Your first 30 days in Nonprofit Hub: What to do, in what order, and what to expect

As a nonprofit fundraising professional working to make the world and your community a better place, starting something new when you’re already stretched thin can feel like a gamble. You’ve got programs to run, a board to please, and a to-do list that never ends. And now, there’s a new platform asking for your time. The burning question underneath every sign-up is: Will this actually pay off, or is it one more thing I’ll abandon in two weeks?

The good news? Bonterra Nonprofit Hub ends the need for multiple fundraising and engagement solutions because it puts two AI-powered tools in one place: Bonterra Que, your fundraising coach, and GrantMatch, your intelligent grant assistant. Que gives you strategy and guidance for growing individual giving; GrantMatch finds high-fit grant opportunities for your organization and helps you write stronger proposals. Both are grounded in the Bonterra Network — 640M+ transactions, 213K+ nonprofits, and 400+ institutional funders — so the guidance reflects what works in practice, not theory.

You don’t need to master Nonprofit Hub to get value from it. You don’t need a grantwriting background, a fundraising degree, or a free afternoon. You don’t even have to choose between growing individual donors or pursuing grants. Most nonprofits need both, and the Hub is here to help you pursue these prospects with confidence. You only need about 20 minutes a week and a willingness to follow a simple sequence.

By the end of 30 days, you’ll have a working routine, a better strategy, and sustainable momentum — not a pile of half-finished proposals.

Let’s walk through it.

Week 1: Get oriented and set your foundation

Your only goal this week is to set up and get comfortable. Nothing more.

Complete your organization profile.

This is the single most important thing you’ll do all month, because everything else gets smarter from here. Que draws on your profile to shape its coaching, and GrantMatch uses it to score which grants fit your mission, geography, and eligibility. A few minutes here save you hours later. If you’re a migrated FrontDoor user, your profile and data are already carried over. Take five minutes to review and fill any gaps.

Look around.

Open the Hub and click through it. Find out where Que and GrantMatch live. You’re not trying to do anything yet. You’re simply building a mental map so nothing feels foreign next week.

Ask Que your first questions.

Try both tracks. On the fundraising side: “Where should a small nonprofit like mine start with individual giving?” On the grants side: “What should I know before I start looking for grants?” Notice that Que doesn’t hand you a generic checklist. It answers in the context of your organization.

Week 2: Take your first actions

Now you’ll do one concrete task on each track. Small, but meaningful.

Run your first GrantMatch search.

GrantMatch surfaces a prioritized list of opportunities scored against your organization’s profile — not a keyword dump you sort through yourself. Look at your top matches and read why each one scored the way it did. This is the moment most people realize how much time they used to lose: Instead of reading guidelines for grants you can’t win, you’re starting from a shortlist worth your attention.

Plan one fundraising move with Que.

On the individual-giving side, pick something small and ask Que to help you build it. A first donor outreach email, a plan for a year-end appeal, or how to think about segmenting the donors you already have. Let Que draft it. You’re not sending anything yet; you’re seeing how fast “I don’t know where to start” becomes “here’s a draft I can work with.”

Save what looks promising.

Bookmark one or two grants that caught your eye. Don’t evaluate them deeply yet; just move them into your pipeline so they’re waiting for you next week.

Week 3: Put it into practice

This is the week the tools start doing heavy lifting. You’ll go deeper on one grant and sharpen one fundraising effort.

Take one grant further.

Pick the strongest match you saved. Use Que to check fit before you invest time. Let it analyze funder priorities and flag disqualifiers early, so a required LOI, a geographic restriction, or an eligibility gap surfaces now instead of after three days of writing. If it checks out, ask Que to generate a first-draft proposal grounded in your organization and the funder’s specific requirements. Don’t worry: It won’t be your final submission. It’s a starting point you refine, so you go from blank page to something substantive in minutes.

Strengthen your fundraising work.

Take the draft or plan from Week 2 and push it further with Que. Tighten the appeal, build out the campaign, or ask how to steward the donors who respond. The pattern to notice: Que doesn’t just generate outputs; it coaches you on why, so you’re learning strategy while you work.

Start a rhythm.

You’ve now touched grants and fundraising in the same week. That’s the routine. Pick a consistent time — even 20 minutes — where you check matches, move one project forward, and ask Que what’s next.

Week 4: Build momentum that lasts

The final week is about turning three weeks of activity into a system you’ll want to keep.

Review what you’ve built.

Look back at your shortlist of qualified grants, at least one proposal in progress, a fundraising draft or plan, and a smarter sense of how Que and GrantMatch fit your work. That’s a lot for a month when you started from scratch.

Organize your pipeline.

Tidy your saved grants and track each one through its stage — Researching, Drafting, Submitted, and beyond — so nothing slips. Note where your fundraising efforts stand, too.

Set your next goals and lock in the routine.

Decide what the next 30 days look like: one grant to submit, one campaign to launch, or one donor segment to focus on. Then protect the weekly slot you built in Week 3. Consistency, not intensity, is what compounds.

What success looks like after 30 days

At this point, while grantseeking and fundraising will still be ongoing, you’ve defined a new workflow you can scale as you start to experience more success. Here’s what you should have:

• A repeatable weekly workflow that fits into a stretched schedule
• Genuine comfort using AI coaching for both fundraising and grants
• A shortlist of qualified, high-fit grant opportunities and at least one proposal underway
• At least one fundraising effort moving, whether a draft appeal or a segmentation plan
• A better understanding of your own strategy, and a system that gets sharper the more you use it

The point of the first 30 days isn’t to do everything, everywhere, all at once. Instead, focus on proving to yourself that steady, small actions add up — building the habits that’ll make the next 30 days easier.

Common questions new users ask

Do I have to choose between fundraising and grants?

No. The Hub is built to support both, and this roadmap runs them in parallel. Do as much of each as fits your organization. Some weeks you’ll lean toward grants, others toward donor outreach.

I’ve never written a grant or run a campaign. Is this still for me?

Definitely! Que is built to coach people without a formal background because it tells you where to start and walks you through each step in the context of your organization.

How is this different from using ChatGPT?

General-purpose AI only knows what you think to tell it. Que knows your organization from your profile, and its guidance is grounded in decades of nonprofit coaching and the Bonterra Network with 213K+ nonprofits and 400+ institutional funders. Every match and draft reflects your mission and what a specific funder is looking for.

What if I fall behind schedule?

The weeks are a guide, not a deadline. If Week 2 takes you three weeks, no worries. The sequence matters more than the timing.