For Canadian charities · Beta this winter
Work that builds on itself. Knowledge that stays. More time for the mission.
Your team walks into every application and report prepared, with past answers, program numbers and funder history ready and a first draft waiting for review. Less digging, calmer deadlines.
- Stored in Canada
- English and French
- Built by a Canadian grant writer
Example screen. The charity and funders are fictional.
Every report means chasing numbers and photos from three people.
Every application starts with hunting for the version you sent last year.
Every time someone leaves, their funder relationships go with them.
How it fits together
Sugarbush does the legwork at every stage
At each stage, the work you do adds to what Sugarbush can prepare for you next time. Tap a stage to see it.
Inside Sugarbush
See each part
Start every application from your strongest past work
- Funder questions saved word for word for next year
- A plan for each answer, with the source of every fact
- Drafts in your voice. Missing facts come back to you as questions
How it works
- Pipeline
- Every grant on one board, from not started to reporting due.
- Fit check
- How your project fits, a suggested ask range and eligibility flags.
- Submit your way
- A checklist, optional ED sign-off and a copy button for every portal field.
- Question saved from last year
- Every fact shows its source
- A gap becomes a question for you
Know every funder before you pick up the phone
- What they fund, typical grant sizes and the words they use
- Your full history together, with notes anyone on your team can read
- Thank-yous, recognition and report dates, tracked after every award
How it works
- Research that starts itself
- Add a funder’s website and Sugarbush reads it. For Canadian foundations, it guides you through their CRA giving history.
- Stewardship
- Tasks for what each funder expects, with announcement embargo dates.
- Everything about Harbour in one place
- History carries over when staff change
- Obligations after the award
Your program numbers, organized once
- Upload the de-identified spreadsheets you already keep
- Measures defined in your own words and recalculated each upload
- Changed numbers are flagged for you, never overwritten
How it works
- Participant IDs
- A tool creates IDs on your computer. The name list never leaves your office.
- Photos and stories
- Tagged by program and funder, with consent recorded.
- Your definition, confirmed
- Counts update with each upload
- 3 changes waiting for your review
Give each funder exactly what they asked for
- Filter by funder, region, age group or dates, and save the view
- What you promised sits next to what you delivered
- Export to PowerPoint or Canva, or copy into their portal
How it works
- Annual report
- Year in numbers and year-on-year comparisons from the same data.
- Website widget
- Show the totals you choose on your own site.
- Filtered to Harbour’s grant
- Promise and result side by side
- Photos cleared for use
See what’s working, and plan the next ask
- Secured, pending and renewals by your fiscal year
- Success rates by funder and program, from your own history
- Funders worth reconnecting with, and when to reapply
How it works
- Honest numbers
- Calculated from what has already happened. Pending requests are weighted by your own track record.
- Where funding stands today
- Your own track record
- Who to talk to next
Example screens. The charity and funders are fictional.
You stay in charge
It prepares the work. Your team makes the decisions.
- Drafts use your own applications, data and notes
- Missing facts come back to you as questions
- You approve, edit and submit everything
How drafting works
Before anything is written, each question gets a short plan: what it’s really asking, the point to make and the facts to use, each with its source. You approve the plan, then the draft follows it. If a fact isn’t in your records, the plan shows a gap for you to fill instead of a guess.
Data and privacy
Straight answers for your board
What does the AI do, and what doesn’t it do?
It drafts from your own applications and data, and flags gaps as questions. You review and approve everything. It never submits anything.
What does the AI see?
Only what one task needs. Emails, phone numbers, postal codes and ID-like numbers are removed from documents first. That drafting step may be processed outside Canada.
Who on our team can see participant data?
Only the people you allow. Everyone else sees totals.
What happens if we leave?
Export everything you’ve added or created, any time, in formats you can open without Sugarbush.
Compared
How it differs from what you use now
| Sugarbush | Spreadsheets and folders | General AI chat tools | Grant databases | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starts drafts from your past applications | ✓ | – | – | – |
| Funder history and notes your whole team can see | ✓ | With effort | – | With effort |
| Program data filtered for each funder | ✓ | With effort | – | – |
| Photos and stories with consent on record | ✓ | – | – | – |
| Renewals, success rates and what’s working | ✓ | With effort | – | – |
| Finds new funders | – | – | – | ✓ |
| Data stored in Canada | ✓ | With effort | – | – |
Sugarbush doesn’t find new funders. It helps you work with the ones you choose.
Founding group · this winter
Help shape Sugarbush
A small group of Canadian charities, each set up one-on-one.
First month free, no obligation
then $50 a month
Standard plan, locked in for as long as you stay. Planned at $150 a month after launch. Stop any time and take your data.
Become a beta tester- Email meA few short questions about your charity
- Set up togetherWe bring in your past work, one-on-one
- Use it for a monthOn a real application or report
- DecideKeep going at $50, or export and go
What I’ll ask of founding charities
Use Sugarbush on real work for at least a month, tell me honestly what’s slow or missing, and join a short check-in every few weeks. In return you get a direct line to me and a real say in what gets built next.
Who’s building this
Hi, I’m Erin.
I spent more than ten years in research, writing grants and papers, before starting my consulting practice in Toronto. Now I help Canadian nonprofits with grant writing, program evaluation and showing funders their results.
With every charity I work with, most of the time goes into finding things: last year’s numbers, the application that got funded, what the program officer said. Sugarbush is the tool I wanted for that part of the job.
Erin Shellington, PhD · Founder, Erin Shellington Consulting Inc.
Questions
Will Sugarbush help us get more grants?
I can’t promise that. Funders decide. Sugarbush gives you more time and stronger, more specific material for every application and report.
Does it replace our grant writer?
No. It takes on the gathering and first drafts so your writer can focus on judgement: which funder, what ask, which story.
Do we need lots of history to start?
No. Start with what you have. Every application and report adds to the record.
Do we have to use Google Drive?
No. Upload files directly, or connect Drive and pick only the files you want.
Is it available in French?
Sugarbush is being built in English and French.
What will it cost after the beta?
Public plans will be set with the founding group. Current plans are $75, $150 and $200 a month (CAD), sized by how many funding priorities you work on. Founding charities keep $50 a month.
Claim one of the founding spots this winter
First month free, no obligation. I’ll set you up one-on-one, and your feedback shapes what Sugarbush becomes.
Become a beta testerClicking opens a short email, already drafted for you. Or write to [email protected]
Why “Sugarbush”?
Named for a Canadian maple forest
A sugarbush is a stand of maple trees tapped each spring. Every tree gives a little sap. Lines carry it to one place, where it is boiled down into syrup: about 40 litres of sap for every litre of syrup.
- The trees
- Your charity’s scattered work: past applications, funder history, program data, photos and stories.
- The sap lines
- Sugarbush gathering it all into one place, instead of in inboxes, drives and people’s heads.
- The syrup
- What comes out: a focused application or report, drawn from everything you already have.
- Every spring
- The same trees give again. Each year’s work adds to the record, and the next season is easier.