Your grant deadlines should not live in an inbox.
The Grant Ops System is one four-tab spreadsheet that runs a small nonprofit's whole grants operation, plus six grant-writing documents that are actually written rather than outlined. Built for the organization where one to three people do program, fundraising, and reporting at the same time.
Checkout is not open yet: payouts on the store are still being enabled, so the listing cannot take money and we are not going to pretend otherwise with a button that goes nowhere. The price is fixed at $29. Leave an email below and you will get exactly one message the day it opens.
What you get
15 files. A tracker in two formats, six documents in two formats each, and a start-here guide.
1. The tracker: four tabs
Ships as Grant-Pipeline-Tracker.xlsx with the dropdowns and variance formulas already built, and as a plain CSV for anyone who cannot open xlsx. Works in Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice.
Pipeline
One row per opportunity, with a mandatory next action and due date.
Funder Research
EIN, type, focus areas, geography, typical range, deadlines, source link.
Reporting Calendar
Every report every award requires, entered the day the award arrives.
Budget vs Actual
Line item budget against actuals, with variance in dollars and percent.
Preview: every column on the Pipeline tab
This is the real header row from the file you download, 15 columns.
FunderProgram / OpportunityFit Score (1-5)Ask Amount ($)LOI DeadlineFull Proposal DeadlineStatusAssigned ToNext ActionNext Action DueSubmitted DateDecisionDecision DateAward Amount ($)Notes
Status is a dropdown with these values: Researching, LOI drafting, LOI submitted, Invited to apply, Proposal drafting, Submitted, Awarded, Declined, Not pursued, Withdrawn.
The one rule that makes it work. Every row that is not closed must carry a Next Action and a Next Action Due date. "Waiting to hear back" is a next action too: "follow up with the program officer on the 14th". A pipeline row without a next action is a deadline you are going to miss.
2. Six boilerplate documents, written out in full
Each one contains four parts: a short briefing on what reviewers actually look for in that section, a fill-in template with bracketed slots, a completely written worked example, and a before-you-submit checklist.
| Document | What it covers | Formats |
|---|---|---|
| Need statement | Why the community needs this work, with sourced evidence. | .docx + .md |
| Organization history | Who you are and why you can be trusted to deliver. | .docx + .md |
| Logic model | Inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, laid out the way reviewers read them. | .docx + .md |
| Budget narrative | Line by line justification that matches the budget spreadsheet. | .docx + .md |
| Letter of inquiry | The one to two page ask that gets you invited to apply. | .docx + .md |
| Program description | What you will actually do, for whom, how often, with what staff. | .docx + .md |
Preview: an excerpt from the worked need statement
Verbatim from boilerplate/need-statement.md. The organization is fictional and every figure in it is invented; the point is the standard, not the numbers. This is three of the four paragraphs of that one example, and there are six documents, each with its own template and checklist alongside it.
Middle school students in the Riverbend neighborhood of Milford (fictional) are falling behind in reading, and families have no free academic support within reach. According to the Milford Unified School District's most recent accountability report (fictional, 2025), 61 percent of students at Riverbend's two middle schools scored below proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent district-wide. The gap has widened in each of the last three reporting years.
The consequences show up early and compound. District data (fictional, 2025) link below-proficient reading in grade 7 to chronic absenteeism the following year, and teachers at both schools report students disengaging from all coursework once they fall behind in reading. Parents surveyed at fall enrollment (Riverbend intake survey, fictional, 2025; 84 respondents) most often named "no help with homework after school" as their biggest barrier.
Existing services do not close the gap. The public library branch offers a weekly one-hour homework club with a 25-student cap and a waitlist since October. The district's tutoring program is fee-based at 40 dollars per session, which 78 percent of surveyed Riverbend parents said they could not afford (fictional intake survey, 2025). No free, recurring, academically structured after-school program operates east of the Harlow River, where both middle schools sit.
Before the example, the same file tells you the three rules that separate funded need statements from rejected ones: the need belongs to the community and not to your budget; every factual claim carries a named source and a year; and you finish by naming the existing services and the exact gap they leave.
Who this is for
A good fit
Nonprofits under roughly $2M with no full-time grant writer, first-time grantseekers, and organizations that already know which funders to approach but keep losing the thread between deadline, draft, and report.
Not a fit
If what you need is a searchable funder database with matching and alerts, this is not that and will not pretend to be. See the comparison page for what does that job and what it costs.
Honest disclosures
- These are starting points, not advice. Nothing here is legal, financial, tax, or funding advice. Every funder's own guidelines outrank every template in this product, and no template guarantees an award.
- AI-assisted drafting. The documents were produced with AI assistance and then edited against grant-writing practice. We say so plainly because you deserve to know what you are buying.
- The worked examples are fictional. Riverbend Youth Learning Center does not exist and every statistic attributed to it is invented for illustration. Never submit the example text. Funders read hundreds of proposals and recognize recycled template prose.
- No funder data. There is no database, no opportunity feed, and no alerts. You bring the funders; this keeps them organized and gets the prose written.
- 30-day refund. If it is not useful, reply to your receipt email within 30 days and you get a full refund, no form and no questions. These are files you keep either way, so the policy runs on fairness: please do not redistribute or resell them.
Email me when there is something new
One list, used sparingly: the day checkout opens, and occasionally when the free deadline calendar is refreshed. No sharing, no selling, unsubscribe by replying.
Frequently asked
Will this work if I have never written a grant?
That is who it is for. Every document opens by explaining what the section is and what reviewers weigh, then gives you a template, then shows a finished version. You will still have to read each funder's guidelines closely, and the templates keep telling you so.
What do I need to open the files?
A spreadsheet app and a word processor. Excel, Google Sheets, Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice all work. The tracker also ships as plain CSV and the documents as plain Markdown, so nothing is locked to any app or subscription.
Can I edit them for my organization?
Yes. Adapt everything freely for your own organization's use. The one thing we ask is that you do not redistribute or resell the files.