--- name: funder-prospect-prioritizer description: "Scores and ranks a list of potential funders against an organization's profile across strategic fit, giving capacity, accessibility, and relationship warmth, producing a tiered cultivation list with a weighted score, rationale, and recommended next action for each prospect. Use when triaging a funder research list, deciding which foundations or major donors to pursue first, or building a quarterly cultivation pipeline." argument-hint: "[funder-list] [org-profile]" allowed-tools: ["Read"] --- # Funder Prospect Prioritizer ## Purpose Turn a raw list of potential funders into a ranked, tiered cultivation pipeline — scoring each prospect on fit, capacity, accessibility, and warmth so development teams spend their limited time on the funders most likely to give. Eliminates the guesswork and gut-feel triage that leaves high-potential prospects buried and low-odds funders overworked. ## When to Use Invoke this skill when the user asks to: - Prioritize or rank a list of potential funders, foundations, or major donors - Decide which grant prospects to pursue first this quarter - Build or refresh a cultivation pipeline from funder research - Score prospects for strategic fit before writing LOIs or proposals - Triage a long prospect list down to a focused Tier 1 target set - Justify to a board or ED why certain funders are being prioritized ## Inputs Required Before starting, collect: - **Funder list**: The prospects to evaluate — names plus any known details (funding areas, typical grant size, geography, deadlines) - **Organizational profile**: Mission, program areas, geography served, annual budget, and 501(c)(3) status or equivalent - **Funding need**: The specific program, project, or general operating need being funded, and dollar amount sought - **Existing relationships**: Any board, staff, or volunteer connections to funders; prior grants; current contacts - **Capacity constraints**: How many prospects the team can realistically cultivate this cycle (e.g., 5, 10, 20) - **Time horizon**: The window for this pipeline (this quarter, this fiscal year, next 6 months) - **Dealbreakers**: Any funders or funder types that are off-limits (conflicts, mission misalignment, prior declines) If capacity or time horizon is missing, assume a Tier 1 target of 8–10 prospects over the current quarter and note the assumption. ## Instructions ### Step 1: Confirm the Scoring Model Score every prospect on four weighted dimensions (0–5 each). Default weights, adjustable if the user specifies priorities: - **Strategic Fit (35%)**: Alignment between funder priorities and this org's mission, program area, geography, and population served - **Giving Capacity (25%)**: Whether the funder's typical grant size matches the ask, and whether they have room in their giving budget/cycle - **Accessibility (20%)**: How open the funder is — accepts unsolicited proposals vs. invitation-only, LOI process clarity, deadline feasibility within the time horizon - **Relationship Warmth (20%)**: Strength of existing connection — from cold (no contact) to warm (active relationship or board tie) State the weights being used before scoring so the ranking is auditable. ### Step 2: Score Each Prospect For every funder, assign a 0–5 score on each dimension with a one-line rationale: - **Strategic Fit scale**: 5 = named priority match on program + geography; 3 = adjacent program area or broader geography; 1 = tangential; 0 = out of scope - **Giving Capacity scale**: 5 = ask sits mid-range of their typical grants; 3 = ask near their floor or ceiling; 1 = ask is far outside their range; 0 = grant size unknown and likely too small - **Accessibility scale**: 5 = open application with a deadline inside the horizon; 3 = LOI-first or rolling; 1 = invitation-only with a possible path; 0 = closed to unsolicited requests - **Relationship Warmth scale**: 5 = board/staff has a direct active tie; 3 = a prior grant or warm intro path exists; 1 = mutual connection identifiable; 0 = fully cold Compute the **weighted score** (0–100) for each prospect: `(Fit×7) + (Capacity×5) + (Accessibility×4) + (Warmth×4)`. ### Step 3: Tier the Prospects Sort by weighted score and assign tiers: - **Tier 1 — Pursue now**: Score ≥ 70. High fit and a real path in. These get proposals/LOIs this cycle. - **Tier 2 — Cultivate**: Score 50–69. Strong fit but cold or access-limited. Build relationship before asking. - **Tier 3 — Monitor**: Score 35–49. Watch for changed priorities, new access, or a warm intro. - **Tier 4 — Deprioritize**: Score < 35 or hits a dealbreaker. Note why and set aside. Cap Tier 1 at the team's stated capacity. If more prospects qualify than capacity allows, keep the highest scores in Tier 1 and move the rest to the top of Tier 2 with a note. ### Step 4: Assign a Next Action per Prospect For every Tier 1 and Tier 2 prospect, specify one concrete next action and owner-type: - **Access moves**: Submit LOI, request a call, apply by [deadline], review 990/grant history - **Warmth moves**: Ask [board member] for intro, invite to a program tour, add to newsletter, schedule a cultivation touch - Note the next deadline if one exists within the time horizon. ### Step 5: Summarize the Pipeline Produce a one-paragraph strategic read: where the strongest opportunities concentrate, any capacity gap (too few warm Tier 1s), and the single highest-leverage move for the cycle. ## Output Format - **Structure**: Scoring model statement → ranked prospect table → tier breakdown with next actions → pipeline summary - **Length**: 700–1,100 words plus the scoring table - **Format**: A ranked table (Funder, Fit, Capacity, Access, Warmth, Weighted Score, Tier), followed by tier-grouped next-action lists in structured bullets, closing with a prose summary paragraph - **Sections**: Scoring Model & Weights → Ranked Prospect Table → Tier 1 (with next actions) → Tier 2 (with next actions) → Tier 3 & 4 (brief) → Pipeline Summary - **Tone**: Development director — pragmatic, resource-conscious, decisive; recommends where to spend limited cultivation time without hedging ## Quality Checklist Before delivering output, verify: - [ ] Every prospect on the input list appears in the ranked table with all four dimension scores - [ ] Weighted scores are computed with the stated formula and sort the table correctly - [ ] Tier assignments follow the score thresholds, and Tier 1 respects the team's capacity cap - [ ] Each dimension score has a one-line rationale — not a bare number - [ ] Every Tier 1 and Tier 2 prospect has a specific next action, not "follow up" - [ ] Any dealbreaker prospect is flagged in Tier 4 with the reason stated ## Notes - Relationship warmth is the most undervalued dimension — a warm Tier 2 often converts faster than a cold Tier 1; flag any prospect where an existing tie could be activated. - When grant size or funding priorities are unknown, score conservatively and add "verify via 990/grant history" as the next action rather than inflating the score. - If the team's capacity is smaller than the number of qualifying prospects, the highest-leverage advice is usually to cultivate fewer funders more deeply — say so explicitly in the summary. --- ## How to use this skill This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top. **Installing in Claude Code:** - `~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects) - `/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills) Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register. **Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:** 1. 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