Case Study
Life Skills for Youth
New Strategies & Systems Built to Scale
$955,652 in funding raised — with new strategies and systems built to scale
The Client
Life Skills for Youth (LSY) has been mentoring, tutoring, and feeding kids in southwest Little Rock since 2007. LSY serves over 300 K–12 students annually through afterschool and summer programs, including its signature ATM (Anger, Time, and Money) Management Program. Its results speak for themselves: a 98% high school graduation rate among participants, a 50% reduction in disciplinary incidents at partner schools, and more than 4,000 youth served over 18 years.
The Challenge
LSY's programs already had strong outcomes. But the organization's leadership knew that to serve the growing waiting list of families, expand into new schools, and launch a capital campaign for its first permanent facility, they needed a more systematic approach to grant funding. They brought in Lightmaker in March 2024 to build the strategy and infrastructure to match their ambitions.
The Solution
We partnered with LSY to professionalize every stage of the grant lifecycle — strategy, writing, budgets, reporting, and systems.
We analyzed each funder's priorities and scoring criteria before writing a word, tailoring proposals to speak each funder's language rather than submitting one-size-fits-all applications. For grants that hadn't been funded in prior cycles, we identified what was missing and rebuilt submissions from the ground up — converting previous denials into funded awards.
We built multi-year program budgets, ensured narrative and financial documents were fully aligned, and conducted pre-submission reviews to catch weaknesses and continuously improve with each new application. We managed reporting for multiple funders to maintain renewal eligibility and strengthen relationships with funders.
And we built the funding infrastructure — grant calendar, document library, tracking systems, and updated public profiles — to support a growing portfolio of funders and position LSY for its $34 million capital campaign.
The Results
$955,652 in funding raised since March 2024
Previously unfunded grants converted to awards through strategic proposal overhauls
Scalable grant systems in place to support continued growth and a major capital campaign
Hundreds of children and families directly impacted in a community where per capita income is $16,900 and juvenile crime rates are among the highest in the state