WE GOT THE GRANT ... Now What?

Taken from The Art of Grantwriting: Communicating Your Vision to Funders

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That phone call or letter announcing that your project has been funded is a terrific feeling! Enjoy it for an hour or so, because the work is about to begin:

The three most important people on a grant project are the Project Director, the grantmaker’s Program Officer, and the bookkeeper or accountant.

The Program Officer is assigned by the grantmaker and will be your contact person with the grantmaking organization throughout the grant period. The Program Officer will monitor your progress on the grant project, both financial and performance.

Notify your Program Officer about any developments that have a significant impact on the project activities, such as problems, delays, or adverse conditions. A change of Project Director is very important, for instance. Also share the good things that are happening on your project!

The Project Director (called a ‘Principal Investigator’ or ‘PI’ on a federal grant) is responsible for:

• administering/directing the project
• staying within the grantmaker’s rules
• keeping the project to the timeline
• submitting progress and final reports to the program officer

The Bookkeeper or Accountant sets up and maintains all financial records about the project. They have the responsibility to make regular financial reports about the project to the Project Director.

• Keep a ledger of income and expenses related to the project. Keep all receipts, and make sure to use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Once a grant is received, it is critical that the organization be accountable for all the funds entrusted to them by the grantmaker. Tracking grant funds correctly is extremely important, not only to meet the grantmaker’s requirements, but for accountability and stewardship as well. Long before you receive any funding establish a grants tracking system and learn how to use it.  Several computer programs exist that do this.  They are designed to track the status of your grants and major donors. You will be able to track details such as deadlines, dates, acknowledgement, negotiation, award, payments, site visits, and reporting due dates.
 
Federal and state grants may have a negotiation period prior to funding or denial of your proposal. During the negotiation period, the total amount of the grant as well as other grant details may change. Your project budget, payment dates, and the total amount of the grant may be negotiated and agreed upon prior to funding. This is the time to ask any questions you may have about managing the grant – for instance, how much flexibility will you have to move grant funds from one budget category to another if necessary, and how long after the end of the end of the project will you have to file the final report? In general, private grantors are more lax about these details than federal or state entities.

This is also the time to notify the grantmaker if anything substantial has changed since your proposal was submitted. Has additional funding been received? Have key people left? Let the program officer know about these things, since they will certainly affect the grant as it was originally envisioned.
Your timeline may be tied to payment dates for your grant funds. You may be asked to add these milestones into your timeline and resubmit it to the program officer. In this arrangement, you must finish the first quarter activities before the program officer will release the second quarter payment.
Federal funds are disbursed on a reimbursable basis, which means that you must spend the funds first and then request reimbursement to your organization upon submittal of project reports and receipts. Private grantmakers generally give part or all of the grant funds up front.
Here are a few tips to help you with grants management:

• Read all the materials in the grant award package and pay particular attention to the grant contract.
• Does your Board of Directors need to formally accept the award? If so, put the acceptance on the next Board Calendar or if the project timeline or deadline to notify the grantmaker is very short, inquire about scheduling an emergency Board meeting for this one item.
• Have the authorizing official sign the grant contract. Keep one copy for the organization’s file, and one copy for the accountant, and return those copies or originals as required by the contract.
• Review the contract with the Project Director, and contact the Program Officer with any questions you may have about the contract.
• Notify the project personnel about the grant award, especially if their employment depends upon the grant.
• Revise the formal ‘launch’ date for the project if the timeline has changed. On a private grant, notify the grantmaker. On a federal or state grant, the granting agency sets the launch date.
• Federal regulations require that all grant funds to be spent within the formal project dates. Those dates may be significantly different than were announced in the Request for Proposal and also from the dates you may have been told over the phone when the grantmaker called to give you the good news.

Especially on a federal grant, do not spend a penny of grant or matching funds on the project until you’ve received the official project dates in writing from the funding agency.

• Once the project dates are confirmed, the Project Director should transfer all activities and deadlines on the Timeline to their calendar since they will be managing the project.

Back up all reporting dates two weeks on the calendar to allow time to gather last-minute information and prepare the report. Color code the due dates with their corresponding ‘preparation’ dates.

• Have a formal launch, even if it’s only a meeting of all the parties that will be involved. Create a contact list of project personnel to pass out at the first meeting.
• Issue a press release about the award. Take advantage of this opportunity to get the organization some positive press. It helps build credibility in the community.
• Formally thank the grantmaker. A letter should be issued on letterhead and signed by the President of the Board of Directors. Unless it is culturally appropriate, no gifts should be sent.
• Make a separate file drawer, section, or notebook for the grant award and label it with the name and project’s assigned grant number, if there is one. In the file, include a copy of the grant application, the contract, a copy of the Request for Proposal, and reporting forms. Also keep a copy of all correspondence about the grant in these files.
• File all of your reports on time.  Create two sections to your report: one should be a narrative description of what you have accomplished in the time period, and the second should be a financial accounting of all money spent, including what it was spent on and how much was spent.

• To help out with reporting, keep a daily or weekly diary; these can just be notes on what you have accomplished.  Ask others involved with the grant activities to do the same.  This will provide you with an honest assessment of what has been done when you prepare to write your reports.

• Set up your grant accounting system for the project according to the line items in the budget you submitted.

• If you receive a large grant but you have never managed one before, it is helpful to establish a separate checking account to help you manage the funds.

• Never use money from one project to pay expenses for another.

• Notify the grantmaker as soon as you become aware of any and all cost overruns.

• Have someone else double-check your accounting report before you submit it to the grantmaker.

• Grants management is a partnership – communicate early and often with your project partners and staff, as well as with your Program Officer.

 

 

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