Grant systems are not about staying organized for the sake of staying organized. They are what help you sustain your successful grants strategy over time.
Without simple, easy-to-maintain systems, grant work can quickly slip into a chaotic and overwhelming state. Once it reaches that point, it’s hard to have the motivation to recover, to dig back and figure out what you’ve done, or make plans for what’s next. Even worse, that lack of organization can lead to forgotten report deadlines, missed grant opportunities, and skipping out on outreach activities that ensure strong relationship building.
The good news is that, with just a few tools and work processes to help you keep moving, you can stay focused, proactive, and strategic in your grants work.
Start with Three Core Tools
For small nonprofits, you can track and maintain all key information with three basic tools: 1) a Prospect Information Chart (PIC); 2) a Grants Calendar; and 3) a Reports Calendar.
Your PIC is your working prospect list. It helps you track who a funder is, how well they align with your work, what their application process looks like, and any relevant deadlines. The key columns in your PIC spreadsheet should include:
- Funder name
- Mission alignment with your organization
- Deadlines
- Grant range
- Process
Your Grants Calendar helps you look ahead and make decisions. It lays out upcoming proposals, deadlines, ask amounts, and the status of each request. If you want step-by-step support building a simple Grants Calendar, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. But in summary, your key columns should be:
- Month you are writing (may be different from the month of the deadline)
- Funder/Opportunity name
- Deadline
- Ask amount
- Status of request (pending, awarded, declined)
Your Reports Calendar helps you stay on top of stewardship and follow-through. Once a grant is awarded, be sure to thoroughly review any accompanying award letters from the funder, as they often carry key information, such as detailed reporting requirements. Losing track of report dates or missing out on award or publicity instructions can quickly put a funder relationship at risk (after all the hard work you put in to build it). See here for step-by-step instructions on how to build your Reports Calendar, but key columns should include:
- Funder/Opportunity name
- Deadline
- Award amount
- Award timeline
- Program funded
- Outcomes promised (if applicable)
I recommend tracking these three tools – the PIC, the Grants Calendar, and the Reports Calendar – in separate tabs within a single spreadsheet, using a platform such as Google Sheets. Remember that this is a dynamic, ever-changing document, so save it in an easy-to-find, central location.
One additional recommendation (if you want to really stay on top of it) is to keep your Grants spreadsheet open as a tab on your browser or to bookmark the page for quick reference. This will encourage you to lightly touch base with this document frequently. Your simple systems are designed for check-ins and continuous small updates, not once-a-quarter deep dive overhauls.
The key is to make grants work an easy-to-maintain habit through just a few minutes of work each day, rather than hours of thankless labor when you finally get around to it.
Outreach is Part of Grants Work
As you think through the best ways to create your own systems and build these three simple tools, remember not to neglect outreach. As we recently covered in our Outreach is No Longer Optional in Grant Seeking article, well – you guessed it – outreach can no longer be considered separate from grant work. With increased competition for grants, you must make simple but systematic efforts to reach out to funders before you submit an application, as well as after you receive a decision on your grant.
A Monthly Strategy Meeting Can Change the Way You Work
The best way to stay organized and on top of your outreach and grant-related activities is to schedule and maintain a short grants strategy meeting once per month. This is absolutely necessary to hold yourself and your team (if you have one!) accountable for your grants work. It is also key to preventing wasted time and energy – not to mention general overwhelm – that occurs when grant work is perpetually reactive.
This meeting doesn’t need to be more intense than a short huddle to review what is upcoming in your Grants Calendar, to see if any formal reports are due in the coming month, and to glance at your list of prospects to prompt any outreach.
If you are a small nonprofit leader and are doing all this work on your own, simply block off one hour per month that you dedicate to reviewing your grants tools and making a reasonable plan for the coming weeks. Otherwise, consider incorporating relevant program staff, other administrators, or Board members who can help support your fundraising efforts and hold you accountable.
During the meeting, you can organize your agenda with the following prompts:
- What grant deadlines are coming up? Look ahead at the coming 2-3 months and determine what outreach steps you can take to foundation prospects before submitting an application.
- What reports are due? Again, be sure you have thoroughly read every award letter for grants received.
- What grant applications need to be shifted in the calendar due to new information you have received?
- Did you communicate with any other donors or prospects in the past month? What are the next steps with those organizations?
And that’s it. With this one monthly meeting and your three simple tools, your grants work will feel proactive, strategic, and organized – and you can continue to move forward with confidence knowing that you are setting your organization up for success.
Systems Make Grants Work Sustainable
Your grants tools serve many purposes, the most obvious of which is to keep you moving forward with your foundation fundraising efforts in a strategic and consistent way.
But just as critically, these tools house all of the key information related to your grant efforts so that you are building institutional fundraising knowledge and not just keeping track of everything through a confusing combination of emails, folders, and just what’s in your head.
If you were to leave your organization tomorrow, would the next person coming in have any idea who the donors and prospects are that you’ve been in contact with, or have access to award history or grant application data?
Far too many nonprofits get 5, 10, or even 20 years down the line before they attempt to organize and make sense of this information (almost always requiring outside help and an intense investment of time, money, and resources), and by that time, many funder relationships have long since come and gone.
Strong nonprofits – those that succeed and last – take the time to build and systematize information regarding the revenue engines (such as grants) early to help them grow and thrive.