Consultant Plans are designed for grant writers, freelancers, and agencies managing multiple clients. They let you manage all client prospecting, tracking, and reporting from a single centralized Instrumentl account — while keeping each client’s work completely separate.

What you can do with a Consultant Plan:

When you choose a subscription 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.

Consultant Plans include most features available in nonprofit accounts, with some unique options:

Grant writing consultants typically set up separate projects for each client they are working with.

For larger clients, you may find yourself pursuing multiple funding initiatives simultaneously. In that case, it’s advised to create different projects for each key funding initiative.

E.g., you may be consulting for an after-school program that offers both literacy and math programs. In this situation, we recommend creating a project for each program to customize your match results and find the best fit.

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.

The ability to create separate profiles with specific locations and fiscal years greatly improves the quality of your prospecting and tracking. There is no limit to the number of Client Profiles you can create.

When you add a profile, you'll enter a unique name that identifies your client, so you can easily tie their profile to projects.

When creating a Client Profile, specify the client’s registration location at the county level whenever possible, rather than at the state or country level.

"Where is your client registered?"Select the specific county or counties where the organization is legally based or registered (i.e., its headquarters location).

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 (e.g., Washtenaw County) results in better fit matches. Funders often prioritize organizations in specific geographic areas. Choosing a precise registration location:

If you select a broader geography (like “United States”), results will be more generalized and less targeted.

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.

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 right-hand side to add, edit, or delete a profile as your client's needs change:

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 left-hand navigation bar.

Location, location, location! Having multiple client profiles allows consultants to generate better fits, more accurate match results, and 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". Many funders prioritize organizations in specific geographic areas, so specifying an accurate registration location improves the relevance of matches.

Setting a county-level registration location also allows you to filter opportunities by past giving location history, giving additional insight into funder preferences and increasing the likelihood of a strong fit.

In addition to location-based filters, consultants can use Recipient Profiles (Reverse Search) to review high-level 990 insights and a client's past giving history.

Consultant plans offer the unique ability to link a client's Nonprofit 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 that have their own actively subscribed Instrumentl Nonprofit accounts, you can link their accounts to yours. Easily toggle between your own account and your clients' accounts at the top of your account screen:

If this is the first external client account you're linking, contact them and ask them to invite you as a Core User (they can select any role for you).

Once you accept the invitation, you'll be listed as a Core User on their account's Team page, and you'll be able to toggle to their account as explained above.

If this is not your first external Nonprofit client account, then you can open the menu of clients at the top of your screen and select + Add New Client

Next, you'll be taken to the following screen, which asks whether your client already has a separate Instrumentl account with an active subscription.

If your client does not have an Instrumentl Nonprofit account yet, select No, then click Refer a Nonprofit. They will receive a referral link that gives them a free month. Be sure to ask them to invite you as a Core User!

If your client does have an actively subscribed Nonprofit account already, then select Yes—simply ask them to invite you as a Core User on their end.

On the Advanced Consultant Plan, your User Permissions include the Core User role of 'Project Member' to protect sensitive client data.

This allows you to:

User Permissions are especially helpful for agencies managing multiple clients within one account.

We're constantly improving our product's features to enhance consultants' workflows. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our Support Team.

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.