.

  1. 1
    Request your proposal

    No payment or commitment when you request a proposal. Send your organization list later; questions can be handled by email.

  2. 2
    Review and agree

    You have no commitment until you receive and agree to the invoice for the twelve-month program. To agree, reply “I accept” to the invoice. Payment is due 30 days after the invoice.

  3. 3
    Begin support

    The initial brief arrives within 10 business days of the agreed start.

Prefer to talk it through? Book an optional 15-minute call.

What happens after you agree to the invoice?

Sharke handles enrollment and drafts the introduction email for you. Your part is to send the introduction and help connect the participating organizations. Each nonprofit prepares and submits its applications, using its own staff or an external grant writer. An organization that has not taken part by day 60 can be swapped.

Every organization in the proposal must have enough IRS filing information to size its pipeline. We establish that before you commit.

Who built Sharke

As a strategy consultant, technology executive, and investor, Collin Brown helped major American and European companies decide where to put their time and money: putting numbers and timing behind each opportunity, testing the evidence, and building a plan that still holds if the largest opportunity falls through.

He built Sharke to bring that discipline to nonprofit funding: a pipeline capable of funding the mission, with each grant checked before your team commits the hours.

His grant wins include more than $1 million in federal awards across several grants. He served in the White House Office of Management and Budget and holds a Wharton MBA.