The Major Grants Roadmap

A three-month course designed to unlock the unwritten rules of major foundation funding

Fall 2025 cohort now enrolling - Early bird pricing available through August 8

You might be drawn to foundations because your organization is strained by government cuts. Or, perhaps you’re determined to be among your peer nonprofits securing large private grants.

The path to these prized awards is murky.

The Major Grants Roadmap is a course that exposes how organizations step into their most valuable foundation partnerships.

It mixes cohort learning with 1:1 deep dives, guided by a fellow grant seeker who has spent a career securing awards from the largest foundations. The content emphasizes funder relationships, core tools, and a strategic request.

There is a wave of nonprofits approaching independent, family, and corporate funders. If you wait to level up, you stand to watch others secure grants that philanthropies are required to disperse each year.

Someone will lock down that funding. Why not you?

The approach to shifting to a major grants mindset and the trajectory to develop that was eye-opening for me.

— Workshop participant

Learn with peers + privately

This virtual course brings together development directors, grant professionals, chief executives, strategy heads, and program leads who want to:

  • Grow to six- and seven-figure foundation awards

  • Build relationships with previously inaccessible or stealthy funders

  • Create a growing major grants pipeline 

Over 12 weeks, the course will toggle between peer and private learning:

Cohort Learning

Six live, 90-minute group sessions, including Q&A and peer insights

Private Coaching

Six, 60-minute deep dives to discuss your organization-specific issues

Resources

Access to email support, customizable templates, and course materials

 
 

Propel your ability to

stand out

Content is designed to answer your most pressing questions:

  • What can you do to get the attention of foundation staff?

  • What does it take to engage with funders that don’t accept unsolicited proposals?

  • Is my organization presenting an investible opportunity?

  • What does a sophisticated project budget look like?

  • How can you best use time during a 30-minute funder meeting?

  • What do foundations most want to see in their applicants right now?

  • How can you stand out among an increasingly crowded applicant pool?

 

Gain insider knowledge

The Major Grants Roadmap is a rare chance to delve into topics that aren’t found in books or traditional training programs:

  • Offers a rare opportunity to focus on major foundation grants

  • Provides real case studies of the path to six- and seven-figure awards

  • Recommends tactics and questions that build bonds with funders

  • Includes personalized feedback on your specific foundation targets

  • Builds a holistic strategy rather than a focus on proposal writing

 
 

Travel with an experienced guide

Susan Schaefer has spent a career securing major grants from the nation's largest foundations. She writes the popular Substack series, Major Grants, and appears regularly in industry publications and at conferences. She has written and contributed to multiple books for the sector and has served as adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.

The Major Grants Roadmap represents more than 25 years of experience as a consultant and front-line grant seeker.

 

The Major Grants Roadmap was catalytic for my nonprofit leadership journey. Susan created an intimate learning environment that alternated between group discussions and personalized coaching. Her extensive experience working with diverse organizations, coupled with her positive outlook and generous knowledge-sharing, made the program exceptionally valuable. Thanks to Susan's guidance, I feel reinvigorated and significantly better equipped to develop and implement a serious fundraising strategy with my team. Her program provided exactly the structure, expertise, and encouragement I needed to take our development efforts to the next level.

- Erika Gregory, President, Horizon 2045

Explore a rare curriculum

Go beyond the basics

Major grants require that you move from a focus on applications to strategy. The Major Grants Roadmap details six steps that will help you, your colleagues, and board members create a journey that funders are eager to travel.

This is not a grant writing course. It’s designed for nonprofit employees who have seen success with modest or mid-sized foundation grants and want to do more.

The course will delve into the most challenging angles of foundation partnerships:

① Relationships that break through the noise

  • Get funders’ attention

  • Build and maximize your network

  • Discover funders’ unwritten rules

② Plans that inspire

  • Showcase an investible path

  • Impress with your budget

  • Redefine sustainability and lean into it

③ Narratives that resonate

  • Deliver a stand-out message

  • Reimagine stories for timely impact

  • Leverage platforms that deliver visibility

④ Partnerships that build synergy

  • Overcome the funder power dynamic

  • Create mutual value propositions

  • Establish yourself as more than a grantee

⑤ Strategies that grow momentum

  • Build credibility with funders

  • Allow stealthy funders to find your organization

  • Create cascading opportunities for expanded support

⑥ Initiatives that excite your investors

  • Inspire trust in your work

  • Maximize your organization’s advantages

  • Learn to decode funders’ unwritten rules

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The next cohort begins the week of September 15, 2025.

  • The group will meet for 90-minute sessions during odd-numbered weeks.

    The specific day and time will be determined based on participant availability, determined during enrollment.

  • Private coaching sessions will take place during even-numbered weeks. Each participating organization will provide preferred time slots for their 60-minute sessions. 

  • Ideal attendees include development directors, grant professionals, chief executives, strategy heads, and program leads who have secured multiple five-figure grants or low six-figure awards and strive to achieve six- or seven-figure awards from US-based foundations. Participants will also benefit when they have secured six-figure grants and have seen upward progress plateau.

  • The cohort is limited to 12 organizations.

  • Organizations may send up to two people to participate. 

    Include a note in your application if your core grants team includes more than two staff members.

  • Yes, participants may submit relevant email-based questions during the duration of the course.

  • Group learning sessions will be recorded for those who cannot attend, though live participation maximizes interaction and benefit.

  • The course costs $3,995 per organization. Early bird registration includes a 30% discount and runs through August 8, 2025.

    This investment includes training to secure your nonprofit’s largest private grants, review of your core strategies and tactics, input on your current messaging, templates to use at each stage of the process, and private discussions about your most promising funders.

  • There is no required homework.

    Some participants build out the templates and knowledge gained in the group learning for discussion during their private coaching sessions. Others prefer to discuss timely grants issues during the private coaching sessions. Either approach is fine.

  • Yes. We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee with full refund available within 30 days of the course start date if participants choose not to continue.

 

Why this content matters

Modest grants rely on foundation guidelines.

Major grants hinge on unwritten expectations.

The Major Grants Roadmap will help you develop strategies for long-term success. Its content is based on powerful trends in a competitive environment:

  • Over a third, 35%, of grant making dollars come from .1% of foundations. Even outside of that top tier, the average grant was nearly $98,000 in 2022 (“Dollars and Change,” Candid et al., 2024). Your success increasingly hinges on large funders and major grants.

  • Nonprofits are flocking to private sources of funding as government grants become unreliable.

  • Grants from known foundations let future investors know that your organization has been vetted and approved by a recognized brand.

  • You often get one shot with the biggest foundations. When you get that returned message from your ideal funder, you want to be ready.

 

Top notch presenter.

— Workshop participant

 

Limited spots available for the fall 2025 cohort

Space is limited to ensure personalized attention. Fill out an application to secure your spot in this first-come, first-served experience.

Early bird pricing available through August 8, 2025.

Have questions or want to chat? Need a detailed rationale to justify this investment to your board or boss? Send a note to susan@ResourcePartnersOnline.com