Securing and applying a grant for an organization is absolutely critical to its success and survival. For many organizations like non-profits and research-based firms, grants may be their only source of income. As a result, securing and effectively applying a grant for your organization could mean the difference between carrying out your vision and having to fold the organization entirely. If your grant application and usage isn’t extremely high quality, you run the risk of running into some major organizational problems. As a result, you should place a huge emphasis on grant management and perfecting the grant writing process. How can you go about this? Here’s how to master grant management.
Applying
The first step to mastering grant management is the application process. Since grants are so important to your organization, you’re going to want to ensure that your application is perfect. In order to do this, you should first follow the directions provided by the grant. If you don’t follow all directions, then your application will automatically be disqualified and you won’t be able to receive the funds. You should also provide plenty of information about your organization and display how the funds will be used. Showing that your organization is competent and has a great plan to utilize the grant is the perfect way of increasing your chances of being successful.
Read also: How to Manage Your Funds in a Business
Acceptance
You might think that the grant application process gets easier after your application has been accepted, but that isn’t always the case. Most grants require you to frequently submit reports, meaning that you’ll need to ensure that you stay on top of these deadlines. You’ll also have to draft an acceptance letter, something that could be quite the hassle. It’s important to not let your foot off the gas pedal during this time period and continue to execute your plans. Although it may be exciting to secure the funds from the grant, there’s still much work to be done in order to see your plans come to fruition.
Reports
In order to successfully use your grant funds, you’re going to need to track the whole process very strictly. As mentioned before, reports are going to be due on certain dates, and they need to be detailed and describe exactly how the process is going. These reports are critical to the success of your grant, and they need to be a top priority. Unfortunately, writing these reports can get quite complicated, which is where a grants management system can come in handy. Technology like this can make it much easier to keep track of all your reports and other aspects of grant management, being a big help in allowing you to stay on top of things.
Usage
The critical part of grant management is actually using the funds that are provided from the grant. While you likely already have a plan in place to use the funds, plans rarely completely follow the script. There are many potential setbacks or pitfalls that can derail your plans and potentially alter them, and you and your organization need to be aware of these setbacks in order to ensure everything stays on track. Metrics should be installed and constantly measured in order to ensure success. These metrics will not only provide quantifiable data for your reports, but they also can allow you to ensure that your plan for grant’s funds is actually coming to fruition.
