Striving for success: Pathways to grant management proficiency

Successful grant management isn’t just about creating applications and processing awarded funds to grantees. True grant management success requires intentional support and management throughout the entire lifecycle of a grant—from the planning and awarding of your grants program to the post-award phase.

While many competencies are needed for full grant lifecycle management, every phase requires specific skills and attention to maximise the impact of your grantmaking. Most importantly, successful grant management goes beyond box-checking tasks and creates a grant management cycle and process that’s built with integrity and care.

Pre-award pathways for success

In the pre-award phase, grant managers and their teams are, in essence, laying the groundwork for the grant cycle to proceed. While this might include duties like designing and implementing the review process, grant managers should go beyond task completion. Here are some suggestions:  

Align with your mission

At the beginning of the grant cycle, grant managers have to align every stakeholder and grant opportunity with the organisation’s mission. To do this, grantmakers need to be skilled in communication and the importance of making grant cycles accessible to and inclusive of a diverse group of people. 

Organise your team and resources

Likewise, in the pre-award phase, a grant manager should delegate roles and responsibilities to team members to ensure a smooth process from start to finish. Additionally, grant managers need to identify materials, tools and resources they need, like grant management software, which allows stakeholders to save time through automations. 

Set expectations

One of the most essential pieces of any successful grant management is the ability of the grant manager to set the stage for equitable, trust-based philanthropy. This might look like engaging in participatory grantmaking, creating and disseminating clear requirements, offering multiple communication channels and establishing an openness to feedback and questions.

Award and monitoring pathways for success

At the award and monitoring stage, grant managers have the opportunity to connect with grantees on a deeper level, helping them to create lasting impact. To do this successfully requires competencies in genuine support, communication and listening and relationship-building. Here are some examples. 

Provide support

During the award and monitoring phase, grant managers should actively support grantees’ capacity building, establish processes for tracking activity and progress, and ensure that grantees and grantmakers are aligned on objectives. In essence, grantees should feel connected to your foundation, beyond grantmaking dollars.

Communicate effectively

Another essential part of successful grant management in this phase is open communication and intentional listening. Grant managers can utilise different communication channels, ask for feedback as the grant is carried out, and in general, remind grantees that no question is too big or too small. Plus, grantmakers will need to communicate exact grants management performance measures and ask for feedback on those, too.

Cultivate good relationships

Though relationship-building can and should happen at any point in the grant management process, the award and monitoring process is a great opportunity for grantmakers to build trust-based partnerships with grantees by empowering them, giving them autonomy and showing genuine interest in their work and progress.

Post-award pathways to success

Many grant managers take a back seat once the grant is funded, processed and used by the grantee. But in truth, the work of a grant manager isn’t over, even if the project itself is being wrapped up. 

In the post-award phase, grant managers can lean into receiving feedback, and allowing grantees the opportunity, flexibility and accessibility necessary for true and honest reporting. In doing so, they can reinforce and maintain relationships with grantees, improve their grant process and so much more.

Be flexible and adaptable

In an era of trust-based philanthropy, the grantmaker needs to be open to and encourage alternative forms of grant reporting, like oral reporting. This can empower grantees to feel more comfortable sharing sensitive or nuanced information.

Ensure reporting tools are accessible

Because traditional reporting can be so burdensome, it’s essential that grants managers use reporting tools that are easy to use, not administratively burdensome and allow for an iterative approach to reporting.

Be open to feedback

To show grantees how important their opinions are, and to improve your grantmaking process as a whole, be sure to collect comprehensive feedback—either through surveys or in person—on grantees’ experiences.

Using Good Grants for full grant lifecycle management 

The key to successful grant management means going beyond the regular tasks to bring integrity, trust and meaning to the process to both foster relationships with grantees and make the most impact possible.

With Good Grants, grant managers can handle the entire grant cycle—from pre-award to post-award—and implement these best practices with ease.  

From creating accessible, user-friendly applications to offering a simple, collaborative approach to reporting, Good Grants is ideal for setting up any grant manager and their grant cycle for success.