Grant & Funding Program Strategy
Turn a gut-feel grant program into a defensible, ROI-scored investment engine your board can stand behind.
How it runs
Discovery & Audit
Kickoff, stakeholder survey, audit of past funding and returns.
Strategy & Design
Categories, guardrails, scoring rubric, KPI model.
Build & Roadmap
Applications, scoring sheets, playbook, 90/180-day roadmap.
Funding programs face harder questions every cycle, and most were built on gut feel — awards made case by case, the same application for a one-day festival and a year-round museum, and a chunk of budget unspent every year while worthy applicants get turned away. The whole thing sits one “you’re playing favorites” complaint away from a credibility crisis.
We reframe grants as a Destination Investment Program — because grant signals free money, and investment demands a return. Then we build the system: separate application tracks, a scoring rubric with eligibility and ROI criteria, KPI requirements that put accountability on recipients, and a rollout roadmap. Run it in-house, or have us administer it for extra defensibility.
Every funding decision becomes defensible. When someone asks who got funded and why, there’s a straight answer backed by criteria — not a gut call waiting to be challenged.
Built for destinations feeling the scrutiny most — where a meaningful share of the annual budget goes unspent and the awarding process can’t be defended.
Questions we get
The entire program is KPIs — a scoring model and reporting framework built so the board gets numbers and a straight answer.
Opens into ongoing program administration and a lightweight software layer for applications and spend tracking.