By Sandy Trowbridge, Grants Development Associate
A standard grants lifecycle generally consists of a pre-award phase, award phase, and post-award phase. When navigating the pre-award phase (wherein you search for and apply for grant opportunities), it is helpful to keep a few key points in mind concerning the post-award phase (wherein you implement the project and report on progress). Doing so will both help in putting forth a strong grant application and ensuring that your organization will be able to effectively implement the grant if awarded.
What Can Grant Writers Do to Contribute to Post-Award Success at the Pre-Award Stage?
Closely review the funder’s post-award requirements upfront. There are likely to be a wide variety of financial and programmatic reporting requirements that your organization will need to adhere to if awarded. For example, some funders may require monthly budget updates. Others may require quarterly programmatic reports. These requirements will likely require the ongoing collection of data and close tracking of financial expenditures, all requiring staff time and effort. You can get a general sense of what will be required by reviewing the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) as well as the funder’s website, wherein they may go into further detail on their post-award requirements. If considering a state or federal opportunity, it may also be helpful to take a look at any requirements detailed in the authorizing legislation as well as Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200). It is important to consider whether your organization has the technical expertise, staffing levels, and systems in place to both implement the project itself and manage the various reporting requirements effectively if awarded. Are you able to plan your project with these requirements in mind and allocate your resources accordingly? Can you obtain the required expertise through hiring or staff training? If not, reconsider your pursuit of the opportunity in favor of other options that will be more feasible for your organization to implement effectively. Otherwise, noncompliance could potentially result in your organization being faced with financial penalties or reputational damage that could negatively impact your ability to secure future funding.
Ask the project implementation team to review your proposal materials before submission. If you are not the one that will ultimately be implementing the project, ask one or more members of the project implementation team (including project managers, project accountants, procurement specialists, etc.) to review the proposal before submission to confirm that the promised actions are all feasible. From past direct experience, they might have a more fully developed understanding of how long certain actions will take or how much they will cost. Asking them to review both the budget and the narrative in advance of submission will get their buy-in early on and ensure that their implementation best practices and lessons learned are incorporated into future projects from the start.
Confirm that your internal policies and procedures are documented. Many funders will assess an organization’s capacity when making grant award decisions. The purpose of this review is to ensure that you have the internal controls, personnel, and technology required to effectively manage the grant award upon receipt and ultimately be good stewards of their funding. To ensure that you are well-prepared for any such review, consider questions such as the following:
- Do you utilize an accounting system that allows you to track costs separately by project and track staff time according to the project-specific level of effort? Will this accounting system allow you to track actual project spending against the project budget and provide the level of financial reporting detail requested by the funder?
- Are you accurately capturing all required supporting documentation to back up project spending (including receipts, invoices, approvals, etc.) so that you are prepared in the event of an audit? Is this documentation easily accessible and organized?
- Do you have internal controls built into your written policies and procedures that ensure the appropriate checks and balances are in place to limit any potential for risk, fraud, or abuse?
- Do your procurement policies include conflict of interest rules and clear processes for vendor selection?
- If pursuing government funding, are your internal policies and procedures all fully compliant with Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200)?
- Do you have systems in place to collect, manage, and evaluate both qualitative and quantitative data throughout the full period of performance? Will this data allow you to meet the monitoring and evaluation requirements of the funder and adequately demonstrate your project’s progress?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, work with your leadership to address these gaps now. Doing so will ensure that you can pursue grant opportunities at any level (local, state, federal, or foundation) with confidence.
Confirm you will be able to adhere to any registration or certification requirements. Some applications note that you will need a specific certification or registration in hand at the time of the award, if not in advance of application. Consider whether it is reasonable to believe that you will be able to secure whatever is required by the noted deadline. For example, New York State requires grant applicants to be prequalified through the New York State Financial System (SFS) before application submission. This process may take up to two weeks to complete fully. Another example is highlighted by the fact that nonprofit organizations applying to certain federal opportunities (such as the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP)) are required to have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) in hand before subaward. This process may take up to four weeks to fully complete. Understanding these requirements in the pre-award stage will ensure that you can get the process rolling far in advance of any deadlines and limit the likelihood of your proposal being disqualified from consideration due to non-adherence with registration or certification requirements.
Moving From the Pre-Award to the Award Stage
Once you are notified of the award, be sure to thank the funder and complete all required paperwork. Concurrently, take the time to pass all of the information gleaned from the above actions forward. This can be done by scheduling a proposal to implementation handover meeting with all members of the proposal and project implementation teams to share any insights gained during the proposal process. Having already considered the above points during the pre-award stage will help ensure a smooth startup at the award stage and allow your project implementation team to hit the ground running at the post-award stage.