Your grant portfolio in one calendar view — apply, report, follow up. Built for the 1-person dev shop, not the Salesforce shop.
Problem
Маленькая нонпрофит без выделенного grant manager ведёт грантовый портфель в Excel — каждый грант на отдельной вкладке, никаких напоминаний о дедлайнах отчётов. К моменту когда пайплайн доходит до 5-7 грантов, summary tab ломается, а Salesforce / Bonterra — overkill за $200+/mo с консультантом.
Audience
Executive directors / development directors маленьких US нонпрофитов (1-10 сотрудников, 3-20 активных грантов) с грантовой моделью финансирования и без выделенного grant manager
Reasoning
Source signals
- SIG-20260426-us-community-coordinator-nonprofit-grant-deadline-spreadsheet — "Spreadsheets work for one or two grants, but they break down quickly" (RECURRING, HIGH)
- SIG-20260426-us-community-coordinator-volunteer-hour-tracking-grant-reporting — "tracking volunteer hours… for grants, compliance, or payroll" (RECURRING, MED) — secondary cross-link
What we ship
**Core features (MVP)**
- Calendar view: all deadlines (LOI / full app / interim / final report) color-coded by status
- Grant card: amount, restricted use, scope, contact, history, documents
- Auto-reminders 30/14/7/1 day before deadline (email + iCal)
- Funder contact CRM with conversation history
- Spending tracker: restricted budget vs actual
- Quarterly digest PDF for board meetings
- Optional volunteer-hour log integration
**Primary user flow**
1. Exec director signs up, imports grant Excel via smart parser
2. Calendar view shows next 3 deadlines
3. Open grant card, upload application doc, mark "submitted"
4. Reminder 7 days before interim report
5. End of quarter: one-click PDF digest for board
**What it looks like**
- **Landing**: "Salesforce is for fundraising teams. We're for the exec director who is also the development director."
- **Main app screen**: month calendar with colored dots = grants × deadlines
- **Output**: clean quarterly digest PDF
**MVP build plan (9 days)**
- Day 1-2: schema, auth, Stripe
- Day 3-5: calendar view, grant cards, reminders
- Day 6-7: spending tracker, funder CRM, document upload
- Day 8: PDF digest, Excel import
- Day 9: landing, deploy
Reasoning
The pain is well-quantified ("spreadsheets break down quickly") with named competitors (GrantPipe, Grantable, GrantFrog, Steward, MonkeyPod). The market is alive and crowded but bifurcated: enterprise-priced ($150-500/mo) or small-fundraiser-priced (Grantable). White-space exists in the $19-29/mo "exec-director-is-the-grant-writer" segment with calendar-first UX. Standard CRUD + calendar + PDF — ideal stack fit, 9-day build.
Quick competitive read
- **Grantable** ($35-60/mo): closest UX, but application-focused
- **GrantPipe / GrantFlow** ($50-200/mo): pipeline, complex
- **Steward CRM** ($30+/mo): broader scope
- **MonkeyPod** ($99/mo): full suite
- **GrantFrog**: research-focused
White-space: $19-29/mo, calendar-first, exec-director-targeted. **Competitive pressure: 5/10**.
Initial pricing hypothesis
$19/mo Solo (1 user, ≤10 active grants), $39/mo Team (3 users, unlimited), $79/mo Org (5 users + funder CRM + spending tracker).
Distribution hypothesis
SEO ("small nonprofit grant tracker"), Reddit r/nonprofit, partnerships with regional community foundations + United Way newsletters, ProductHunt, free tier for Candid users.
Source signals (2)
SIG-20260426-us-community-coordinator-nonprofit-grant-deadline-spreadsheetSIG-20260426-us-community-coordinator-volunteer-hour-tracking-grant-reporting