Getting started with post-award grant management

Table of Contents: 

1. What is post-award grant management?
2. Who is involved in post-award grant management?
3. Best practices for post-award grant management
4. Software for post-award grant management
5. Learn how Foundant can improve your Post-award grant management

Congratulations! You have been awarded a grant after weeks or months of work. 

Post-award grant management is a crucial stage that will determine the success of the grant. The potential for future funding and the organization’s sustainability hinge on your compliance with grant requirements and the effective management of awarded funds. 

This article discusses important practices for managing grants once they have been awarded. It covers compliance, reporting, financial management, and communication with stakeholders.

What is post-award grant management?

Post-award grant management starts once a grant is awarded. After getting the grant, the project must be completed within given timelines while maintaining regular contact with the grantor and submitting reports on finances, compliance, and progress. 

Staying organized and meeting deadlines are important during the grant process. Not only will effective post-award management determine the success of the project, but it will determine future funding and the strength of long-term relationships with donors. 

Who is involved in post-award grant management?

In the post-award phase of grant management, a range of roles and responsibilities help oversee and guide the project. The following are all stakeholders in the post-award phase:

• • The Grantmaker or Funder: tasked with overseeing the project, tracking and enforcing deadlines, and evaluating outcomes
  • The Grantseeker: ensures the grant-funded project is executed according to the proposal, budget, and timeline. 
  • Program Director: provides direction and oversight, oversees expenditures, ensures timely submission of reports
  • Program Staff: manages the day-to-day of the project, gathers data, and reports progress, challenges, and successes 
  • Financial Officers: monitors and tracks expenses against the approved budget, assists with audits, and ensures compliance
  • Compliance Officers: ensures regulatory and legal conditions are met, provides training and monitors audits and reviews
  • Beneficiaries: individuals benefiting from the grant project, provides feedback on the project’s impact and outcomes

Together, these stakeholders can alleviate the stresses of managing the grant post-award. However, it’s common for a single person to fill multiple roles. All the more reason to understand the process and best practices.

Best practices for post-award grant management

Both the grantmaker and grantseeker fulfill different roles after a grant is awarded, although the grantee often bears the brunt of the responsibilities. Compliance is at the heart of the post-award phase; processes, policies, rules, regulations, guidelines, and laws all dictate effective management. Establishing, enforcing, and creating monitoring controls is essential throughout the grant's lifetime. Implementing best practices will help ensure the success of your project during the post-award phase.

1. Preparing for post-award management

Introduce team members and stakeholders to their roles in the grant project. Setting up these initial meetings helps everyone understand the grant, what they need to do, and when it needs to be done. 

Creating a grant management plan can help organizations meet and surpass funder expectations. This plan should outline the management of finances, compliance and record keeping,  progress measurement, and communication with stakeholders. 

2. Training and capacity planning

Capacity planning involves assessing the organization’s resources such as staff, technology, and finances. More specifically, evaluating existing resources is important to determine the appropriate allocation of grant funds. Weigh the project's needs against your existing resources and promptly address any discrepancies. 

Your staff also needs training in accurate reporting, data collection, and submitting progress reports on time. Assign the appropriate personnel to maintain and track specific project-related documentation. A manual or organization chart can help with grant management by guiding the creation and following of proper procedures. 

3. Project management

Best practices in project management can alleviate the rigors of the post-award phase. Efficient project management takes a systematic approach from initial planning to project completion. This is critical for aligning project activities with the funder’s expectations and achieving the desired outcome. 

Define deliverables, milestones, and resources needed for the project to be successful.

Create a system for monitoring this progress to keep on schedule with any deliverables the funder requires. It's important to define a deliverable or milestone, whether these are reports, project standards, or specific task outputs.

Develop a system that identifies where potential risks occur -- whether to cost, scheduling, or performance -- and then ensure proper delegation is in place to handle or mitigate these risks. 

Prioritize by urgency and potential impact, then continuously monitor and review to adjust strategies as needed. The more proactive your team can be with a risk management plan in place, the better.

Plan for change management

This refers to any changes that occur during the grant and the plan for addressing them. Organizational change, approved grant changes, changes to grant requirements, or other changes outside your control will likely happen.  

Best practices in managing change involve first identifying the type of change—whether unexpected, needed in the future, or needed to occur now. Then, evaluate whether this change will positively or negatively impact the objectives, resources, or stakeholders before reviewing and approving it. Ultimately, a structured change management process will yield better results for the project. 

4. Financial management

First and foremost, having a dedicated financial management system is a best practice. A mismanaged financial system often creates challenges when it comes time for reporting. 

Understand the grant requirements: 

what are allowable costs? Follow the grant rules using the guidelines provided in your application or by your funder. 

Decide which costs to allow and maintain consistent practices. 

This will ensure compliance with the grant rules. Develop policies that prevent unallowable costs and ensure that program staff follow them. 

Monitor your monthly expenses by calculating the burn rate. 

This will help you understand how fast you are depleting your cash reserves. It’s important not to rush spending before the grant closes, as it may lead to reporting issues. 

Finally, prepare for audits. 

Audits, despite the intimidating term, help sustain good management practices. It is suggested that a specific team be assigned to review financial documents. Funders may request all project data collected and sometimes ask for additional information beyond what the project has already provided. Remember, audits take time. It can take several months to select an external auditor, collect reports, and conduct the audit, so plan ahead. 

5. Evaluating project performance

Every grant proposal should have measurable objectives, goals, and outcomes. These metrics can either be quantitative (numbers, data, or statistics) or qualitative (feedback from beneficiaries, subjective measurements, or testimonials) and should be used to reflect the impact of your project. A best practice is to define project outcomes that are clear, achievable, and aligned with program objectives and goals. 

Data collection is just the beginning of monitoring the project's impact. Using key performance indicators (KPIs) makes it easier to know if the project is meeting the expectations set forth at the start of the grant. Including clear KPIs also aids in identifying trends across the project’s lifetime, assessing the efficiency of resource use, and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions. 

Based on the project’s target impact, understanding intended vs. actual outcomes and impact measurements will set you up for success. This tangible information provides a roadmap to share with funders, staff, and other stakeholders.

It is also considered best practice to analyze the information collected. Whether a major milestone is missed, budget shortfalls are encountered, or underspending is experienced, knowing how to improve performance is key to successful future projects or even sustaining the organization.

6. Reporting and compliance

A nonprofit may be juggling several active grants simultaneously, with varying requirements, budgets, and reporting expectations. There can be multiple deadlines during the post-award phase, and keeping up with these is crucial. So, timely and sufficient program and financial reporting is the best practice. Create and share a calendar with the appropriate team or team member. 

At the program level, proper data collection (your demographics, participants, collaborators, and milestones for project success) ensures that costs are consistent with your schedule and incur between the project's start and stop dates. Other necessary program reporting may be costs allocated to travel, professional development, or attending conferences. 

Also, return to your grant application for all rules and regulations governing your grant reports. If costs include publications, presentations, advertising, or data dissemination, they may fall under required reports. 

For financial reporting, avoid overspending as it may cause deficits and limit future spending. Look for any errors in the budget; these can be caused by a service department, end user, or system-generated. The longer it takes to discover an error, the more difficult it will be to show that allowability and allocability comply with the grant. Finally, invoices should be kept on all employer payments such as Medicare, social security, timesheets, salary, supplies, or mileage. 

7. Communication and collaboration

Throughout a grant’s life within an organization, there are multiple different teams, deliverables to track, or approaching deadlines. Without clear communication channels, it can be hard to keep track of who is monitoring progress or reaching goals.

Establish multiple channels

Internally, it’s best practice to establish multiple channels where communication will streamline the project. Various ways to communicate within your organization exist. This includes communication between departments, administrators, board members, program directors, and program staff.

Assess the communication skills of all staff members. 

Some may be strong communicators, while others may have different styles or methods. Knowing the communication preferences and styles among staff is important for effective communication. 

Maintain communication with your funder.

Externally, whether good or bad, the best practice during post-award is to maintain communication with your funder. Visibility and project-related awareness are important to funders during the post-award phase. Staying in touch with the funder's program officer or foundation executives can help you secure funding in the future.

Encourage open discussion

To avoid conflict, establish a culture that encourages open discussion, especially where problems may arise. Fostering an environment that assumes positive intent among project staff works against potential conflict or miscommunication. When conflict arises, mediation may be necessary. Ensure there are procedures for facilitating this among team members, partners, and other stakeholders. 

Communicate with beneficiaries

Finally, it’s important to communicate with the project's beneficiaries as well. Listening to and asking questions of the grant's direct benefactors is an excellent way to understand the project’s impact and effectiveness. 

8. Award closeout

As you near the end of the grant project, it’s important not to reach the end date abruptly. It is considered best practice that the plan for award closeout begins sixty days before the end of the grant. In those sixty days, you should ensure that funds have been spent according to plan, prepare final financial and programmatic reports, and any performance-related metrics are delivered. 

The funding organization will also use this time to reconcile any potential gaps in compliance, fulfill grant requirements, or address any remaining financial concerns. 

To ensure your program is sustainable after the grant ends, your relationship with funders is a top priority. Retaining donors is as important as establishing an initial relationship with them. So, throughout the time you have funding, it is critical to consider how the organization will remain functional once funding runs out. 

Software for post-award grant management

The post-award phase will be taxing, but with grant management software, many headaches will be relieved. 

• Never miss another deadline with a built-in reporting structure that tracks, manages, and reminds you of all approaching deadlines.

• Organize all payment installment information by syncing software with your financial or accounting system. This eliminates tedious manual data entry and allows your team to have real-time visibility into grant-related data.

• Easily assign tasks to the appropriate team members to keep ahead of documentation and reporting to your funders. 

• Increased visibility across all of your staff and funders. 

• Build trust and credibility with automated internal and external messaging, which keeps your board, funder, and stakeholders in the loop with customizable reports, budget and expense tracking, and progress data. 

Learn how Foundant can improve your Post-award grant management

There’s no getting around it; post-award is when the real work begins. But with the right tools, you can keep your organization more focused on its impact and less on tedious management. Learn how to streamline post-award grant management with software from Foundant and maximize your potential.