Building a Prospect Table You Can Act On

You’ve discovered funders, evaluated their fit, and enriched the promising ones. Now you need a structure that turns all of that intelligence into action. A prospect table is that structure — the working surface where you decide what to pursue, when, and how.

What Makes a Prospect Table Work

The difference between a useful prospect table and a graveyard of funder names is whether the table drives decisions. A good prospect table tells you at a glance:

Who's in your pipeline

Every funder you've evaluated and decided to track — whether you're actively pursuing them, watching for the right moment, or holding them for a future cycle.

Where each prospect stands

Is this a new discovery? Have you done a deep evaluation? Are you waiting for a deadline? Have you submitted? Status tells you what needs attention.

What to do next

The most useful prospect tables don't just track — they prompt action. Which deadlines are approaching? Which funders need follow-up? Which prospects have been sitting untouched for too long?

How strong the pipeline is

How much potential funding is in your pipeline? How diversified is it? Where are the gaps — program areas with no prospects, or too much concentration in a few funders?

The Fields That Actually Matter

Prospect tables tend to grow columns over time until nobody can parse them. Keep it focused on the fields that drive decisions:

Essential fields: Funder name, fit score or assessment, status (new / researching / ready to apply / applied / awarded / declined), estimated grant amount, next deadline, program area.

Valuable fields: Geographic scope, grant type (project / GOS / capacity), contact information, relationship notes, last interaction date.

Skip these: Fields you never update (they clutter the table) and derived metrics you never look at (total pipeline value is useful; weighted probability scores rarely are, unless you have enough data to make them meaningful).

Pro tip

A prospect table with six well-maintained columns beats one with twenty columns where half are empty. The test is: can you scan the table in 30 seconds and know what needs your attention this week?

Status as a Workflow Engine

The most powerful thing in a prospect table is the status field — because status drives workflow. When you can see that you have eight funders in “researching” and only one in “ready to apply,” you know where to focus. When you see a funder that’s been “new” for three months, you know it’s time to evaluate or remove it.

A simple status progression:

Discovered

AI surfaced this funder. You haven't evaluated it yet.

Evaluating

You're investigating fit. Reading the enriched profile, checking eligibility, assessing timing.

Qualified

Good fit confirmed. You intend to apply when the timing is right.

Active

You're working on the application — drafting, gathering materials, preparing to submit.

Submitted

Application sent. Waiting for a response.

Declined / Archived

Not pursuing — either by your choice (poor fit) or theirs (rejected). Archive with notes for future reference.

From Table to Pipeline

A prospect table becomes a pipeline when it’s actively managed — when you use it to plan your week, allocate your team’s time, and make strategic decisions about where to invest effort.

The value of a prospect table isn’t in recording what you’ve found — it’s in surfacing what needs your attention right now. If you have to hunt through the table to figure out what to work on, the table isn’t working hard enough.

In Grantable

In Grantable, prospect tables are built from the files in your /Prospecting folder. When you run a prospecting search, the AI creates funder briefs as documents and sets metadata on each one — funder name, status, fit assessment. These show up in your dashboard automatically. You can view them as a sortable list, a kanban board, or a calendar. Update any field inline, or tell the AI: “move this prospect to qualified” and it updates the metadata. The prospect table is a live view of your workspace, not a separate database to maintain.

Maintaining the Table Over Time

A prospect table rots if you don’t maintain it. Set a rhythm:

Weekly: Scan for approaching deadlines, stale prospects, and status bottlenecks.
Monthly: Review the pipeline as a whole. Are you diversified enough? Are there program areas with no prospects? Too many funders in “evaluating” and not enough in “active”?
Per cycle: After a funding cycle ends, archive completed entries and assess what worked. Which prospect sources produced the best matches? Which funders came through?

Check your understanding

Your prospect table has 35 funders. Twelve are in 'Discovered' status from three months ago. Eight are 'Evaluating.' Five are 'Active.' Ten are 'Archived.' What should you do first?

Key Takeaways

A good prospect table drives decisions — you should be able to scan it in 30 seconds and know what needs attention
Keep fields focused on what drives action: status, fit assessment, deadline, next step
Status is a workflow engine — it shows where prospects are stuck and where to focus effort
Maintain the table weekly, review the pipeline monthly, and assess results per funding cycle

Next Module

You’ve built a system for discovering and organizing funders. The next module takes you deeper into evaluation — how to use AI for strategic fit assessment, opportunity briefs, and go/no-go decisions that keep your pipeline focused on the right targets.