The Canvas CoachHabib Onifade
Score your organisation

Grant-to-Commercial Viability Canvas

The grant will end. The question is what you are selling when it does.

Most organisations facing that deadline write a better proposal. The ones that get out do something harder: they find out which of their services somebody would actually pay for, what those services cost to deliver, and who holds the budget. Nine decisions, in order, each one closed on evidence.

Score your organisation in two minutesSee the nine decisions

A grant pays you to deliver. A client pays you to solve something. Those are different businesses, and most organisations discover the difference in the last six months of funding, which is the worst possible time to find out.

The work is not marketing and it is not a new proposal. It is finding out which of your services survives contact with somebody holding a budget — and being willing to stop the ones that do not.

Nine decisions, in the order they have to be taken

Each one asks a single question, produces a specific output, and does not close until there is evidence behind it and a signature on it. No decision opens until the one before it has closed — and the engagement can be stopped at any of them.

Grant-to-Commercial Viability Canvas™
Nine decisions, in order, each closed on evidence and signed before the next one opens
The method
The Canvas Coach · habibonifade.com
← Internal capability
Connecting layer
External market →
Decision Point 1Internal

Service Reality Audit

“What do we actually deliver, versus what we think we deliver?”

  • Separate grant-logic services from market-logic services
  • Identify which services have genuine demand vs donor-driven supply
  • Surface hidden delivery costs and capability constraints
  • Name what must stop, pause, or be redesigned before packaging
Problem-Provider Fit
Decision Point 2Connecting centre

Customer & Problem Clarity

“Who owns this problem, and will they pay to solve it?”

  • Identify the paying customer with budget responsibility
  • Test problem urgency, not just acknowledgement of the issue
  • Separate donor-as-funder from client-as-customer
  • Apply Three-Stage Adoption Test: willing to able to prioritised
Problem-Solution Fit
Decision Point 3External

Value Proposition Architecture

“Why does this matter to this specific client, in their language?”

  • Move from "what we do" to "why it matters" for this client
  • Articulate differentiation from competitors clearly
  • Build credibility signals and institutional trust architecture
  • Test the proposition directly with real institutional clients
Solution-Problem Owner Fit
Decision Point 4Internal

Commercial Viability Model

“What does it cost to deliver, and what must clients pay for this to survive?”

  • Map full cost structure including hidden delivery costs
  • Explore pricing models: fee-for-service, retainer, tiered packages
  • Break-even, ROI, and sustainability threshold analysis
  • Build a model a non-technical person can own and update
Financial Sustainability · ClearView
Decision Point 6Threshold

Organisational Identity & Partner Architecture

“What type of commercial entity are we becoming, and who do we partner with as that entity?”

  • Define identity: specialist firm, training provider, systems integrator
  • Internal identity determines external negotiating position
  • Map partner types: referral, co-delivery, endorsement, consortium
  • Identify relationships that amplify vs compromise positioning
Identity + Partnership
Decision Point 5External

Market Entry Design

“Which clients do we pursue first, and how do we reach them?”

  • Segment and prioritise institutional client targets
  • Define outreach channels and engagement sequence
  • Co-create promotional materials and client-facing messaging
  • A/B test communication approaches with real client segments
Solution-Market Fit
Transition row · where the model is tested with real customers, then extended
Decision Point 7Transition

Pilot & Learn Architecture

“What does success look like at small scale, before committing to full delivery?”

  • Iteration 1: Consultant-led, coach observes and adjusts with the organisation in real time
  • Iteration 2: Organisation-led, coach backstops, organisation takes full ownership of delivery
  • Document lessons from both rounds, revise service bundles accordingly
  • Define what must be true before scaling to the wider market
Solution-Pilot Fit
Decision Point 8Transition

Scale & Expansion Pathway

“Where does this go after the engagement, and what infrastructure enables it?”

  • Identify entry-point clients vs scale-pathway client segments
  • Define investment or infrastructure that unlocks the next growth stage
  • Regional pathway, from national to multi-country relevance
  • Design the pilot to generate evidence the scale pathway requires
Solution-Scale Channel Fit
Decision Point 9 Diagnostic spine · full width · kick-off · mid-point · close

Commercial Readiness Diagnostic

“Where does this organisation sit on the journey from grant-dependency to commercial viability, right now?”

Grant-dependentCommercially awareMarket-readyCommercially viable
Fit 01
Problem-Provider Fit
Do we have the capability and credibility to own this problem in this market?
Fit 02
Problem-Solution Fit
Does the service solve the problem as the client experiences it, not as we describe it?
Fit 03
Solution-Problem Owner Fit
Is it designed to reach a decision-maker with budget, not the client without it?
Fit 04
Solution-Pilot Fit
Is the service testable in a real client environment within the engagement timeline?
Fit 05
Solution-Market Fit
Is there willingness to pay at a price that covers full delivery cost?
Fit 06
Solution-Scale Channel Fit
Are there channels and partnerships to carry this beyond the founding clients?

Where does your organisation actually stand?

Ten questions — the same ten asked in the first session of a real engagement. Answer honestly; a low score is more useful than a flattering one, because it tells you which decision your work starts at. You get the score and the gaps by email.

0 of 10 answered

We know who our paying customers are (not just clients)
We have had direct conversations with at least 3 potential paying customers in the last 6 months
We can describe what problem we solve for a paying customer in one sentence
We have a price for at least one service
We know what it costs us to deliver our main service
We have at least one staff member who can lead business development
Our leadership team supports moving towards commercial revenue
We have time allocated for commercial viability work in the next 6 months
We are willing to test our services with real paying clients during this engagement
We understand that the goal is financial independence, not more grant funding

Unanswered questions count as a no. Your address goes on the newsletter list and nowhere else, every email has an unsubscribe link, and the list is never shared or sold.

Where the thinking gets published

The method did not come from a book. It came from working with organisations trying to make this exact transition, and what is learned goes out as it happens.

Grant-to-Commercial Viability Canvas™ · Habib Onifade · The Canvas Coach

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