Step 1: Audit Your Current Pipeline and Gather All Spreadsheets
Before you import anything into GrantGunner, you need to know what you're working with. Those ten spreadsheets won't clean themselves.
Start by listing every column each sheet uses. One might track opportunity name, deadline, status, and contact name. Another might store attachments, login details, or notes. Write them down - you'll spot duplicates and stale entries fast. That grant you 'applied for' in 2022? Still sitting in a sheet marked 'submitted'? Probably dead. Remove it.
Next, standardise your statuses. Your team might use 'applying', 'interested', 'submitted', and 'won' - but someone else has 'in progress', 'exploring', 'filed', and 'awarded'. Pick one set. GrantGunner's pipeline uses stages like processing, in review, submitting, submitted, awarded, rejected. Map your old labels onto those. It makes filtering and handovers simpler later.
Finally, gather everything that lives outside the spreadsheets. Pull supporting files - budgets, letters of support, CVs - into one folder. Save any login credentials for funder portals or notes about who to contact. You'll need these when you start building applications in GrantGunner's workspace. One folder, one set of terms, one clear picture of what's alive and what's history.
You'll be ready for the import in under an hour.
Step 2: Set Up Your GrantGunner Profile and Pipeline Stages
Now that you’ve audited your scattered spreadsheets, it’s time to build your new home for funding in GrantGunner.
Start by creating or logging into your account at grantgunner.org. The first thing you’ll do is configure your organisation profile. This is where GrantGunner’s discovery engine learns what to look for. Set your sector - whether you’re a charity, startup, social enterprise, sports club, or school. Add your geography (UK-focused by default) and select the types of funding that matter: grants, fellowships, prizes, innovation competitions, trusts and foundations, and more. This profile is the foundation that powers personalised opportunity matching, replacing the guesswork of manually scanning your old sheets.
Next, map your current spreadsheet statuses to GrantGunner’s built-in pipeline stages. The platform uses a Kanban-style view with clear stages: processing, in review, submitting, submitted, awarded, rejected.
Take the statuses you uncovered in Step 1 - perhaps your sheets used labels like “drafting”, “under review”, “sent to funder”, “won”, or “declined”. Map each one to the closest GrantGunner stage. If your team has specific terms you prefer, you can customise stage names so everyone recognises the workflow at a glance. This mapping transforms a messy list into a clean, actionable pipeline, showing you exactly what needs attention - and where opportunities are stuck.
With your profile set and stages aligned, you’re ready to bring your data in and see your funding landscape with clarity.
Step 3: Import Your Opportunities and Attach Supporting Documents
With your pipeline stages ready, it's time to populate your workspace with the opportunities you identified in Step 1. Start by searching the GrantGunner opportunities catalogue for any live programmes already in your pipeline. The platform’s AI-driven discovery tools can surface matching grants, fellowships, or prizes based on your profile-far more efficient than scouring static spreadsheets. When you find a match, simply click to add it to your workspace, preserving the deadline, status, and any notes you’ve kept.
For grants that aren’t yet in the catalogue-maybe a niche local trust or a custom funding call-manually create an opportunity record. Enter the deadline, paste your notes from the old spreadsheet, and add the original URL for quick reference. This ensures no opportunity slips through the cracks during migration.
Now, attach supporting documents directly to each pipeline item. Use the applications workspace or file uploads within each opportunity to attach budgets, letters of support, previous submissions, or evidence of impact. This centralises everything you once hunted for across ten sheets, so your team can access the latest version of a budget or a signed letter without digging through email threads. With documents linked to the right opportunity, you’re ready to move to the next step: activating AI agents to help draft and track progress.
Pro tip: Use the calendar view to check all imported deadlines at a glance, catching any date conflicts or overlapping submission windows early.
Step 4: Share the Workspace, Set Up Calendar Alerts, and Declutter the Old Files
With your pipeline fully populated in GrantGunner, it’s time to bring your team into the picture and lock down your calendar. Start by inviting collaborators-teammates, board members, or external writers-using the ‘Share’ function in your workspace. Each person can view the pipeline, see which stage each opportunity is in, and leave comments on specific applications. This eliminates the back-and-forth of spreadsheet version control and gives everyone real-time visibility into what’s coming up next.
Next, enable calendar alerts directly within GrantGunner. For every opportunity you’ve imported, the platform will generate key dates: deadlines, submission windows, and scheduled AI scout runs. You can sync these reminders to a shared team calendar or receive them in-app. That way, no one misses a critical submission because a date was buried in an old cell.
Once you’ve verified that all your active opportunities are correctly tracked and the alerts are firing, it’s time to declutter. Archive your old spreadsheets into a single folder marked ‘Legacy - Migrated to GrantGunner’ and then delete the original files from shared drives. This prevents anyone from accidentally updating the old system. Finally, set a recurring monthly review-say, the first Monday of each month-where your team opens the GrantGunner pipeline, checks for stalled items, and updates statuses. That 30-minute habit keeps your funding engine humming without spreadsheet chaos.
With Step 4 complete, you’ve turned ten scattered lists into one living, collaborative workspace. Your pipeline is now visible, timed, and evergreen.
