Grant win rates and development benchmarks, from 4,870 applications.
Anonymized, aggregated outcomes from applications prepared in ELIXIR CONSUMERS, June 2025 to September 2026. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
- applications in the dataset
- 4,870
- applications in the dataset
- requested across all applications
- $611M
- requested across all applications
- overall win rate, decided applications
- 31.9%
- overall win rate, decided applications
- organizations contributing
- 212
- organizations contributing
- Community foundation41.8% n=1,312
- Private foundation29.4% n=1,047
- Corporate33.1% n=688
- State agency36.7% n=902
- Federal competitive22.6% n=921
Source: ELIXIR CONSUMERS customer outcomes, self-reported award decisions. Applications still pending are excluded.
What moves win rates
- Full rubric coverage. Applications with every scored sub-criterion mapped to text won at 34.8% versus 24.1% for those with one or more gaps.
- Renewal history. Repeat funders awarded at more than twice the rate of first-time asks.
- Specific need data. Need sections citing local data against a state baseline outscored generic national statistics.
Hours per application, before and after
Median team hours from first read of the solicitation to export, measured in ELIXIR CONSUMERS onboarding time logs.
| Application type | Manual | With ELIXIR CONSUMERS |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate portal application | 9.5 h | 2.5 h |
| Community foundation proposal | 18 h | 5 h |
| State agency RFP | 41 h | 12.5 h |
| Federal competitive, 20 to 40 pp | 72 h | 21 h |
| Federal progress report (SF-PPR) | 11 h | 3 h |
Cost per dollar raised
Institutional grants are among the cheapest dollars a development shop raises. Across ELIXIR CONSUMERS customers, fully loaded staff cost per dollar awarded fell from $0.17 to $0.07 once a vault was in place, with the largest drop on federal applications.
- Foundation and corporate grants
- $0.14 to $0.09
- State agency grants
- $0.19 to $0.08
- Federal competitive grants
- $0.23 to $0.06
Where federal awards draw audit findings
- Allowable costs and cost principles. Charges that fail the allowable, allocable or reasonable tests, often from unsupported personnel allocations.
- Time and effort documentation. Payroll charged to awards without records that reflect actual work, as 2 CFR 200.430 requires.
- Procurement. Purchases above the micro-purchase threshold without the competition and documentation the procurement standards require.
- Subrecipient monitoring. Missing risk assessments, unflowed award terms or no review of subrecipient audits.
- Reporting. Financial and performance reports that do not reconcile to the ledger or are filed late.
- Cash management. Drawdowns made well ahead of disbursement.
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