The Fundraising Hub is your central place for finding funding opportunities, managing your applications pipeline, and tracking funder relationships. It brings together AI-powered funder discovery, a visual pipeline for tracking prospects, and tools for writing grant applications — all in one place.
Why use the Fundraising Hub?
Discover new funders — AI searches the web and analyses results to find funders relevant to your work
Track your pipeline — Visualise all funding opportunities from early research through to submission and outcome
Manage applications — Work on grant applications with AI assistance directly from the pipeline
Stay organised — See deadlines, amounts, and stages at a glance across board, table, and calendar views
Save research time — Pippin, the AI assistant, analyses funder fit and recommends the best matches for your organisation
The Hub Overview
When you open Fundraising Hub from the sidebar, you see three entry points:
Pipeline
Takes you to the Funding Pipeline — a board view of all your funding opportunities organised by stage. Use this to track prospects you're already aware of.
Research
Takes you to Find Funders — an AI-powered search that discovers new funding opportunities based on your organisation's work.
Add Funding Opportunity
Opens a form to quickly add a funder you already know about. Enter the funder name and provide information via:
Website URL — the AI researches the funder from their website
Description — paste in details about the fund
Document upload — upload a PDF or Word document with fund information
Submitting creates a new opportunity in your pipeline and opens the application workspace.
Find Funders
Find Funders is an AI-powered research tool that searches the web to discover funding opportunities relevant to your organisation.
Step 1: Configure Your Search
Go to Fundraising Hub > Research (or Find Funders in the sidebar)
Your organisation name and focus areas are pre-filled from your profile
Optionally add custom search queries to target specific types of funding
Click Search
The AI generates multiple search queries based on your organisation's activities and runs them in parallel. Results are deduplicated and analysed to identify genuine funders.
Step 2: Curate Your List
As results come in, you'll see a list of potential funders with:
Funder name and website
A brief description of their funding focus
Whether they appear to be a good fit for your organisation
You can:
Remove funders that aren't relevant
Add manually by name if you know of a funder not in the results
Select at least one funder before proceeding
Step 3: Review and Shortlist
The review step splits into two panels:
Left — AI Analysis
Pippin analyses your shortlisted funders in detail. The AI:
Researches each funder's website and public information
Scores their fit with your organisation (High, Medium, or Low)
Explains why each funder is or isn't a good match
Suggests additional funders you might not have considered
Can offer to start an application for any funder directly from the chat
Right — Funder List
An editable list of your selected funders, grouped by fit score. For each funder you can:
View and edit details (website, application process, criteria, notes)
Click Research further for Pippin to do a deeper investigation
Click Start application to create a funding opportunity and begin working on it
Free vs Subscription
Find Funders has different limits depending on your plan:
Free users see fewer search results and can review up to 5 funders in the shortlist
Subscribed users get more search queries, larger result sets, and unlimited shortlist review
Upgrade prompts appear during the search if you're on a free plan
Funding Pipeline
The Funding Pipeline tracks all your funding opportunities from initial research through to outcome.
Pipeline Stages
Every opportunity moves through these stages:
Stage | What it means |
Target | Identified as a potential opportunity — not yet actively pursuing |
Watching | Monitoring for application deadlines or further information |
To Apply | Ready to start working on an application |
In Progress | Application is being written |
Submitted | Application has been submitted |
Successful | Funding was awarded |
Failed | Application was unsuccessful |
Views
The pipeline offers three ways to view your opportunities:
Board View — A Kanban-style board with columns for each stage. Drag and drop cards between columns to update their stage. Each card shows the funder name, amount, and key details.
Table View — A sortable, filterable list of all opportunities. Click on any row to open its details. Useful for managing larger numbers of opportunities.
Calendar View — A deadline-focused view showing when applications are due. Helps you plan your workload and avoid missing deadlines.
Managing Opportunities
Adding an opportunity:
From the pipeline, click Add Opportunity
Fill in the funder details, grant amount range, deadline, and any supporting documents
Click Create — the opportunity opens in a new tab
Editing an opportunity:
Click on any card or row to open the details drawer
Update fields as needed — name, stage, amounts, deadline, notes
Changes save automatically
Filtering:
Use the filter bar to narrow by:
Assignee — who's responsible for this opportunity
Grant amount — minimum and maximum values
The Application Workspace
When you open an opportunity (by clicking its title or the Start button), you enter the application workspace. This provides:
Chat interface — Pippin helps you work on the application with AI assistance
Application tabs — Overview, eligibility check, application form, expenditure planning, and contact details
Drafting tools — Write and refine application answers with AI support
Manage Funders
Manage Funders (accessible from the sidebar) is a separate but related feature that tracks your existing funder relationships and grants.
It shows two tabs:
Grants — A dashboard of grants you've received or are managing — your funding from the grantee perspective.
Funders — A grid view of the funder organisations you work with, showing your relationship history and current grants.
Manage Funders | Funding Pipeline |
Tracks existing relationships and awarded grants | Tracks prospects and applications in progress |
Backward-looking — what you've received | Forward-looking — what you're pursuing |
Organised by funder organisation | Organised by opportunity stage |
Related Features
The Fundraising Hub connects to several other features in Plinth:
AI Grant Writer — The standalone AI Writing tool (accessible from the sidebar) helps you write grant applications from scratch. Import questions from a funder's application form, get AI assistance writing answers, and check eligibility before investing time in an application.
Website Review — Analyses your organisation's website and scores it against categories that funders care about. Use it to identify strengths and weaknesses in how you present your work online.
Best Practices
Start with research
Even if you already know some funders, running a Find Funders search can uncover opportunities you weren't aware of. The AI searches beyond the obvious sources.
Keep your pipeline current
Update opportunity stages as things progress. An accurate pipeline helps you plan workload, track deadlines, and report on fundraising activity.
Use Pippin's analysis
The AI's fit scoring is based on real research into each funder's priorities. Pay attention to Low-fit assessments — they can save you time on applications unlikely to succeed.
Track everything, even failures
Moving unsuccessful applications to the Failed stage (rather than deleting them) preserves your research and helps you avoid re-applying to unsuitable funders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a subscription to use Find Funders?
The basic search works on all plans, but with reduced results. A subscription unlocks more search queries, larger result sets, and full shortlist review.
Can multiple people work on the same pipeline?
Yes. The pipeline is shared across your organisation. Assign opportunities to specific team members using the assignee field.
How does the AI know what funders are relevant to us?
It uses your organisation's name, activities, and focus areas (from your profile) to generate targeted search queries. Adding custom search terms helps refine results further.
Can I add a funder manually without using the search?
Yes. Use the Add Funding Opportunity button on the hub page or the pipeline, and enter the funder details directly.
Is the Funding Pipeline the same as Manage Funders?
No. The Pipeline tracks prospective opportunities and applications in progress. Manage Funders tracks existing relationships and awarded grants. They complement each other.