5 Tactics for Successful Grant Management in 2024

As issues with turnover, manual errors, outdated technology and more continue to wreak havoc on nonprofits in 2024, grants have become increasingly difficult for teams to manage successfully, and stay in compliance with state and federal regulations. 

However, with the right software, approach and tools, grants can be managed efficiently and accurately to reach your organizational goals. Consistent relationships can be built with grantors and spending can be monitored effectively to make timely and accurate decisions. 

With challenges abound, how can nonprofits ensure they are managing their grant programs effectively this year? The answer can be found in five simple strategies that, when executed correctly and consistently, can allow your organization to make the most of its 2024 funding. 

1. Build Positive Relationships With Grantors and Funders

Trust, accountability and shared passion for the mission of your organization are what make up a strong foundation for an enduring relationship with your grantors and funders. To kick off the year, it’s important to do your research on what funding sources may be fruitful and a good match for your organization, and what work needs to be done to make an introduction with the right parties. 

From there, communication with prospective grantors should be genuine, honest and collaborative. It’s key to remain transparent and allow them to be a part of decisions regarding fund allocations to ensure that their grants are being utilized in accordance with their funding priorities.

2. Build a Consistent Methodology and Shared Cost Structure

Once funding is secured, building a consistent cost methodology that delineates direct, shared, indirect and disallowed costs is an important first step in the grant management process. From there, your team should be establishing a shared cost policy to track necessary allocations for expenses, like insurance or rent. Some important questions you should be asking at this stage include, “How will my organization divide costs amongst different grants?” and “When will my shared cost formulas need to be reviewed and revised?” 

3. Capture Accurate Costs for Reimbursement

Accurate accounting is critical for an effective grant management program, especially when it comes to identifying costs for reimbursement. For starters, nonprofits should have an organized system in place to capture and tag expenses, flag them as reimbursable and associate accounting entries with specific grants. 

If your employees are working on multiple funding projects at once, those expenses should be coded and integrated in their timekeeping data, so efforts are tracked according to allocation efforts. For accurate and timely billing purposes, automating the process in which you apply your indirect costs based on a negotiated rate, specific rate or markup based on type of expense is extremely helpful as well. 

4. Monitor Revenue Spending and Budget

To ensure your grant programs are running as expected, you must maintain consistent visibility into your revenue streams and expenses to monitor how you’re tracking against individual grant budgets. This requires having an in-house accounting lead or working with an accounting firm to ensure you’re accurately tracking budgets compared to actuals on individual grants that have their own reporting periods. This is also helpful in providing insight into where you stand with your total fiscal year spending.

5. Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Automate Grantor Reporting

Automation, automation, automation! That should be your motto when it comes to tracking KPIs and organizing grantor reports in 2024. Automating your financial reporting allows you to not only save time on the tedious tasks, but to ensure your reports are robust and accurate. Thankfully, there are several grant tracking software options on the market that easily produce required reports as well as supplemental information for your grantors. Lastly, automating your reporting allows for access to real-time data to measure and track against your financial and performance KPIs.

While nonprofits may continue to face similar challenges in areas like staffing in the new year, that doesn’t mean that your grant management program should suffer. Investing in solutions like automation and getting organized on your funding activities and reporting efforts can make all the difference in ensuring you run a successful grant management program in 2024. 

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.