Grant management is the process of ensuring that the deliverables of all your grants are met, and that all your contract requirements are satisfied. The work of grants doesn’t end when the proposal is submitted. There is so much more that goes into the process of administering grant-funded projects — it’s not always as easy as submitting proposals and watching the money roll in. Oftentimes, more complicated grants can require regular attention from you and your team from the moment the award letter is received to the submission of the final report.
Every funder is a little bit different. Some want quarterly narrative reports, expect constant updates on grant progress and financials, and require you to submit heaps of evidence to demonstrate that you are, in actuality, completing the work you proposed to do. Alternatively, some funders will provide minimal oversight, paying out the full value of the grant upfront and only asking for periodic updates.
You might be thinking: seems like an easy solution, I’ll just take money from grantors who don’t provide a huge amount of oversight. But here’s the catch: big money comes with big responsibilities. If you want to win major government and private sector grants — the kind that can bring your impact to the next level — you’re going to have to develop impactful systems. Big-time funders aren’t going to just give away their money without checking in to make sure their contribution is making the impact they expect. That’s where grant management comes in.
If your grant-funded project goes off without a hitch — no late submissions, missing grant reports, or failed deliverables — you’re much more likely to receive a renewal from your funder, allowing you to build a reliable stream of income year after year. Additionally, the more streamlined your grants management process, the less time you have to spend stressing over reports and deliverables, and the more time you can spend submitting new proposals for funding.
Sure, it can seem daunting to submit eight or more reports a year and provide regular updates to your program officer, especially when you have dozens of other grants to manage, but with a sophisticated system for grants management, it’s a cinch.
And the less time you have to spend on those tedious administrative tasks, the more time you have for things that matter, like delivering high-impact transformative programming to your community.
How Can LSC Help?
The key to a successful grant management system is organization. Keeping all of your grant-related materials and deadlines in one easily accessible repository allows for a seamless reporting and invoicing process.
At LSC, we’ll take a look at your existing systems and conduct a comprehensive assessment of your current organizational capacity to manage grantors. If you don’t have a system in place, or would like to upgrade your system, we will provide you with a brand new Salesforce database customized for grant management.
A customized Salesforce database can act as a central hub for all your grant-related materials, from proposals to award letters to scanned checks. Having all of these materials in one place is valuable for a variety of reasons:
- Auditing Process: As a nonprofit, you’re required to go through an annual audit to ensure compliance with federal and state regulations for 501(c)(3) organizations. Having easy access to all your grant-related files can make the auditing process a breeze, allowing you to quickly access any and all materials your auditors might need to review.
- Staff Turnover: Systems can get disrupted when staff move onto new opportunities, making it difficult for new hires to get up to speed and locate the files they need to work effectively. With a customized Salesforce database, the whole of your organization’s grantmaking history is in one place, making the transition to new staff as seamless as possible.
- Data Analytics: Salesforce comes equipped with some pretty amazing data analysis capabilities. Using Salesforce, you can conduct advanced reporting to analyze your grant-making performance year over year and figure out which strategies are working and which are slowing you down.
- Grant Reporting: Having all your data in one place can make the grant reporting process a breeze. Rather than having to reach out to program staff to get updates on deliverables, all of your grant-related information can be accessed in one central place, allowing your development staff to quickly and seamlessly create reports for funders.
If you think a customized Salesforce database is a good fit for you, please reach out to me and my team. We’ve helped dozens of nonprofits gain access to the tools they need to get organized and crush their development goals.
Client Success Stories
When Accompany Capital was looking to expand their capacity to deliver high-impact investment and hands-on support to business-owning immigrants in New York City, we set them up with a brand new customized Salesforce database to help them get more ambitious in their fundraising. Equipped with this new software, they’ve been able to access and manage an expanded grant-making portfolio, allowing them to scale their impact and positively engage more businesses in the NYC area.
As Justice for Families began to strategize on a new, transformative approach to end the youth incarceration epidemic, they realized they would need a more comprehensive database in order to keep track of complicated deliverables and reporting requirements for their various grants. Through my Salesforce customization program, they’ve gained access to the industry standard for grant management and are breezing through their grant requirements, giving them more time to focus on their services to the community.
Next Steps
The less time and resources you have to spend on grant management, the more you can focus on what really matters: transforming lives in your community. With all your data stored in one organized repository, the most tedious tasks suddenly become manageable. And let’s be honest, we didn’t enter the nonprofit world to spend all our time submitting reports and answering funders. We did it to make a difference in our communities.
So if you feel like you’re caught in an endless loop of wrangling reports, audits, and documents, reach out to me and my experienced team of grant managers today. Together, we’ll take a look at your current systems for grant management, and create a customized Salesforce database that is perfectly suited to your needs. Let’s get back to what matters. Sign up for my grant management services today.