Grant Management Techniques

Grant Management Techniques Jeri Bucy Membership Director, Montana Nonprofit Association Tammy Tilzey GrantHub Team Foundant Technologies Becky Franks Executive Director, Cancer Support Community Montana

Grab Tab Minimize or Maximize the Control Panel. Desktop App GoToWebinar Tech Support 1-800-263-6317 Option 2 Web App Questions & Answers Submit questions for review during the Webinar. 2

Agenda Foundant Overview 5 Grant Management Techniques Grant Management: Cancer Support Community Montana Q&A 3

Locations Headquartered in Bozeman, MT Remote team members in Minneapolis, Boise, Philadelphia, Seattle and Chicago 4

Clients 1005 Grant Lifecycle Manager (Grantmakers) 203 GrantHub clients (Grantseekers) 5

Client Map Clients in 50 states and 5 provinces 6

Grantseeker Client Map

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The Benefits of Grant Management Save Time Never Miss a Deadline Peace of Mind Retain Institutional Knowledge

Grant Management Techniques Using effective grant management in your organization is like putting oil into your car it keeps everything running smoothly!

Five Grant Management Techniques 1. Create a grant calendar 2. Organize your funders, track grant history and keep grant documents organized 3. Coordinate your team s responsibilities to stay on schedule 4. Be Grant-Ready 5. Consistently report on pipeline and progress of grant funding Consulting Connections, Inc. 11

Grant Calendar What do you use today? white board wall calendar spreadsheets shared email calendar project or tasks management system colored pens / colored sticky notes binders file cabinets shared files / folders on network google drive / documents grant management solution Consultant other

Grant Calendar Score your solution against this checklist: Everyone has visibility to upcoming deadlines. Owners receive regular reminders when items are due. You are continually adding new opportunities to your calendar. Recurring funding opportunities are scheduled in advance. Communication of grant plan, progress, and results is facilitated.

Five Grant Management Techniques 1. Create a grant calendar 2. Organize your funders, track grant history and keep grant documents organized 3. Coordinate your team s responsibilities to stay on schedule 4. Be Grant-Ready 5. Consistently report on pipeline and progress of grant funding Consulting Connections, Inc. 14

Organize Funders & Grant History

Elements to Track for Each Funder Funder Name Areas of Interest Min/Max Funding Geographical Focus Key Contacts Address Social Media Sites Board Members Deadlines Decision Process EIN 990s Website Funding History Others?

Grant Tracking Funder Name Grant Name Status (Pending, Awarded, Denied) Amount Requested Amount Awarded Amount Received Deadlines Submitted Date Decision Date Grant Term Restrictions Submission Link/Login Award details - reports due, etc.

Organize Grant Documents Don t waste time searching for misplaced items, recreating the same plan, and trying to rebuild funder relationships. Have we applied to this funder before? What did the funder request from us? What was outlined in our award letter? What should we do differently next time? Where is a record of the LOI we sent? Where s the proposal? Did we navigate the funder relationships successfully? If so, how? What reports did we turn in? What were our program outcomes? Did we back up our files before the laptop crashed? The average employment period for a development director is 18 months!

Five Grant Management Techniques 1. Create a grant calendar 2. Organize your funders, track grant history and keep grant documents organized 3. Coordinate your team s responsibilities to stay on schedule 4. Be Grant-Ready 5. Consistently report on pipeline and progress of grant funding Consulting Connections, Inc. 19

Coordinate your grant team responsibilities while staying on schedule. Consulting Connections, Inc. 20

Send email notifications and reminders. Some grant management solutions can be configured to send notifications to team members when they are assigned a task and also send reminders of deadlines when they are approaching. Consulting Connections, Inc. 21

Five Grant Management Techniques 1. Create a grant calendar 2. Organize your funders, track grant history and keep grant documents organized 3. Coordinate your team s responsibilities to stay on schedule 4. Be Grant-Ready 5. Consistently report on pipeline and progress of grant funding Consulting Connections, Inc. 22

Be Grant Ready Prepare solid answer templates for a quick first draft. Track answers with different character counts. Tag answers by program name so you can quickly find the appropriate one to use. Accumulate stories of how your organization has impacted the population you serve. Track statistics that show the need for your service and programs.

Create a grant tool kit to streamline proposal creation. You can complete up to 80% of the effort to create a grant proposal before you start searching for funding opportunities. Consulting Connections, Inc. 24

Assemble Your Answer Library

Five Grant Management Techniques 1. Create a grant calendar 2. Organize your funders, track grant history and keep grant documents organized 3. Coordinate your team s responsibilities to stay on schedule 4. Be Grant-Ready 5. Consistently report on pipeline and progress of grant funding Consulting Connections, Inc. 26

Effectively Communicate Status

Five Grant Management Techniques 1. Create a grant calendar 2. Organize your funders, track grant history and keep grant documents organized 3. Coordinate your team s responsibilities to stay on schedule 4. Be Grant-Ready 5. Consistently report on pipeline and progress of grant funding BONUS: GMAP Grant Management Assessment and Planning worksheet Consulting Connections, Inc. 28

Use the Grant Management Assessment and Planning worksheet (GMAP) to develop your organization s grant capacity. Assess what you are doing well, and identify areas where you can improve. Develop a checklist of responsibilities that could be part of someone's job requirements. Use to investigate and compare potential grant management solutions (just add elements such as pricing, training, and support to the list.) Consulting Connections, Inc. 29

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Grant Management Tips & Techniques Becky Franks Executive Director, Cancer Support Community Montana Agenda: Background Challenges Grant Management Tips / Advice

Background Cancer Support Community Montana is a small 501c3 providing support, education and hope for people affected by cancer. 5 FTE, volunteers and interns Becky Franks is the Executive Director and in charge of grants Grant team includes Becky, Development Director, Program person and college interns. 29 grants/sponsorships each year Foundations, Corporations

Challenges 1. Finding grants that fit our organization 2. Keeping track of what is due when 3. Keeping all of the information accessible 4. Keeping the supporting information and documents consistent across the team 5. Keeping track of our sponsorships that are not on a regular basis

Addressing the Challenges Set up Opportunities at the Beginning of the Year

Addressing the Challenges Fill Answer Library & Add the Consistent Documents

Tips and Advice 1. Get Your Team in the System 2. Set up Notification Timing

Tips and Advice - Use Reports to present Funding Status to Board

Tips and Advice (cont) 4. Use University Students to Research Grants They have the time University has memberships to foundation databases 5. Set up Your Search for Success get a high win rate: Match your demographic and geography Match your funding size If not a match, toss it right away don t push it too hard Get to know the human in charge of the grantor build that relationship

Questions? Becky Franks Executive Director, Cancer Support Community Montana becky@cancersupportmontana.org Tammy Tilzey GrantHub Team, Foundant Technologies www.granthub.com tammy@granthub.com

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