Important note: This article is general educational information, not fundraising, legal, accounting, or grant-writing advice. Verify every requirement directly with the funder, and have a person review anything drafted with AI before it is submitted.
Most people who try this expect a download. They look for a file, a folder, or a terminal command, and when none of that appears they assume they are on the wrong page. There is nothing to download. A Skill is a set of instructions you save once, and adding one is a copy and a paste.
After you save it, Claude reads those instructions every time they are relevant. You stop re-explaining your organization, and what a needs statement is, at the start of every proposal.
Below is the whole thing, click by click, using a real publicly listed Skill as the worked example — and, just as important, how to check that Skill before you trust it.
The short version
- There is no file, no zip, and no terminal. You copy text and paste it into a settings box.
- One setting has to be on: Code execution and file creation, under Capabilities.
- Read the Skill’s description, last-update date, and license before you install it.
- The instructions are plain text. Read them — you are about to let them run on your work.
- You never type the Skill’s name in a chat. Claude reaches for it on its own.
Watch: the whole thing in five minutes
5-minute walkthrough
No file, no zip, no terminal.
The steps, in writing
Everything below works on a Claude Pro plan. All of it happens in your browser.
- Go to claudeskills.info. It is a public list of Claude Skills, free to browse, no account needed. The boxes across the middle are ads — skip them.
- Search for: grant proposal builder. One result comes back. Open it.
- Read two things before you install anything. The description, right under the name — what the Skill actually knows. And the small box on the right — stars, last update, license. A recent date means nobody abandoned it. An MIT license means you are allowed to use it.
- Get the Skill’s text. Scroll down that same page: under the install commands, the whole Skill is printed out. Click at the very top of it, hold the button down, drag to the bottom, and copy — Command C on a Mac, Control C on Windows. The same words are also on GitHub, where there is a copy button at the far right of the file header. See the note below on which one carries the two header lines.
- Open Claude. Bottom left, click your name, then Settings, then Capabilities. Scroll down to “Code execution and file creation” and turn it on. Underneath it says “required for skills.” That is the only setting in this whole walkthrough.
- Still in Settings, click Skills on the left. Top right, click Add, then take the middle option: Write skill instructions. Three boxes open. Instructions (the big one at the bottom) — paste everything you copied. Skill name —
grant-proposal-builder. Description — the description line for this Skill. This is how Claude decides when to reach for it, so do not leave it vague. - Click Create. The window closes and a new row appears at the top of your Skills list. That is the install. No file. No folder. No zip.
- Open a new chat and ask in plain words, for example: “I am preparing a proposal for a youth arts program. Help me build the needs statement.” You never type the Skill’s name. Claude picks it up on its own. Look for “Used a skill” above the answer, and the Skill listed on the right.
A note on steps 4 and 6
The Skill’s page prints the instructions, but it prints them rendered, so the two header lines are not shown. If you copy from that page, your paste begins at “Grant Proposal Builder” and there is no first line saying name.
That is fine. The Skill still works. You fill the two small boxes in yourself — the skill name is grant-proposal-builder, and the description is the Skill’s own description line, which reads: “Nonprofit and research grant proposal assembly with structured sections, budget templates, and evaluation alignment. Use when writing grant proposals, funding applications, or research funding requests.”
If you use the copy button on GitHub instead, those two lines are already at the top of what you paste, and you can read them straight off the screen. Checked 2026-08-22.
About the example
We use one Skill as a worked example. That is not an endorsement. Before you add any Skill, do what the walkthrough does: read the description, check the last update and the license, and read the instructions themselves. They are plain text — read them before you trust them.
The star count, last-update date, and license shown in the walkthrough were observed on 2026-08-21 and change over time. Anthropic publishes its own security guidance for Agent Skills; read it before installing anything you did not write.
Links used in this walkthrough
Every link below was checked on 2026-09-01.
- The Skill’s page — grant-proposal-builder on claudeskills.info
- The same file on GitHub, MIT licensed, with a copy button at the top right — SKILL.md on github.com
- Anthropic’s documentation on Agent Skills, including security guidance — Agent Skills overview on platform.claude.com
Frequently asked questions
The walkthrough above was done on a Claude Pro plan. Plan availability changes, so check the current plan comparison on Anthropic’s own site rather than relying on this article.
No. A document sits in one conversation. A Skill is saved to your account, and Claude reads it in any chat where it is relevant, without you attaching anything.
Treat it the way you would treat any instructions you did not write. The text is not hidden — open it and read it before you save it. Anthropic publishes its own security guidance for Agent Skills; read that too.
It assembles structure and drafts sections. It does not know your programme, your budget, or what the funder actually asked for. A person has to review anything that goes out.
Skills live in Settings under Skills, the same list the new row appeared in. You manage and remove them from there.
Related NPO Resources guides
- Nonprofit grant research checklist — what to confirm about a funder before you start writing.
- Grant research tools for nonprofits — funder databases and what to compare between them.