Team Workflow & Strategy

How successful nonprofits structure their grant teams to maximize Harper's impact.

Recommended Team Structure

"We designated one person as our 'Harper coordinator' who manages the monthly prospect flow and meets weekly with our ED. Game changer."

The ideal setup:

  • 1 Main Grant Person - Coordinates all Harper interactions, manages pipeline

  • Weekly meetings with ED/supervisor - 30 minutes to review prospects and choose priorities

  • 5 hours per week total - With Harper, one person can research, write, and submit complete applications

Monthly Workflow

Set up a recurring task:

Subject: Harper — Monthly Grant Routine

Hi Harper,

Please set up a monthly routine:

Every 1st of the month, find 300 grant opportunities for our organization.
Email me a prioritized list of the top 20 prospects.
Focus on prospects due in the next 60 days.

Include deadlines, funding amounts, and application tips.

Thanks!

Note: Harper finds 100-500 opportunities per search (default: 200). For monthly routines, 300 opportunities provides a robust pipeline while staying within optimal performance range.

Monthly review process:

  1. Harper sends prospect list

  2. Grant coordinator reviews and flags top opportunities

  3. Weekly meeting with ED/development director to strategize programming angles

  4. Add chosen grants to submission calendar

Weekly Prioritization Strategy

Priority order (highest to lowest):

  1. Local foundations - Higher win rate than national grants

  2. High organizational fit - Programs align perfectly with your work

  3. Deadline pressure - Applications due within 30 days

  4. Rolling applications - Save these for slow periods when deadlines dry up

Weekly ED meeting agenda:

  • Review this month's prospects

  • Choose 2-3 grants to write this week

  • Discuss any strategy changes or new program focus

  • Plan timeline for applications

Time Allocation

5 hours per week breakdown:

  • 1 hour: Pipeline planning and prospect review

  • 2-3 hours: Grant writing with Harper (includes back-and-forth)

  • 1 hour: Final review, formatting, and submission

Team Coordination Tips

  • CC relevant team members on Harper emails to stay coordinated

  • Assign prospect research by program area to different staff

  • Share Harper's spreadsheets via Google Sheets for collaboration

  • Track applications and outcomes to improve future targeting

"Our whole team emails Harper. We just CC each other to stay coordinated."

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