According to a recent LinkedIn post from Instrumentl, the company is inviting grant professionals to participate in what it describes as a first benchmarking study on “shadow work” in grant teams. The term is used to refer to workarounds, redundant data entry, and time spent digging through email threads, and the survey is positioned as a way to quantify this hidden workload.
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The post indicates that Instrumentl expects the survey to take about seven minutes and is offering a $1,000 donation to a nonprofit chosen by one randomly selected participant. The company suggests that the resulting data may help grant teams argue for additional support, resources, and influence within their organizations, which could inform future product development and strengthen Instrumentl’s role in grant management workflows.
For investors, the initiative may signal Instrumentl’s effort to deepen engagement with its core user base and gather structured data on operational pain points in the grant sector. If leveraged effectively, such insights could underpin feature enhancements, upsell opportunities, and differentiation versus competing grant management platforms, potentially supporting long-term customer retention and pricing power.
The focus on “shadow work” also highlights ongoing inefficiencies in nonprofit and grant administration processes, suggesting a sizable addressable problem space for workflow automation tools. As the benchmarking results are published or referenced in future marketing and product strategy, they may help Instrumentl position itself as a thought leader in grant operations and increase visibility among institutional clients and nonprofit stakeholders.