Effective Grant Management

Published on 5th December 2019

Effective Grant Management Strategies for Non-Profits. There is a combination of factors that contribute to a successfully implemented grant. While we cannot go through every single one due to organizational peculiarities, there are two broad but pertinent areas discussed below:

A. Relationships in Grants Management

Self (your organisation): It is amazing to see how many grant managers and finance staff who do not know the organisation that they work in. What are your own procurement rules? What is your cost sharing policy or cost recovery policy? It seems simplistic, but it is imperative to build relationships with all relevant teams:
Finance, Monitoring &Evaluation(M&E) et cetera
Suppliers: A great relationship with your suppliers, especially in country can be the missing link between success and failure. Paying invoices on time, having reasonable credit line and maintaining a good reputation all contribute towards successful implementation.Partners: Lastly and almost most important of the 3 points listed here is a good working relationship with implementing partners. Be clear on the partners’ budget from the start, what recoveries are included and the means for transferring funds for implementation. Capacity build partners who are listed on the proposal as their ability to deliver (or not) impacts your reputation as well. Finally, have a mutually
convenient performance management structure in place that facilitates the quality and outputs promised on the proposal.

B. Accessible Filing

Effective grant management can also be as ‘simple’ as being able to access key documents easily. Here are some important ones:

Standard operating procedure. E.g. HR Policy, Finance Policy, Fraud and Loss Policy, Incident reporting, etc.
Award letter and donor compliance notes
Reporting dates, with a separate file for each (Finance, Narrative, Monitoring and Evaluation etc.). Files should include requirements and elements of reports which include the donor templates where specified.
The most up to date project budget
Data that shows program and Organisational impact and effectiveness.

By storing these files in a project folder or somewhere that is easily accessible, the organisation reduces the amount of time that is usually spent resolving issues that may arise during the implementation phase of the project.

Findev Consulting Limited is a UK based consultancy that provides grant management training to NGOs and civil society organisation. We have worked with numerous nonprofits across 3 continents, focusing on proposal development, strategic planning and project evaluation.