A grant writer working for several clients

Follow Northgate Grant Partners, a two-person consultancy, as it runs grant work for a community theatre and a food pantry from one agency workspace.

7 min
Agency plan

Screens from October 2026

Sam Okafor owns Northgate Grant Partners, and Jess Lindqvist works with him. Their clients are Lanternfield Community Theatre and Saltmarsh Pantry Collective, which runs a weekly pantry and a mobile market in Bellingham, Washington. Each client keeps its own workspace. Northgate's agency workspace sits above them.

The Agency plan

You can set up an agency workspace and link clients on Free. Inviting staff, and Team features in the clients an agency covers, need the Agency plan. See Agency billing.

Setting up the agency

Sam already works in the theatre's workspace, where Dana Whitfield invited him as an admin. From All workspaces, he selects Set up your agency and enters the agency's name. Under Clients to bring in, he picks the theatre, then selects Create agency workspace. The new workspace's sidebar has Clients, Pipeline, Calendar and Library. See Set up an agency workspace.

Set up your agency, with Northgate Grant Partners typed as the agency name, the Create agency workspace button, and five things an agency workspace adds. — Naming the agency. Clients see the name on their exports. Example workspace · fictional data

Adding a client

The pantry is new to GrantFlex, so Sam selects Add a client on Clients and enters its name. He owns the new client workspace, and setup carries on from the pantry's funding goals, starting with a refrigerated van for the mobile market.

Clients shows both, with who pays for each plan. The pantry is Covered by your agency plan. The theatre keeps paying for its own Team plan, so it shows Client’s own plan. Each row also gives the client's open asks, its next funder date and any overdue work. See Agency billing.

The Clients page of Northgate Grant Partners: totals for clients, open asks, dates due in the next two weeks and overdue work, then each client with its plan coverage, next date, Staff access, Stop managing and Open. — Northgate's Clients page, with the client that needs attention first. Example workspace · fictional data

Giving Jess access

Jess is an editor in the agency workspace, so she doesn't need an invitation to each client. On Clients, Sam selects Staff access on a client's row, chooses Editor for Jess and selects Give access. She can open the client straight away. See Staff access and seats.

Staff access to Saltmarsh Pantry Collective: Jess Lindqvist, an editor in the agency, is an Editor here, and Sam Okafor, the agency's owner, is the Owner here. — Staff access to the pantry: Jess is an editor there, and Sam is its owner. Example workspace · fictional data

In the pantry, which the agency's plan covers, Jess's staff access doesn't use a member seat. In the theatre, which pays for its own plan, she uses one of its Team seats, like any other member.

One pipeline, one calendar

Sam and Jess follow both clients from the agency workspace. Its Pipeline lists both clients' funding records, each tagged with its client. Filtered to Awaiting decision, it shows the theatre's letter of inquiry to Proscenium Fund for Small Stages, its Community Stages request and the pantry's sponsorship request to Bayhaven Power & Light.

The agency's Pipeline filtered to Awaiting decision: the client and stage filters, the Open asks, Weighted forecast and Secured totals, and three records from both clients, each tagged with its client. — Requests from both clients that are waiting on a funder. Example workspace · fictional data

Calendar lists both clients' dates for the next 30, 60 or 90 days, with overdue work first. Jess's task to ask Tamarack Shore Credit Union for a sponsorship packet is a day late. The pantry's Basic Needs Fund application to Alderglen Community Foundation is due in about ten days. To change anything, they open it in its client's workspace. See Combined pipeline and calendar.

The agency's Calendar for the next 30 days: overdue tasks from both clients first, then what's due today and later this week, each tagged with its client. — The next 30 days across both clients, starting with what's overdue. Example workspace · fictional data

Language they reuse

Northgate keeps the language it uses for every client in its agency library: an evaluation approach for small programs, the team's bios and standard partnership terms. In a client's proposal, the section editor's Library has a Client library tab and an Agency library tab, so Jess can insert an agency entry and adapt it to the funder's question.

The Agency library with three entries, for partnership language, team bios and an evaluation approach, each with its category, use count and Edit button. — Northgate's library, with three entries its staff reuse. Example workspace · fictional data

Before Jess saves a section to the agency library, she takes out names, figures and anything else that belongs to one client, since staff reuse it for every client. See Agency library and branding.

Exports that carry the agency's name

In Agency profile and branding, Sam sets the name, website and footer line that client exports carry, and leaves Show on client exports on. While the theatre and the pantry are linked, their board reports, proposal Word files and ZIP packages say they were prepared by Northgate Grant Partners. See Board summary and board report.

The preview shows the credit as client exports print it. Example workspace · fictional data

Handing a client over

When the pantry is ready to run its own workspace, Sam can hand it over. It has no members of its own yet, so its Agency card in Settings asks him to invite someone from the pantry first, with Invite a member.

The Agency card in Saltmarsh Pantry Collective's Settings: managed by Northgate Grant Partners, a note to invite someone from the client before handing it over, Open Northgate Grant Partners and Stop managing. — The Agency card in the pantry's Settings. Example workspace · fictional data

Once that person has joined, Sam selects Hand over to client, makes them the owner and decides whether he and Jess keep access. The pantry keeps all of its data, and its own plan applies from then on. See Hand a client over or leave.