As the year ends, nonprofit leaders review budgets, assess partnerships, and determine next year’s investments.

If your organization works with a grant writer or fund development consultant, you may ask: Is this partnership worth the investment?

This is a fair question. Nonprofits have limited resources and significant responsibilities to their communities. Every investment warrants careful review.

Both the funds secured and the strength of your organization’s fund development operations are important. A thorough evaluation considers both.

Start With the Funding Results

How much funding did your consultant help secure? How does that compare with your investment in their services?

At Lydia Sierra Consulting, our year-end client reviews include the projects we worked on, their status, funding outcomes, and upcoming reports and renewals. We also examine the relationship between consulting fees and funding secured and provide their ROI.

Financial results require context. Late-year applications may still be pending, some awards fund multi-year programs, and certain engagements focus on research, planning, or reporting instead of new proposals.

A meaningful review separates awarded funding from pending requests and considers completed work during the evaluation period. It should also acknowledge contributions from staff, leadership, and community partners.

Ask your consultant to clarify what the numbers indicate and what work remains in progress. For this reason, we provide an updated previous year report with the current year’s report – this is to show the funding that was still pending at the previous year end of year review and their final ROI for that year. In most cases, the updated report shows a significant difference in their ROI. 

Are You Making Better Funding Decisions?

A strong consultant helps your organization decide which opportunities are worth your time.

An opportunity may look attractive until you examine the match requirement, reporting obligations, staffing needs, or restrictions on how you can use the money.

Does your consultant help you assess these demands? Do they question project feasibility? Will they advise against opportunities that distract from your organization’s priorities?

Valuable advice sometimes cautions organizations against pursuing funding they may not be able to manage responsibly because of the organization’s level of financial management.

Strategic guidance should help you make decisions with greater clarity regarding your mission, resources, and capacity.

Are Your Processes Stronger?

Grant work requires coordination among leadership, finance, programs, and development. Even strong proposals can stall if information is missing or responsibilities are unclear.

Within the agreed scope, your consultant should help strengthen processes that support effective grant management.

Look for practical improvements:

• A clear record of applications, awards, pending decisions, reports, and renewals.
• Defined responsibilities for providing information and approving submissions.
• Internal deadlines that allow time for review.
• Consistent program descriptions, budgets, and supporting documents.
• Earlier identification of missing information or conflicting commitments.

These practices improve accountability and internal controls in the grant process. They clarify responsibilities, approvals, and next steps for your team.

This framework remains valuable well after a proposal is submitted.

Is Your Team Building Capacity?

Working with a consultant should better prepare your staff to participate in fund development.

Are program leaders clearer about the outcomes they need to document? Is finance involved in preparing budgets? Does leadership better understand what funders expect?

Capacity grows through practical guidance, such as explaining funder feedback, helping staff define realistic projects, identifying gaps in supporting information, and linking funding requests to organizational capacity.

At LSC, this strategic work is central to our client support. Preparing an application often requires discussions about the program’s goals, required resources, and realistic commitments.

Over time, this work should leave your organization better equipped to pursue and manage funding.

Are Existing Awards Receiving Attention?

Securing an award creates new responsibilities.

Reports, renewal requests, funder communications, and documentation all require attention. If these responsibilities are within your consultant’s scope, they should be reflected in your evaluation.

Is your organization better prepared for reporting deadlines? Are renewal opportunities being identified early? Are you communicating progress clearly to funders?

A partnership’s value also includes the attention given to funding relationships after an award is received.

Can Your Consultant Clearly Account for the Work?

You should know what your consultant worked on, what progressed, what encountered obstacles, and what requires your attention.

A productive year-end conversation goes beyond listing completed tasks. It connects the work to outcomes and decisions:

What did we accomplish together? What is still pending? What slowed progress? What should we change next year?

It should also review whether the scope, level of support, and fees continue to meet your organization’s needs.

At LSC, we understand that managing consulting costs can be challenging, especially when organizations want to pursue an ambitious funding agenda. We provide a clear hourly rate, project estimates, and mid-month reports on hours worked so clients can make informed decisions throughout the engagement. This visibility lets organizations adjust priorities mid-month, remove projects from the calendar, or bring selected opportunities in-house as needs and budgets change.

Evaluate the Full Investment

Keep funding results central to the discussion. Stronger systems and sound advice should also yield observable benefits.

As you evaluate your consultant, ask:

Are we securing appropriate funding, making better decisions, meeting our responsibilities, and becoming a more capable organization?

The strongest partnerships provide evidence in these areas and facilitate honest conversations about where improvement is needed.

At Lydia Sierra Consulting, we help nonprofit organizations align funding opportunities with the strategy, preparation, and follow-through needed to pursue them.

If your organization is reviewing its fund development needs for the coming year, let’s discuss the support that can help you move forward.