The only post-award grant management checklist you'll ever need

So much diligent hard work is involved in applying for a grant that, by the time your organization or agency receives one, it can feel daunting to figure out what comes next. The truth is that post-award grant management is essential for your team’s long-term success. 

In 2023, charitable giving topped out at an estimated $557 billion. That’s a lot of grant funding—and to ensure that your resources go as far as possible, disciplined grant management is a must.

From clogged communication channels to lax approaches to compliance, the process can overwhelm even the most capable team in many ways. To that end, here’s the best practices post-award grant management checklist. 

What is post-award grant management?

In a perfect world, the granter would announce a nonprofit organization as its grantee, and things would unfold seamlessly from that point forward. In the real world, the grant award process is just the beginning. How that grant is administered, tracked, reported, and managed will determine its usefulness and its potential.

Nonprofit grant management tools can make monitoring compliance, tracking important reporting information, and managing financial oversight easier. Effective post-award grant management will keep philanthropic projects (and their program officers) focused, on track, and on time.

Why is post-award grant management important?

In philanthropic giving, a grant is often much more than just a grant. It’s a vote of confidence in your vision, a commitment to your work, and an indication of potential future support.

Managing this process efficiently by following financial compliance guidelines for nonprofits and tracking financial performance can strengthen your relationships with team members and stakeholders now, making it more likely that additional resources will be available in the future.

Post-award grant management checklist

The post-award management process begins as soon as you receive the grant money! Let’s talk about what comes after the initial award.

Review the grant agreement

It can be tough to manage a grant program you don’t understand. That’s why you’ll want to review the grant agreement itself sooner rather than later.

Make sure that you understand the terms of the grant. There may be restrictions that govern how funds can be used, specific deadlines for submitting progress reports, or significant changes to your plans. This is also the time to be clear about the compliance guidelines issued by federal agencies or other stakeholders.

Set up a kick-off meeting

From the start, you’ll want to gather your team members in one place to ensure each stakeholder understands the requirements and deliverables specific to their role. 

In this initial meeting, you may want to:

• • Assess your resources when it comes to staff and technology
  • Decide how grant funds will be allocated for maximum performance
  • Talk about a grant reporting checklist for future use
  • Assign specific action items for accountability and efficiency

Include the funders as necessary, keeping them in the loop so they know your progress and can account for any changes to the grant program.

Establish communication channels with stakeholders

This open communication should continue well beyond your initial kick-off meeting. Successful grant management depends on continuously updating your stakeholders, internal team members, and external parties affiliated with the funders.

Think about pain points and assign specific staff members to keep different parties informed and educated about your plans. You may wish to issue regular financial reports or convene periodic stakeholder meetings. Different grants will come with different expectations—federal grants, for example, may have different expectations for updates than those granted by private institutions. 

Set up reporting systems

Stay on top of progress (or possible issues) by setting up systems for reporting and accountability. Think about how you’ll track your financials, use progress reports to update stakeholders, and the levels of communication your donors expect from your organization. 

Don’t wait until you’re ready to issue a final report to learn about a potential problem! 

Develop a project timeline

Clarity and efficiency aren’t only useful to your donors. Developing a project timeline that is understood by people throughout your organization keeps everyone on the same page. Effective grant management software for nonprofits will help you do this throughout your post-award process.

Assign roles and responsibilities

While certain team members may fulfill multiple roles, prioritize assigning different responsibilities to different stakeholders. Your program director may not be effective in taking charge of the tiny details of expenditures, while the program staff managing day-to-day progress may not be equipped to track the ins and outs of financial compliance. 

If individuals wear multiple hats, it’s even more important that the team as a whole understands the grant management process and the organization’s ultimate goals.

Collect and analyze data

Early on, you’ll want to put specific evaluation criteria in place. These will both demonstrate progress to funders and set benchmarks for staff. 

If your donors want to see you collecting data, then you’ll want those systems in place as soon as the grant management phase has begun. 

Make sure you know:

• • Which types of data they’re looking for
  • How they want to see the data expressed
  • How you will collect the data with accountability systems in place
  • Which tools you may use to collect and analyze the data

This may mean writing reports, storing numbers, implementing usage protocols, etc. Different data collection will make sense for different types of grant money. Communicate early and often.

Monitor spending and ensure compliance

The specifics of compliance will vary between grants and funders, but terms should be made clear in the initial award phase. Your organization may be working with multiple funders to manage several grants simultaneously, so keeping financials organized and tracking expenses with discipline is crucial.

Track costs at every level. Make sure team members know how to report or document their expenses, and issue reports as required by different stakeholders.

Ultimately, overspending can jeopardize future allocation of resources, so budgeting and accountability are important at every stage of the grant management process.

Maintain accurate documentation and prepare for an audit

It’s likely that at least once during the grant management process, you’ll need to prepare for an audit. That means you’ll need to be able to put your hands on the proper documentation—and if you haven’t been keeping it diligently up to that point, this can quickly become difficult.

Make sure that, at every stage, you’re maintaining records such as:

• • Bank account statements
  • Transaction receipts
  • Vendor invoices
  • Customer or member payments
  • Records of undeposited funds
  • Accounts receivable and payable
  • Outstanding funds
  • Projected expenditures

Audit timelines and processes may vary depending on the type of audit you’re asked to conduct (internal or external) and the type of funder you’re working with. Federal grants may have different audit requirements, just as with compliance regulations.

Keep track of your documentation so that by the time you’re asked to conduct an audit, you’re already prepared!

Track progress and share regular reports

Both internal staff and external stakeholders must remain aware of your progress as the grant management process continues.

That may mean issuing regular progress reports, which are likely more narrative and give a general picture of how the grant money is being used, or financial reports, which are likely issued regularly to provide specific information about data and metrics. 

You’ll want to think about which information is required by whom and when it’s strategic (or expected) for you to share it. Your team members may benefit from an annual summary of their work and achievements, for example, while granters may expect quarterly outlines of how money is being spent. 

Close out the award

Of course, the final chance to share your progress will come as you close out the grant.

You’ll need to submit final reports along with any documentation your donors require at the end of the process. You’ll also want to perform a final financial reconciliation to ensure that every dollar you’ve spent is accounted for. 

Most importantly, you can view this stage of the grant’s lifecycle as the end of one grant and the earliest beginnings of another. Collecting feedback from team members and documenting lessons learned (both for internal use and as part of your reporting to external stakeholders) will ensure that you’re better positioned to hit the ground running the next time you’re ready for post-award grant management!

Need post-award grant management support?

Ultimately, finding out your organization has received a grant is the first step. At that point, you become responsible for every detail of how you’ll use that money—and how you’ll explain its use to your stakeholders.

Solid post-award grant management is essential, but it can be tricky to know where to begin.

Foundant’s grant management software for nonprofits provides the innovative solutions and seamlessly integrated platform you’ll need, leaving you free to focus on making an impact. 
Our grant management tools, from grant agreement templates to best practices checklists to core accounting features, will improve your philanthropy at every stage of the post-award process!

Learn more about our grant management software and how it can transform your work.