What Funders Want to See in Your Outreach Plan

Somewhere in the requirements there is a line asking for a recruitment strategy, a dissemination plan, or a strategic marketing plan. It is usually one sentence, it is usually vague, and it is increasingly the thing that separates a funded proposal from a near miss — because a reviewer reading twenty applications can see immediately which organizations have thought about whether anyone will show up.

What the reviewer is actually asking is simpler than the phrasing suggests: do you know who this is for, do you have a credible way of reaching them, and will you be able to tell us whether it worked?

The number: state a cost per enrolled participant and a target number of participants by date. One reasoned number beats three pages of intent. If you serve 40 participants on a $200,000 program, your all-in cost per participant is $5,000, and a recruitment budget of $400 per participant is 8 percent of program cost. That is a sentence a reviewer can approve.

The five things a reviewer looks for

A named audience, described concretely. Not "underserved community members". Rather: adults aged 20 to 45 within a 60-mile radius of Gallup, most without reliable transport, reached primarily through chapter houses and tribal employment offices. Specificity signals that you have actually met these people.

A reachable channel, named. Which organizations, which publications, which events, which platforms. Reviewers discount plans that consist entirely of social media, because everybody writes that and it usually means nobody has a plan.

A number and a date. Twenty-four participants across two cohorts, applications closing six weeks before each start. Numbers make you accountable, which is precisely why they build trust.

A measurement method that exists before the program starts. Say how you will attribute enrollments to sources: an application question, tracked links, a simple source spreadsheet. Reviewers have read many final reports that could not answer basic questions.

A budget line with a rationale. Not "marketing: $8,000" but "participant recruitment: $8,000, approximately $400 per enrolled participant across 20 participants, covering printed materials, community event costs, translation and targeted digital advertising."

The words to use, and the ones to avoid

Funders react to vocabulary more than they will admit. Marketing and advertising read as overhead. Recruitment, outreach, community engagement, participant acquisition and dissemination read as program delivery, which is what they came to fund. This is not a euphemism game: those words describe the work more accurately anyway. You are not building brand awareness. You are finding the specific people the program exists for.

Avoid promising reach numbers you cannot verify — impressions, followers, "reaching 50,000 community members". Reviewers who have been around discount them, and they create reporting obligations you will regret.

The one-page plan

Eight lines. Longer is rarely better here.

1. Who — the participant, described in one specific paragraph.
2. How many, by when — the target and the dates.
3. Where they already are — the five channels or referral organizations, named.
4. What they will see — the materials and the message, in one line each.
5. The path — from first contact to enrolled: inquiry, session, application, start.
6. The budget — total and per participant.
7. How you will know — the tracking method, in one sentence.
8. What happens if it underperforms — the contingency. Including this is unusual and reviewers notice it.

Reporting so the next grant is easier

Track from the first day: source of every inquiry, conversion at each stage, cost per enrolled participant, geographic distribution, and two or three participants whose story you have permission to tell properly. Send the funder a short mid-program update they did not ask for. Program officers remember the organizations that make them look informed, and renewal decisions are made by people, not forms.

By Sascha Rossaint · Reviewed by Curtis Guild · August 2026

About the author

Sascha Rossaint

Founder & Head of Growth

Sascha owns growth at HolyOps — the strategy, systems and infrastructure that turn a mission into a business that can carry it. Former COO at Activation Products, with 15+ years building structure, teams and systems for teachers, institutes and conscious brands.

Reviewed by Curtis Guild, Partner & Head of Client Success.