Rather than manually selecting keywords and other criteria, with Prospecting Assistant, you can describe your project in plain language by answering a few guided questions about what you're fundraising for. Using smarter matching criteria in your responses, Instrumentl surfaces the best-fit grants & funders.
How do the Prospecting Assistant results differ from those of the classic project setup experience? Fewer off-target matches and more relevant funding opportunities — faster.
⚠️ Beta feature: AI Prospecting Assistant is currently in beta and may not yet be available to all accounts. If you're interested in trying this feature, reach out to our Support team.
How Prospecting Assistant works
During setup, the Prospecting Assistant will ask you questions about the project for which you're seeking funding. It will be like a conversation with back-and-forth messages and, if needed, clarification questions and/or revisions. The Prospecting Assistant uses your responses to generate a fundraising summary and match criteria.
Once created, your project works the same way as in the classic experience. This setup helps you:
See smarter grant/funder matches informed by funder giving history, geographic funding patterns and semantic matching.
Reduce irrelevant opportunities by prioritizing funders most likely to align with your work.
Understand why grants were matched through Match Insights, which explains why each opportunity fits your project
Starting a new project
Follow these steps to create a new project using Prospecting Assistant.
Step 1: Create a new project
From the left nav menu, select + New next to 'Projects'.
Step 2: Choose the Prospecting Assistant setup
On the 'Project details' page ('1. Overview' tab), select Try Prospecting Assistant in the top-right corner.
Note: If you do not see this option, you're either in the "classic" experience (this beta feature is not available on your account) or you're taken directly to the Prospecting Assistant without the opt-in flow as described above.
Step 3: Generate a summary & location
Enter a short description of the specific program or project you're raising funds for. Consider including:
What your program does
The impact or outcomes you aim to achieve
Who your programs serve
Examples:
Education → “We run after-school STEM programs for underserved middle school students in Chicago.”
Arts access → “We offer free community arts workshops and performances that expand access to arts education for underserved youth and families.”
Food security → “Our program provides weekly food distribution and nutrition education for low-income families to improve food access and long-term health outcomes.”
Environmental conservation → “Our organization restores local wetlands and engages community volunteers to protect wildlife habitats and improve water quality.”
The Prospecting Assistant will ask a few follow-up questions to better understand your program, impact and location. The Assistant will then formulate a fundraising summary using your responses and add the project location(s),
Step 4: Select match criteria
Once the 'Summary & location' section is finished, you'll be asked questions about funding use, applicant organization type, religious affiliation, funder types and grant size.
Step 5: Review criteria & create matches
When finished, review the criteria and fundraising summary. To make changes, type a message to the Prospecting Assistant with what you want to change. When you're ready, confirm your project setup by selecting Create my matches.
Need to go back and edit a project you've already set up by changing the match criteria, fundraising summary or other project settings? Jump ahead!
Understanding your matches
After creating your project, Instrumentl will generate grant and funder matches that align with your fundraising summary and match criteria.
With Prospecting Assistant, some elements of your matches may look slightly different from the classic project setup.
Cause areas vs fields of work
In the "classic" project setup, users selected Fields of Work (keywords) to define projects. With the Prospecting Assistant, these "keywords" are replaced by cause areas, which are generated from your project's fundraising summary. Cause areas help determine relevant grants and funders for your project.
Match Insights
Each opportunity includes Match Insights that explain why a grant was matched to your project.
These insights highlight factors such as:
alignment with your program’s focus
geographic relevance
similarities to organizations the funder has supported in the past
Match Insights can help you quickly understand whether a grant may be a strong fit for your organization.
Editing your project
After creating your project, you can update your match criteria, fundraising summary or other project settings at any time.
To edit your project, you can either:
A) Access the Project Actions menu from the vertical 3-dot button next to the project name in the left-side nav.
B) From within the project, select Edit project in the top-right corner.
Match criteria
With the Prospecting Assistant, there are two areas where you can make changes to your project. The first is match criteria. Here, you can update your fundraising summary, location, funding uses, applicant org type, funder types and/or grant size minimum & maximum. Adjusting these criteria will refresh the project matches, possibly surfacing new ones (and potentially hiding earlier matches yet to be saved or hidden).
Project settings
The second place to alter aspects of your project is the project settings. These editable fields include the Project name, Project Color, Client Profile (Consultant plans) or Project lead (Nonprofit plans).
Reverting to classic project setup
If you prefer the traditional or "classic" project setup experience, you can switch to this "classic" experience while starting a new project.
To do this, select Restart on classic experience in the top-right corner during new project setup. Doing so will allow you to choose keywords/fields of work.
Important notes:
Restarting the setup will reset your progress in Prospecting Assistant, and you will need to re-enter your project criteria.
Once a project has been created using Prospecting Assistant and matches have been generated, it cannot be switched back to the classic setup.
Convert existing "classic" projects
If you already have a project created using the classic setup, the Instrumentl team can convert it to the Prospecting Assistant experience.
When a project is converted:
Your Tracker data remains unchanged—tasks, saved opportunities, and documents stay intact.
Your project will temporarily move to a draft state until you complete the Prospecting Assistant setup flow.
Your grant matches will be refreshed once finished setting up with the Prospecting Assistant.
❗Note: Once converted, the project cannot be switched back to the "classic" setup.
If you'd like to convert any existing projects in your account, contact Instrumentl Support.
Tips for getting the best grant matches
To improve the quality of your matches, keep these tips in mind when describing your project.
Describe the impact of your work
Be specific about your programs
Refine your project over time
The more context you provide, the better the Prospecting Assistant can identify aligned funders.
As new matches become available, they will automatically appear in your Matches tab, where you can review and track the grants most relevant to your work.
Now that you've created your project with the Prospecting Assistant, it's time to start reviewing your matches! Learn about all the ways you can sort and filter your Opportunity Matches, as well as navigate Funder Matches.
Contact us
Reach out to our friendly Support team if you have any questions about creating projects. Message us when logged in, or email us at hello@instrumentl.com.