Receiving requests for funding will be each a vital and irritating a part of being a grantmaking group. You need functions from organizations that align to your mission, however the frequency of the requests can simply bathroom down your processes in the event you aren’t cautious.
To keep away from overwhelming your staff, standardize the way you obtain and course of grant functions at your group. Having a predictable and constant grant cycle will guarantee your staff members are in a position to consider every request effectively and successfully.
Right here are some things you may count on for every step of the grant administration course of, together with some greatest practices on how to make sure the whole cycle works easily and successfully.
First cease: Configuration
Step one is to outline some clear phrases to your grant cycle: What several types of grants do you obtain? And what’s the workflow as soon as an utility is acquired?
Your staff ought to begin by itemizing which grant varieties your group makes use of after which program them into your grantmaking system. Some examples might embrace money, scholarships, or in-kind requests. As soon as your admin builds these grant varieties into the configuration of your system, staff members will have the ability to catalogue every request you obtain.
Your admin must also have the ability to catalogue what duties have to be accomplished for every utility and plug these milestone steps into your system configuration as request statuses. Statuses will assist you already know which activity must be carried out subsequent for the request underneath assessment. Groups may even construct statuses which are particular to grant varieties. Listed here are some examples of potential Grant Varieties and Statuses:
- Money Request Pending: Preliminary assessment
- Money Request Pending: Ultimate assessment
- Money Request Authorized: Communication not despatched
- Money Request Authorized: Communication despatched
- In Sort Request Authorized: Cost in course of
- In Sort Request Authorized: Cost full
- Money Request Declined: Communication despatched
- Money Request Declined: Communication not despatched
Utility Interval
Your staff additionally must make some selections concerning the utility window. How lengthy is it? Are there common deadlines? And the way will you talk along with your candidates throughout and after the appliance window? Embrace this data in your group’s web site, in communications to the candidates, and select particular settings in your type. Merchandise like Blackbaud Grantmaking embrace On-line Purposes instruments that allow grantmakers to customise their very own utility portals with distinctive knowledge entry, attachment necessities, and deadlines. Candidates will then have the ability to electronically submit these functions to your grantmaking group—which means no paper functions to type by—and the knowledge is built-in into your grant administration CRM.
Determination Making
Now that requests have been submitted, it’s time to your staff to judge and decide. It’s vital to have a transparent course of for a way your staff evaluations these functions, particularly if there are loads. Will a number of groups assessment the requests? Do you’ve got exterior reviewers leaving suggestions? Some grant administration methods have a reviewer’s portal, which offers customers exterior of your speedy staff entry to requests in order that they’ll provide their suggestions. Admins can configure precisely what kind of evaluations reviewers can provide, together with numeric scales, letter grades, and even answering particular questions. As soon as your staff has acquired these reviewers’ suggestions, they are going to be in a fantastic place to contemplate every request earlier than approving or declining
You could have staff members who wish to analyze requests by saving or printing out a PDF the appliance. Search for instruments in your grant administration system that present customizable templates admins can configure, permitting customers to avoid wasting PDF experiences detailing vital details about requests and the organizations making these requests. In Blackbaud Grantmaking, it’s referred to as the “Write Up” instrument. This offers an in depth paper path of request data to assist groups make their selections and collaborate.
As soon as everybody has reviewed the functions, reap the benefits of in-system reporting choices to assessment suggestions on pending requests. Convey these experiences to your choice conferences as a reference. When you decide, be sure to regulate the request to “accepted” or “declined” and embrace particulars on the way you got here to that call. Blackbaud’s Grantmaking instrument additionally allows customers to construct a listing of requests and approve or decline them abruptly. And don’t overlook to regulate an utility’s standing area throughout this part, letting everybody know the place that request is in your staff’s workflow.
Communication of Determination
The choice could also be made however the work is just not but completed. It’s time to speak the approval or declination to grantees. This could possibly be by telephone, letter, or e-mail. Use templates when attainable in order that the message is standardized and prepared for every grant cycle. Not solely do they supply consistency, however you even have the pliability to switch templates when essential. Observe your communications by way of exercise data. This manner, any stakeholder can assessment all communications which have occurred for a funding request, whether or not a employees member made a telephone name or used generated correspondence from throughout the system. Bear in mind these request statuses? Time to alter them once more to the present place of the request.
Award Distribution
For the accepted requests, you’ll wish to set up a fee plan and expectation. Seemingly your group has a set technique for distributing funds, whether or not that’s by wire switch or sending checks. To observe the fee progress, construct dashboards or experiences to grasp grant balances.
Grant Administration Past Approval
Earlier than and even throughout fee distribution, you should still have some expectations of the grantee. It’s frequent to require accepted organizations to ship in experiences or different observe up supplies. Search for methods in your grant administration instrument to arrange requirement data. In Blackbaud Grantmaking, you may proceed to make use of the Grantee Portal to gather all necessities digitally.
That’s a Wrap
You’ve nailed down your course of. You’ve tried it for a number of cycles and located that it’s labored. Doc your steps to create consistency in your grant cycles and break down data silos—everybody is aware of what the method ought to seem like. This future-proofs your group by potential employees turnover. Simply rinse and repeat.
Searching for a grant administration system that helps your grant cycle as an alternative of inflicting you to create extra workarounds? Take a look at the grant administration system scorecard that will help you establish the options that take advantage of sense to your group.
Blackbaud College Teacher Henry Wiencek additionally contributed to this text.
