Alignment Questionnaire

Casey Judge
Casey Judge
Second Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Grantmaking™ General Discussions

Our Foundation is looking to expand on our current alignment questionnaire as a part of our grant making process, which applicants complete before receiving the application link based on a program focus area. Our goal is to better determine who truly aligns with our funding priorities before letting them apply, thus saving the nonprofit and our team’s time. These questions would go beyond the standard “Are you a 501c3 nonprofit organizations? Y/N”, instead diving into what program focus area are they applying for, the population they are serving, their budget for the program, annual income, board composition, etc. as part of the alignment rather than the application itself.

I’m wondering if anyone else on here currently uses a questionnaire like this? If so, would you mind sharing with me any examples, pros/cons, and what kinds of questions you ask?

Comments

  • Ray Borkman
    Ray Borkman Blackbaud Employee
    Fifth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant

    @Casey Judge
    Not 100% sure, but I suspect @Cheryl Dabat and/ or @Andie Hession @Sue Fulton might have something to share on this?

  • Andie Hession
    Andie Hession
    Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1

    @Casey Judge @Ray Borkman

    For our responsive grantmaking program @Sue Fulton and I have a short (15-30 min) Zoom call with potential applicants to discuss ideas to see if they are a good fit. The program is relatively small though, with a few calls per month.

  • Casey Judge
    Casey Judge
    Second Anniversary Name Dropper Participant Facilitator 1

    @Andie Hession @Ray Borkman Thank you so much for your reply! I like that your team does a phone screening, I think that's a great way to get to know organizations and probably saves your inbox. The grant program we are looking to implement this alignment questionnaire for has a one month application window, and we have hundreds of nonprofits apply during that time, so I'm not sure a phone screening would work for us.

    We are in the process of building our alignment questionnaire into our application process within Blackbaud, and it will launch in July. If anyone wants to follow up with me to chat about lessons learned after that, feel free to reach out! Wish us luck ?

  • Monica Jordan
    Monica Jordan
    Kudos 2 Grantmaking Fall 2025 Product Update Briefing Feedback Name Dropper Participant

    Hey @Casey Judge, I'd love to hear how your alignment check has progressed!

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