Microsoft Scenario Library Nonprofit Funding research and grant proposal writing

Available with: Microsoft 365 Copilot

Nonprofit scenario: Funding research and grant proposal writing

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Scenario

Simplify the tasks associated with raising money

1. Identify funding sources

Discover potential funding sources by identifying potential grants that match your nonprofit’s needs.

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Example prompt: Search for government agencies, foundations, and corporations that offer grants for [your nonprofit’s mission or project type]. Provide details on eligibility criteria, application deadlines, and funding amounts.

Use Business Chat for Web to search for relevant data sources such as industry reports, government statistics, and market analysis articles.

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Example prompt: Search and summarize recent reports on funding trends and donor preferences [your industry] and summarize findings.

Use Copilot in Excel to analyze donor preferences and generate insights. Organize donor data into an Excel sheet with columns for donor name, donation amount, frequency, preferred causes, and demographics.

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Copilot in Excel

Example prompt: Create a PivotTable to summarize donor preferences by cause and average donation amount.

Use Copilot to analyze the data and create visual reports to summarize your findings.

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Copilot in Excel

Example prompt: Create a bar chart to visualize the distribution of donor preferences across different causes over the last five years.

Prompt Copilot in Word to create a grant proposal, incorporating key insights and data visualizations.

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Copilot in Word

Example prompt: Create a grant proposal for [your nonprofit’s project], including an executive summary, needs statement that references insights from /[project plan.docx], project description, budget, and organization information.

Craft compelling emails to send to potential funders with the details of your proposal.

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Example prompt: Draft an email to [funder’s name] introducing my nonprofit and expressing interest in their grant program. Highlight key points from /[proposal in Word].

KPIs

Opportunity to impact key functional area KPIs

How Microsoft Copilot can help improve expense ratios

The administrative expense ratio measures the percentage of an organization’s expenses that are being allocated to administrative costs. This helps measure the direct impact of a charity’s program relative to the cost required to run it to help donors identify high-impact charities.

How Microsoft Copilot can help increase volunteer retention

Measure the organization’s success with reducing attrition and increasing repeat volunteerism.

How Microsoft Copilot can help improve program impact

Define a program’s theory of change, monitoring and evaluation goals, and deliver impact faster.

How Microsoft Copilot can help improve fundraising ROI

Fundraising ROI is the ratio of net funds raised divided by fundraising costs.

The content in this example scenario is for demonstration purposes only. You should evaluate how Copilot aligns with your organization’s business processes, regulatory requirements, and responsible AI principles.