Scaling the Grant-Seeking Process in an Era of Scarcity - June 23, 2025
Lane F. Cooper, Editorial Director, BizTechReports — June 23. 2025
Nonprofits across the country face an increasingly unsustainable dynamic: greater demand for services, less federal support, and limited staff capacity to secure alternative funding. Meanwhile, philanthropic organizations are modernizing their expectations—calling for faster, more data-driven, and more competitive proposals.
In this conversation with BizTechReports, Francesca Axam-Frederick, CEO and Co-founder of Grantyd, explores how artificial intelligence, automation, and digital workflows are reshaping the grant writing process. From solo fundraisers to institutional teams, the question is no longer whether to modernize, but how to do so without compromising mission, ethics, or voice.
Here is what she had to say:
BTR: Francesca, how would you describe the current state of nonprofit funding, and why are so many organizations feeling pressure to rethink their fundraising strategies?
Axam-Frederick: We’re in a moment of acute pressure on both ends. On one side, nonprofits are being asked to do more—serve more people, address broader needs, and show greater impact. On the other, traditional sources of public funding, especially at the federal level, are shrinking or being delayed. This has forced organizations to pursue more foundation and donor-driven sources. The problem is that those avenues often come with their own complexity and competition. Nonprofits can’t afford to treat grant writing as an ad hoc function anymore. It needs to be scalable, repeatable, and strategic.
BTR: That word—“scalable”—is usually associated with growth-stage businesses. Do nonprofit leaders generally recognize the need to scale their development operations?
Axam-Frederick: Some do. Many don’t. A lot of nonprofit leaders are former program managers or mission specialists who moved into leadership without formal training in fundraising operations. Their focus is rightly on service delivery, but that leaves a critical gap when funding becomes more competitive. What we’re trying to do at Grantyd is frame the conversation differently. Scaling doesn’t mean becoming a tech company. It means recognizing that the grant acquisition function has to operate with business-level rigor, especially when time and resources are tight.
BTR: What strategic advice would you give to nonprofits that are trying to pivot toward a more modern, proactive grant strategy?
Axam-Frederick: First, conduct a realistic audit of your current workflow. Who is writing your grants? How long does each one take? How many opportunities are you leaving on the table simply because there’s no time to apply? From there, look at how technology can reduce that burden. If your team is spending 10 hours per application, and you could cut that down to two or three, what else could you be doing with those extra hours? Fundraising strategy isn’t just about which grants to pursue—it’s about optimizing your capacity to pursue them well and at scale.
BTR: Let’s drill into that workflow. What does a typical grant application process look like for a small or midsize nonprofit today?
Axam-Frederick: For many, it’s a fragmented, manual, and deeply inefficient process. You’re toggling between dozens of open browser tabs, pasting language from old applications, referencing program data buried in PDFs, and navigating submission portals that all look and behave differently. Even experienced grant writers spend most of their time on formatting and repetitive tasks rather than actual narrative development. And that’s assuming the organization even has a dedicated grant writer—often, it’s the executive director or program lead doing the writing in between 15 other responsibilities.
BTR: How does Grantyd change that?
Axam-Frederick: We designed Grantyd to mirror the way grant writers actually work. Our browser extension extracts the application questions directly from the submission form. Users can then draft their responses themselves—or allow AI to create a first draft by referencing their own uploaded materials. Once the answers are ready, they’re auto-populated back into the application portal. We cut out the busywork while still keeping humans in charge of the story. We’re not trying to remove the fundraiser from the process. We’re trying to remove the friction.
BTR: How does this play out when grant writing is distributed across teams or consultants?
Axam-Frederick: Right now, we offer individual access and a centralized dashboard for solo users, but we’re rolling out organizational tiers that support multi-user collaboration. That will allow teams to comment on drafts, share documents, track who’s working on what, and see grant pipelines in real-time. A big challenge in larger nonprofits is visibility—board members or directors don’t always know what’s in progress. We’re creating a single workspace that makes the entire grant-seeking operation more transparent and manageable.
BTR: Are there any examples you can share of how this has worked in real-world scenarios?
Axam-Frederick: One of our early beta users was a Chief Development Officer who lost her grant writer just as her organization was preparing for its first major gala. She had 20 grant applications due that season and no one to write them. Because her organization already had the necessary documents in place, she was able to use Grantyd to auto-complete the majority of those applications herself. That freed up her time to focus on event planning and donor engagement—critical areas that usually take a back seat during grant season. That’s what we mean by operational leverage.
BTR: Nonprofits operate under strict budgetary constraints. How does automation impact the economics of fundraising?
Axam-Frederick: The biggest financial benefit is time saved. Time is your most expensive and scarce resource. If you can reduce the hours required to submit a grant, you’re either freeing staff to pursue more opportunities or reducing the burnout that leads to turnover. That’s the ROI story most people miss: it’s not just about dollars raised, but about the efficiency gains that keep your development team functional and sustainable over time.
BTR: You mentioned earlier that applying to more grants statistically increases success rates. Is this a numbers game?
Axam-Frederick: Yes—and no. Quantity does matter. If you apply to twice as many grants, you’ll likely win more. But the key is to increase volume without increasing cost or staff load. That’s where automation changes the game. If you can double your output without doubling your expenses, you’ve changed the calculus of fundraising. That’s especially important for smaller nonprofits that don’t have the luxury of dedicated development teams.
BTR: Cost is always a barrier to technology adoption. How have you structured Grantyd’s pricing to address that?
Axam-Frederick: We start with a free tier that gives users access to grant extraction and auto-fill tools. Our $20 per month tier unlocks AI-driven drafting capabilities. We’ve been very intentional about not charging per grant or taking a percentage of funding. That money belongs to the nonprofit. Our job is to help them reach it. We’re also developing custom pricing for consultants and larger organizations to reflect their scale and complexity, but always with accessibility as our north star.
BTR: Are you seeing more funders inquire about how grants are being written or the tools being used?
Axam-Frederick: Not directly yet, but we’re hearing more about funder expectations around speed, clarity, and data. Foundations want to know that grantees are prepared to report and scale impact. Having an efficient internal process—powered by tech—can give organizations an edge. And over time, I think we’ll see funders become more open to platforms like Grantyd as a way to level the playing field for smaller applicants.
BTR: AI is at the center of your platform. What role does it play in grant writing—and what does it not do?
Axam-Frederick: AI in our system acts as a drafting assistant. It references only the documents the organization uploads—things like mission statements, annual reports, or program summaries. It does not hallucinate or pull information from the internet. This is critical for trust. We want to support fundraisers in crafting better language, not invent details that don’t exist. The final narrative should always reflect the human voice and intent of the organization.
BTR: What are the risks of relying too heavily on generative AI?
Axam-Frederick: Hallucination is the big one—where the model invents plausible but incorrect information. That’s why our system requires users to select which documents they want the AI to reference for each grant. We’re also focused on prompt specificity. The more you tailor your prompts, the more accurate the draft. But ultimately, AI doesn’t understand your mission the way you do. It’s a tool—not a substitute—for human storytelling.
BTR: Are you seeing a need for nonprofits to build AI fluency or prompt engineering capabilities?
Axam-Frederick: Absolutely. And we need to approach that with empathy. Fundraisers didn’t sign up to become AI experts. But like Excel or email, it’s becoming a basic competency. Our responsibility is to make the technology approachable—not intimidating. The bigger risk is ignoring it altogether. If nonprofits don’t establish ethical, thoughtful policies around AI now, they risk being blindsided later. We’ve designed Grantyd to be a safe entry point: high impact, low complexity.
BTR: There’s often concern in the sector that adopting technology means losing the human touch. How do you respond to that?
Axam-Frederick: I understand the concern, but I think it’s misplaced. When used well, tech doesn’t replace relationships—it enables them. If you can get your grant writing done faster and with less stress, you have more time to talk to donors, meet with community members, or mentor staff. That’s the work that can’t be automated. We’re not trying to dehumanize fundraising—we’re trying to defend the human parts by protecting them from burnout.
As nonprofit leaders reassess their fundraising strategies in a resource-constrained environment, platforms like Grantyd are offering more than just workflow efficiency—they’re proposing a new infrastructure for resilience. Whether through AI-enhanced drafting, document management, or submission automation, the message is clear: modernizing the back office is no longer a luxury—it’s a prerequisite for impact.