{"id":18714,"date":"2023-05-03T04:43:28","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T08:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=18714"},"modified":"2025-03-18T14:25:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:25:59","slug":"what-to-do-when-grant-tracking-spreadsheets-fail-to-deliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/what-to-do-when-grant-tracking-spreadsheets-fail-to-deliver\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do when grant tracking spreadsheets fail to deliver"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat to do when grant tracking spreadsheets fail to deliver\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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Grant funding is a large and increasingly crucial part of strategic funding plans at many nonprofit organizations. That is partly because grants can be a good way to get a large influx of funds from government institutions and charitable foundations. Of even greater benefit, grants are not like using loans for funding\u2014grants never need to be paid back. Grant funding helps forge a path to nonprofit sustainability and financial resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grants deliver many benefits to nonprofits; however, they also require careful management. Grant management is a team effort that benefits from specialists. Grantors (the entities making the grants) usually stipulate a number of terms and accountability requirements as part of grantee responsibility. It is important to have the right tools and processes in place to deliver on what you promise, if you want to keep winning new and recurring grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download the e-book: 7 Proven Grant Management Best Practices for Growing Nonprofit Funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we will explain what is involved in grant management and then look at why grant tracking spreadsheets are not the best tool for this job. Finally, we will examine how cloud nonprofit accounting software with strong grant management capabilities can help you introduce best practices into your organization\u2019s grant management processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant management lifecycle<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is a lot of paperwork and accountability at every stage of the grant lifecycle. You can break grant management into two phases\u2014pre-award and post-award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the pre-award phase, you must first conduct research to find funding opportunities. Then, someone on your team needs to write a great grant proposal, develop a budget, and complete the rest of the proposal documents. After you submit the proposal, if your organization wins the grant, you will need to negotiate the award and the terms with the grantor and then execute a contract which will govern all your responsibilities about how the money will be spent and how you will demonstrate accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now that you have secured the grant funding, you\u2019ll move into the post-award phase of grant management. In this phase, you need to capture accurate costs, and calculate and monitor performance and impact metrics. Not only do you need to account for every expenditure, but you will also need to manage timelines and milestones. Finally, you will have to ensure compliance with the terms of the grant by sending timely billing and compliance reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


What is at stake<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Inadequate grant management can lead to negative financial consequences for your organization. The risks of poor grant management include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n