We realize how important it is for grant writers to stay organized. That's why Instrumentl offers a "Consultant plan" option, designed exclusively for grant writing consultants & freelancers to manage multiple clients within Instrumentl.
Stay on top of all your client work and centralize your clients' grant management: Find grants for your clients, manage multiple portfolios, and collaborate with your team.
Always know who’s doing what and what’s coming up next:
Spend less time on research and more time signing on new clients. We'll show you good fit matches based on their unique needs so you can apply to the right opportunities for each client.
Get continuously smart matched to client-specific grants and relevant funders. Keep project workspaces separate while still sharing potential funders and research between them.
Link your clients' Instrumentl accounts to your own for quick collaboration.
Send your clients emails about opportunities directly from the platform. Export reports and quickly share progress metrics by client.
Overview
Stay organized and manage multiple clients within Instrumentl. Discover funders, opportunities, and handle grant & client management all in a single platform. Seamlessly switch between clients, customizing tracking and reporting for each.
A "Consultant plan" is not a plan tier in itself. When you choose a plan, you may select whether you'd like to subscribe to the nonprofit or the consultant version.
You can choose the Consultant plan for Basic, Standard, Professional, and Advanced Plans.
Features
At a high level:
Consultant plans allow you to create multiple Client Profiles — these are essentially "organization profiles" that correspond to each specific client to allow for tailored client matches, project spaces & tracking, and reporting.
Consultant plans offer the unique option of External Account Linking. The account owner can directly access the accounts of their clients with Instrumentl subscriptions.
While Consultant plans are not a plan tier, feature availability or rollouts may vary depending on whether you're on a consultant plan vs. nonprofit. To verify which features your Consultant plan includes, compare our plans here.
How grant writers use Instrumentl
Grant writing consultants typically set up separate projects for each client they are working for.
For larger clients, you may find yourself pursuing multiple funding initiatives at the same time. In that case, it’s advised to create different projects for each key funding initiative.
E.g., you may be consulting for an afterschool program that has both a literacy and a math program. In this situation, we recommend you create a project for each program to customize your match results for the best fit.
Create Client Profiles
While nonprofit accounts create a singular "Organization Profile", consultants can create multiple Client Profiles, each of which will have a distinct location and fiscal year based on the corresponding client. There is no limit to the number of Client Profiles you can create.
Add in each client's specific information to associate their profile to their projects. The ability to create separate profiles with specific locations and fiscal years greatly improves the quality of your prospecting and tracking.
When you add a profile, you'll enter a unique name identifying your client, allowing you to to easily tie their profiles to projects.
Registration location
When you create a client profile, it is critical to specify the location down to the county level when possible, rather than an entire state or country. Optimally, the narrower the location, the better your matches will fit the client.
"Where is your client registered?": Always select location(s) at the county level whenever possible! Choose the specific county/counties where your client's organization is based, i.e., the physical location(s) in which they're registered.
Tip: Don't conflate the locations where the client performs work with their headquarters! You'll be able to add the locations of their programs' work in their project setup.
When you click the purple + Select a county or state button, you can either use the search bar or open the dropdown for all U.S. states and territories to select one or more counties:
Specifying locations down to the county level results in better fit matches. Narrow down your client's location to the county level (e.g., Washtenaw County, MI) rather than the broader state of Michigan or the United States. Selecting the county will encompass the state as well.
If you instead selected the entire U.S., you'd receive matches that are more broadly diluted and nationwide in scope.
This has a significant effect on the fit of matches coming in, especially because certain funders & opportunities have a preference for organizations based in specific areas.
Fiscal year cycles by client
Finally, set your client's fiscal year from the full dropdown menu, and then click the Save Client button to add them to your client profile list. This allows you to better organize their tracker opportunities, align grant deadlines and tasks, and create reports that fit their organization's needs.
Update Client Profiles
You can view, update, and add more client profiles at any time by going to Account > Client Profiles at the bottom of your navigation menu:
From here, you can use the buttons on the righthand side to add, edit, or delete a profile as your client needs change:
Click the purple + Add a Profile button to add another profile
Click the pencil icon to update an existing profile
Click the trashcan icon to remove a profile
Link Client Profiles to Projects
Each client profile can then be linked to specific projects, ensuring your project's matches and tracker are tailored to a given client. You’ll receive better location matches, and your tracker and reports will reflect the client's fiscal year.
If you've already created a project, you can double check the associated client profile by clicking Edit Project from the project's dropdown menu options on the lefthand navigation bar.
Client-specific grant matches
Location, location, location! Having multiple client profiles allows consultants to get better fit match results with a higher chance of success for each client.
Once you've set up a client's project, you'll see that you can filter by location, including "Location of Residency" (i.e, the registration location you set in your client profile). Funders often express location preferences, meaning you'll have an additional advantage in applying for certain grants.
Including a narrow registration/residency location at the county level ensures your clients receive location-based matches by funder preferences, and it allows you to filter opportunities by past giving location history.
External Client Linking
Consultant plans offer the unique ability to link a client's account to your own consultant account. This allows you to easily collaborate on projects in clients’ accounts without using a separate login.
If you're a paying consultant account owner working with nonprofits who have their own Instrumentl subscriptions, you can link their accounts onto yours. Easily toggle between your own account and your clients' subscriptions at the top of your account screen:
Please note that if you're a team member who joined the consultant account, you will need your own separate consultant plan under a different email in order to add and toggle between your own clients. You will still be able to create client profiles and associated projects on your shared account.
Note: linking accounts will not merge any data between accounts. Accounts will still be kept separate. Your client will not be able to access your own work. You'll have one-way access to collaborate within their account.
FAQs
I accidentally purchased a nonprofit subscription — can I switch to the consultant version instead?
I accidentally purchased a nonprofit subscription — can I switch to the consultant version instead?
Yes — no worries! We'll help you switch your plan type accordingly at no charge. Just contact our friendly Customer Support team at hello@instrumentl.com.
Can a Consultant plan still utilize Virtuous, RENXT, or Salesforce Integrations?
Can a Consultant plan still utilize Virtuous, RENXT, or Salesforce Integrations?
Absolutely — as long as your overall plan choice is compatible with CRM integrations. I.e., the Professional Plan or higher.
Why am I unable to link my client's account and/or view my client's projects when I toggle between accounts?
Why am I unable to link my client's account and/or view my client's projects when I toggle between accounts?
External client linking is available to the account's paying owner. If you are member of a consultant account, you will need your own separate paid account (under a different email).
The client must have their own paid subscription in order for you to access their projects. If you previously linked your free trial account or your client's free trial to yours, you will not have access to view work on an expired trial.
If you accidentally subscribed to a nonprofit plan, this option will also be unavailable. In this case, you can contact us to switch your plan for no additional cost!
If my client doesn't have their own paid account, can I add them to mine?
If my client doesn't have their own paid account, can I add them to mine?
You may directly invite a client to join your own paid consultant account. Please note that this is not the same as external client linking. Your client would have access to your entire account, including other team members' projects.
If I add a client to my account, will they be able to view all of my work?
If I add a client to my account, will they be able to view all of my work?
If you're externally linking a client's account to your own, they will not be able to see/use your account. You'll have one-way access to their account.
If you're adding them to your account as a user: By default, anyone directly on your account will be able to view and work across the entirety of your project spaces.
However, our User Permissions feature eliminates cause for concern for grant writers! Available on the Advanced Consultant Plan and above, you can easily control user access by setting project-level permissions for your client(s). Limit their access to only their project(s) while keeping your other client data confidential.
Why don't I see certain features that should be available on my plan tier?
Why don't I see certain features that should be available on my plan tier?
We apologize for any potential confusion here!
We always indicate available features by plan and plan type (Consultant/NPO) available to compare on the Plan Pricing Page. Scroll mid-way down the page in order to expand the comprehensive dropdown comparison of features and availability.
Additionally, we indicate any feature limitations on Consultant plans in our extensive resources, including other relevant Help Center Articles.
If unsure, you may Contact our Support Team or your dedicated onboarding representative at any time to verify feature availability for consultants prior to subscribing!
Please note that limited features are still relatively new and/or in Beta. Any current limitations stem from consultants having multiple clients, making these features less effective than on a nonprofit plan with a singular Organization Profile.
We're constantly improving these new features for consultant and institutions, although we currently cannot guarantee availability or an exact timeline for all such features. When appropriate, we tend to introduce small batch testing and rollouts when the necessary precision is achieved — stay tuned for updates!
Why am I receiving an error when inviting certain users to my account?
Why am I receiving an error when inviting certain users to my account?
When you invite a user who already has their own preexisting consultant plan with us, whether a free trial or or an active subscription, our system will automatically recognize the potential mismatch.
In order to prevent any unwanted client data migration and merging of consultant accounts, reach out to our friendly Customer Support team via hello@instrumentl.com so we can get your team together with full transparency! Learn more about adding consultants to consultant accounts in our guide to inviting users.
We're constantly improving our product's features to enhance workflows for consultants. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our Support Team.
Contact Us 
Reach out to our friendly Support Team if you have any questions about choosing and using Consultant plans! Send us a message via the chat bubble when logged in, or email us at hello@instrumentl.com.