Grant management is critical for organizations that rely on external funding to support their programs and initiatives. It involves planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating grants from various sources. Effective grant management requires many skills and competencies, including project management, financial management, reporting, and compliance.
Navigating the complete grant management lifecycle—from pre-award planning to final reporting—can initially seem overwhelming. This is particularly true for small organizations, teams, or individuals new to the process.
With the right tools and processes, you can run an efficient program that accomplishes your mission while preserving your peace of mind.
As the developer of premier grant management software, CommunityForce collaborates with thousands of grantmakers daily. This vantage point gives us unique insights into their priorities, challenges, and—most importantly—the innovative ideas and tools that empower them to fulfill their missions.
Drawing from these insights, we’ve crafted this guide to define key terms and stages for successful grant management process. Additionally, we’ll recommend best practices and technologies to help you achieve your goals efficiently. We’ll also provide tips on maximizing the impact of your grant funded projects and ensure compliance with funder requirements.
What is grant management?
“Grant management” refers to grant seekers responsible for writing detailed grant proposal and comprehensive reports. Grant writing play a significant role in securing grant funding by crafting compelling narratives highlighting their organization’s needs and objectives. After obtaining the grants, they must ensure that their organization meets all compliance and reporting requirements, track the use of grant funds to achieve the desired outcomes, and maintain transparency with the funding entities.
For the purposes of this guide, we will concentrate on grant management from the perspective of grantmakers, who are responsible for distributing grants and awarding funds.
For grantmakers, grant management involves processes and administrative tasks throughout the grant lifecycle. This includes establishing the grant, reviewing applications, selecting deserving recipients, disbursing funds, and ensuring those funds are utilized effectively. It also involves monitoring and tracking progress, evaluating outcomes, and reporting to the grant funding entity.
What does the grant manager do?
The role of a grant manager is very challenging and mandates a diverse set of skills and competencies. A grant manager, also known as a grant administrator or award manager, is typically responsible for the effective awarding and implementation of a grant.
This role involves creating and monitoring application and review processes, maintaining initial and ongoing communication with applicants, and ensuring consistent grant processing, tracking, and compliance. Depending on the size and arrangement of the organization, a grant manager may also be responsible for managing project budgets, coordinating with other departments or stakeholders, and evaluating the overall impact of grants.
The Grant Management Lifecycle
Having addressed the fundamental “what” questions, let’s delve into the “how.”
The grant management lifecycle is a comprehensive process encompassing all activities related to managing grants. It can be divided into five stages: pre-award, award, and post-award management.
We will explore the three stages and outline the essential activities applicable to any organization or grant type.
I. Pre-Award Stage
The pre-award stage encompasses all activities before selecting a grant recipient, including planning, application, and review processes. This stage is our favorite because it allows us to provide the most assistance to grantmakers. During this phase, we help draft detailed plans, guide applicants on presenting their proposals effectively and conduct thorough reviews to ensure that all submissions meet the necessary criteria. By actively participating in these initial steps, we can better support grantmakers in making well-informed decisions aligning with their strategic goals and objectives.
Essential Pre-Award Tasks:
- Formulate clear guidelines and implementation plans.
- Gather applications.
- Execute a thorough review process.
1. Formulate clear guidelines and implementation plans
As with any foundational step, this one is crucial for ensuring the success of your entire program.
The more precisely you define who will receive grants and the distribution process, the clearer and easier it becomes for everyone involved. This ensures that your grant funds are utilized more swiftly and effectively.
Before making any announcements, convene your key stakeholders to discuss the following points and ensure everyone is aligned on the objectives, potential impacts, and communication strategies. This collaborative approach will help address any concerns and refine the message for clarity and effectiveness.
- What is the funding source for the grant, and what type of grant is being offered (e.g., matching funds, direct grants, etc.)?
- What is the ultimate goal? What are you aiming to help the grantee achieve?
- Who will be eligible to apply, and what criteria and process will be used to select the recipient?
- What are the critical deadlines in your process?
- What will be required of the grant recipient, and how will they report back to your organization?
You aim to establish crystal-clear guidelines for yourself and the grantees, ensuring everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. Additionally, you seek to solidify a comprehensive implementation plan, outlining each process step and setting achievable milestones to track progress and ensure success.
Note: These guidelines and plans shape the quality of your applicants and streamline your decision-making process. Getting this part right will save you considerable time in the long run.
We encourage grantmakers partnering with us to clearly outline their guidelines and grantmaking philosophy prominently on their CommunityForce portal. Additionally, it is beneficial to specify the areas they will or won’t consider for funding.
Communicating your guidelines and approach fosters confidence in your organization and processes. It also enlightens the broader community about your mission and principles, saving you and applicants valuable time.
2. Gather applications
First and foremost, if you haven’t already, liberate yourself from the logistical chaos of paper applications and email submissions. Transition to a streamlined digital process that saves time, reduces errors, and increases efficiency. Embracing modern technology can significantly improve your workflow and ensure smoother operations.
Creating an online grant application form simplifies the process for applicants, broadens your reach, and, when integrated with a robust grant management platform like CommunityForce, saves your staff time by streamlining application collection, review, and reporting. By moving to an online system, applicants can easily submit their documents from anywhere, eliminating the need for physical paperwork. This digital transition not only enhances accessibility but also ensures that all data is securely stored and easily retrievable, improving the overall efficiency and transparency of the grant evaluation process. Moreover, the detailed analytics provided by such platforms can offer valuable insights, helping organizations make more informed decisions and better manage their resources.
Creating an effective grant application form involves five essential steps:
Utilize your guidelines to pinpoint the precise information needed in your application to assess eligibility and determine the best fit.
Your application should gather all essential information without burdening applicants with superfluous tasks. Doing this effectively will facilitate successful reviews and simplify future reporting requirements.
We believe the following features are crucial to creating an efficient and effective online application experience:
- Flexible Form Builder: Seek a user-friendly, drag-and-drop form builder that enables your staff—regardless of their technical expertise—to create and modify applications effortlessly.
- Eligibility Quizzes: Eligibility quizzes pre-screen applicants, sparing both you and the applicants from spending time on unsuitable applications.
- Advanced form logic: Tailors the process by creating different paths based on applicant responses, ensuring forms remain relevant and concise.
- File Uploads: Allowing various file types on your form empowers applicants to be more creative, incorporating photos, videos, tables, and more into their submissions.
- Branded Application Portals: With CommunityForce, you can design branded, customized portals that align seamlessly with your existing materials. This ensures a polished and professional appearance that reassures grant applicants they are in the right place.
- Accepting Payments: A system integrating fee collection within the form streamlines the entire payment process.
After setting up your application, it’s time to announce your new grant program. Determine how you’ll promote the grant and attract qualified applicants. Consider marketing partnerships and direct outreach to individuals and organizations.
3. Execute a thorough review process
Reviewing grant proposals can be the most thrilling aspect of the pre-award process. It offers the opportunity to delve into innovative ideas, assess their potential impact, and engage with cutting-edge research. However, it can also become the most challenging and time-intensive task, especially if your review team is small. Evaluating detailed grant proposal , ensuring compliance with guidelines, and providing constructive feedback requires considerable effort and dedication.
These steps facilitate a seamless review process that identifies the most suitable candidates for your funding.
- Develop a detailed rubric to evaluate grants. A comprehensive rubric ensures consistency among reviewers, reduces personal bias, and serves as a valuable reference for addressing any questions.
- Create quality assignments. Assemble a skilled review team and assign multiple readers or teams to each application to ensure fair consideration. Dividing the review process into multiple rounds with deadlines and checkpoints can alleviate reviewer fatigue while maintaining progress.
- Employ a numerical strategy to identify the winner. Utilize a ranking or point system based on your rubric to score applications. If a clear awardee doesn’t emerge, consider convening a meeting where reviewers can discuss the top contenders and their merits.
II. Award stage
The award stage is typically the briefest of the three phases. During this phase, the grantmaker finalizes the grant, collaborates with the recipient to establish a final agreement, and disburses the funds.
Essential Steps for Award Stage:
- Inform both successful and unsuccessful applicants.
- Finalize all legal agreements.
- Disburse the funds.
During the award phase, the grantor informs all applicants of their decision, whether they have been successful or not. Ideally, your grant management system should allow you to efficiently decline applications using bulk actions and customizable email templates, saving you valuable time and effort. This system should also provide detailed feedback to applicants, helping them improve future submissions. Streamlining these processes ensures a smoother and more transparent experience for everyone involved.
The funder subsequently drafts an agreement outlining the terms of the grant, including the purpose of the funds, the reporting requirements, and any conditions that must be met. Once both the recipient and grantor review and sign the agreement, the funds are disbursed to the recipient, allowing them to begin their project or initiative as outlined in the agreement.
While managing grants with a single recipient may seem straightforward, overseeing a larger grant program can become overwhelming without an effective grant management system. The complexity increases as you deal with multiple recipients, diverse reporting requirements, and the need to track various funding sources and deadlines. An efficient system helps streamline these processes, ensuring transparency, accountability, and the successful execution of the grant program.
Look out for a system with integrated funds tracking to effectively manage your budget and prevent overextending your organization. Such a system can provide real-time insights into your financial status, help you allocate resources more efficiently, and ensure you stay within budget limits. Using these tools allows you to make informed decisions and maintain financial stability.
III. Post-Award stage
The post-award phase commences once the grant agreement is signed and the funds are disbursed.
In this phase, the grantor and recipient collaborate to meet the expectations and requirements specified in the agreement. This stage encompasses the grant program’s implementation, monitoring, and closeout.
Essential Post-Award Tasks:
- Offer support and supervision.
- Report outcomes.
- Finalize the grant.
Consider how your grant recipients will report on their progress.
As the grantor, you can request periodic reports from the recipient detailing how the funds are utilized and the progress achieved. Additionally, you may establish an auditing program that includes on-site visits, in-person interviews, and presentations.
Receiving updates on the utilization of grant funds is vital for funders. It helps them meet federal requirements and create case studies to showcase their organizations’ impact.
In CommunityForce, grantmakers frequently create additional online forms to gather follow-up information and grant project updates.
Additional best practices for grant reporting include forming partnerships, structuring reports to facilitate learning, and soliciting applicant feedback.
During the post-award period, reflecting on and reporting on your internal processes is essential.
- What went well? What didn’t?
- Did your organization achieve its goals for efficiency, applicant numbers, diversity, and more?
- Which rules and regulations need revisiting or addition?
Delving into the data and analyzing the outcomes is the initial step in comprehending past results to guide future actions.
The grant lifecycle concludes once all closeout requirements are met, including a thorough review of the awardee’s final financial reports and results.
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The grant management process can be complex, but the right software can streamline it and yield more impactful results.
We’d be delighted to assist you. Watch our demo video to discover how CommunityForce can streamline your grantmaking process, from creating to hosting your grant application form.
Whether you’re a startup organization or a leading corporation, CommunityForce provides fully customizable, all-in-one online grant management solutions to maximize your efficiency, simplify complex processes, and improve collaboration so you can focus on increasing your impact. We’ve helped organizations streamline their entire process no matter the size and scope of their giving.
