A Mid-Year Funding Strategy Review: 10 Questions Every Nonprofit Should Ask in June

June marks an important checkpoint for many nonprofit organizations.

For organizations operating on a July through June fiscal year, it is the final stretch before year-end reporting, grant closeouts, and renewal conversations. For those operating on a calendar year, June represents the halfway point and an opportunity to step back, assess progress, and make adjustments before the busy fall funding season begins.

In my experience, many nonprofit leaders spend so much time responding to immediate needs that they rarely have an opportunity to pause and evaluate the bigger picture. Yet some of the most important funding decisions are made during these quieter planning moments.

Rather than waiting until year-end, June offers a natural opportunity to review what is working, identify potential risks, and strengthen your funding strategy for the months ahead.

The following questions are designed to help guide that conversation. You do not need to tackle all ten at once. Start with the questions that feel most relevant to your organization right now and use them to identify a few clear priorities for the second half of the year.

On Your Grant Portfolio

1. Which grants renewed this year, and which did not? Do you know why?

Renewal rates can provide valuable insight into the health of your funding portfolio. Not every non-renewal reflects a problem with your program. Funders shift priorities, sunset initiatives, and adjust funding strategies for reasons beyond an organization's control.

However, if a grant was not renewed, it is worth understanding why. A brief conversation with a program officer can often provide insight that strengthens future funding efforts, helps refine your approach, or identifies opportunities that may be a better fit moving forward.

2. How many grants did you apply for this year compared to what you planned?

The answer can reveal a great deal about your overall grant strategy.

If you applied for significantly more grants than planned, ask yourself why. Were new opportunities unusually strong, or did your team find itself chasing funding as opportunities appeared? On the other hand, if applications fell short of expectations, was it due to capacity, competing priorities, or a lack of qualified prospects?

Understanding the reason behind the numbers is often more valuable than the numbers themselves.

3. What is your current grant success rate, and what does it tell you?

While win rates are commonly used to measure performance, they should not be viewed in isolation.

A lower success rate may reflect highly competitive opportunities, limited eligibility, or ambitious growth goals. A higher success rate may indicate strong proposal development, but it could also suggest that your organization is only pursuing opportunities with a high likelihood of success.

The goal is not simply to maximize your win rate. The goal is to understand what the pattern reveals about your funding strategy and decision-making process.

4. Are any current grants expiring within the next six months, and do you have a plan?

Take time to review every grant scheduled to expire between now and year-end.

For each award, consider:

• Is renewal likely?

• When will the renewal process begin?

• What would happen if funding is delayed or not renewed?

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This exercise is not only about development planning. It is also about organizational sustainability, staffing stability, and cash flow management.

On Your Funding Structure

5. Has your revenue mix changed from last year, and was that intentional?

Compare year-to-date revenue sources with the same period last year.

Have federal grants increased as a percentage of overall revenue? Has foundation support declined? Have individual donations remained flat while other funding sources have grown?

Changes in revenue mix are not inherently positive or negative. What matters is whether those changes reflect intentional strategic decisions or whether they occurred without deliberate planning.

Understanding how your funding portfolio is evolving can help identify areas of strength, potential vulnerabilities, and opportunities for diversification.

6. Have you developed at least one new funding relationship this year?

Many foundation, corporate, and government funding relationships take months, and sometimes years, to develop.

The outreach and relationship-building happening today often influence funding opportunities well into the future.

Consider whether your organization has:

• Submitted a Letter of Inquiry

• Introduced itself to a new funder

• Participated in a funder meeting or convening

• Expanded relationships with community partners

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If not, your pipeline for future funding may be thinner than you realize.

On Your Programs and Data

7. Are there successful programs that are not yet connected to funding opportunities?

Many organizations have programs producing meaningful results that are not receiving the funding attention they deserve.

Sometimes the issue is limited staff capacity. Other times, strong programs have simply never been translated into funder-ready language.

Consider whether there are initiatives with:

• Strong participation

• Positive outcomes

• Demonstrated community need

• Expansion potential

  
  

Programs that are already producing results often represent some of the strongest future funding opportunities.

8. Is your data organized and accessible when you need it?

Strong grant proposals rely on credible, accessible data.

Funders increasingly expect organizations to demonstrate:

• Community need

• Number of individuals served

• Demographic information

• Outcomes achieved

• Progress over time

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If this information is scattered across spreadsheets, reports, paper files, or individual staff members' knowledge, proposal development becomes significantly more difficult.

Organizations that prioritize data collection and reporting as part of normal operations are often able to respond to funding opportunities more efficiently and with greater confidence.

On What Is Coming

9. What are your most important grant deadlines for the remainder of the year?

Review your grant calendar through December and identify the opportunities that matter most.

For each priority opportunity, ask:

• What preparation should begin now?

• What data will be needed?

• Are letters of support required?

• Are partner conversations needed before submission?

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The strongest proposals are rarely developed at the last minute. They are the result of thoughtful planning that begins weeks or months before an application is due.

10. If the funding environment became more restrictive tomorrow, what would your organization do?

While no one enjoys thinking about funding reductions, scenario planning is a healthy organizational practice.

Consider:

• What would a 10% or 15% revenue reduction mean?

• Which programs are mission critical?

• What reserves are available?

• Where are the greatest financial risks?

  
  

These conversations are rarely easy, but they are far easier to have before a challenge emerges than during a funding crisis.

How to Use This Review

Some organizations may use these questions as the foundation for a board development committee discussion. Others may use them as part of a leadership retreat, strategic planning session, or executive director reflection exercise.

The format matters less than the outcome.

What matters is identifying a clear set of priorities, decisions, and next steps that will strengthen your organization's funding position during the second half of the year.

If you are facilitating a team discussion, consider sharing the questions in advance and asking participants to come prepared to discuss Questions 4, 9, and 10. These conversations often reveal the most important planning priorities and lead to more productive discussions when participants have time to reflect beforehand.

How SJR Nonprofit Solutions Can Help

If these questions raise concerns about funding sustainability, pipeline development, grant readiness, or organizational capacity, know that you are not alone. Many nonprofit leaders are navigating similar challenges while balancing competing priorities and limited resources.

A Grant Readiness Assessment can help bring clarity to what is working well, identify opportunities for improvement, and establish practical next steps for strengthening your organization's funding infrastructure.

Sometimes an outside perspective can help turn uncertainty into a clear plan forward.

If a conversation would be helpful, I would be glad to connect.

Schedule a discovery call or learn more at sjrnonprofitsolutions.com.