Grant Management Miniseries – Part I

Managing the Grant Application Process for Grant-Funded Organizations

When we are asked by nonprofits to review their operational efficiencies and effectiveness, the end-to-end grants management process is the number one functional area that nonprofits struggle with. This is no surprise given that this process typically crosses development, program, and finance departments at minimum, with a compliance or leadership function also sometimes playing a role.

As with many areas of operations, we find that adequately addressing the challenges requires addressing collaboration across teams, processes and handoffs, and the tools and technologies that support these.

Today, we focus on that intersection of structure, process, and systems within the pre-award or grant application process.

Team Structure

It is critical to get clear on roles. In some organizations, grant applications are driven by program staff; in others, by development. In either case, the grant narrative must be developed through collaboration of both program and development staff. Similarly, while program staff need to explain the resources they need to accomplish program goals, finance needs to be able to support the creation of grant budgets. This helps nonprofits not only comply with funder requirements but also comply with internal monitoring and reporting requirements. We typically recommend creating cross-functional business units in support of program, so that program managers know their development and finance collaborators. Depending on the funding environment, regular meetings may be required to facilitate the application pipeline.

Processes

The start of the pre-award process can vary from org to org, but key question and review points typically include:

• Decision-making – Do grant objectives align with organizational mission and strategy?
• Application tracking – What are the due dates associated with the proposal, as well as any internal deadlines for staff inputs?
• Grant writing – Are there templates available for common content or organizational key performance indicators (KPIs)?
• Grant budget – Is there a modifiable grant budget that aligns with organizational budget?
• Submission – Who submits and tracks submission and response dates? How are teams notified upon award?

Systems

Tools and technologies for tracking the pre-award process should be carefully considered for heavily grant-funded organizations. It is important that the system(s) allow for transparency to all users who are a part of the grant process. The more steps in the process that can be standardized and automated, the more efficient and effective the process becomes. Key system requirements to consider include:

• Approval workflow/decision matrix on which grants to apply for
• Tracking the initial opportunity due dates
• Tracking relevant deliverable due dates both pre-award and during the grant lifecycle with alerts to all parties via email or other notifications
• Document management of templates for grant writing
• Grant budget templates, usually in Excel, that can be imported into the financial management system
• Tracking of submission date, award amount, contact information, and expected payment schedule
• Alerts on expected response dates
• Grant opportunity pipeline monitoring via reports and dashboards

CLA regularly works with clients on all areas of operations to help improve efficiencies. Please reach out to learn more.