What Is Grant Management?

Grant management is defined as the process through which organizations manage and oversee the grant funds in a structured process. Whether the foundation provides grants to nonprofit organizations, a public charity raises money, or a government body makes resources available, grant management is essential to ensure proper and regulated use of the grant.

The GAO states that the federal government alone spends $1.2 trillion each year on grants. That figure should alone indicate the need to properly track, report, and manage grants.

Simply defined, grant management assures the entire lifecycle of a grant—from application and review through to award distribution, monitoring compliance, and finalizations through reporting. In order to successfully meet these demands, the grantee must maintain a very detailed level of attention, a broad understanding of grant policy, and an effective fund accounting and tracking system.

How Grant Management Works

The grant management process does not start when the award is granted; it starts long before. It begins in the identification stage of grant opportunities right to the preparation and submission of a grant proposal. After submission, the proposal is received for the review process where scrutiny is undertaken, and specified criteria lead to a ruthless process.

Assuming the proposal is successful, the next step is holding the grant awarded formally. An organization at this stage is put into a situation that requires observing terms and conditions with the grant, which usually demand specific goals, timelines, and reporting. If efficiently managed, therefore, the grant goes ahead to capture all elements into the system to guarantee compliance with terms and conditions.

Monitoring and evaluation are imperative throughout the lifecycle of a grant. Organizations must regularly report on the progress made in funded projects, track expenses, and document results. This level of accountability is essential to not only the maintenance of funding but also to the demonstration of impact to stakeholders.

Benefits of Grant Management

Grant management is the center part of activity for many types of organizations:

• Efficient grant management enables foundations to assure that their funds are used as designated, with the greatest impact and highest accountability in use.
• Public Charities can be aided in getting optimal funding and increasing their chances of grants by properly managing their grant applications and reporting.
• Government Agencies rely on grant management to distribute resources equitably, monitor compliance, and measure outcomes.

For each of these groups, the important element in successful grant management is not merely getting funded but in optimizing the value of being funded.

Example Use Case of Grant Management Software

For example, consider a leading public charity that receives hundreds of grants annually from government and private groups as well. They may have seen issues of missed submission deadlines,or experienced difficulty staying in compliance with donors, or in tracking execution across different programs and categories. Their solution might be to implement a grant software solution to handle these kinds of challenges.

With software in place, the full grant management could be fully automated, making it easy to track every incoming and outgoing cash. Besides, it could ensure proper compliance with each grant's requirements and reports showing in much more detail the impacts the funds had on the programs. The streamlined process can reduce the administrative overhead and improve their ability to apply and manage more grants in the future.

Benefits of Using Fluxx

Fluxx is an industry leader in advancing the benefits of grant management solutions. Their products are designed to fit the varied needs of foundations, public charities, and government agencies. Fluxx helps organizations spend less time dealing with their grants and, instead, spend more time managing them effectively to maximize the impact of the valuable work they do.

The key benefits to using Fluxx include:

• Better Visibility: Fluxx gives real-time visibility to organizations that let them see all the steps of each process being run, allowing them to track progress and understand beforehand potential issues in their way.
  Example: A foundation supporting environmental projects will make use of Fluxx to monitor the status of the grantees with regard to the attainment of environmental goals.
• Workflow Optimization: The platform automates many of the tedious aspects of the process, such as application processing and reporting, to allow the much-needed time for organizations to concentrate on the main functions.
  Example: A private grantmaker to an educational charity uses Fluxx to facilitate the review process for applications. It lets the team focus on building up their schemes rather than organizing endless amounts of paperwork in the office.
• Better Compliance: Fluxx promises more effective compliance execution for the organization by tracking expenses, monitoring results obtained, and finally feeding the data into detailed reporting.
  Example: A government organization disbursing disaster relief funds depends on Fluxx to ensure that grantees operate properly while ensuring public money is kept safe and passed on to the right hands.

Importance of Grant Management

In today's competitive funding landscape, effective grant management is key to any organization and maximizing impact. Whether you are a foundation, public charity, or government agency, the right grant management practices—and the right tools—can make all the difference. That's where a powerful solution, like Fluxx, can help you. It will enable your organization to really transform and ensure that the funds deliver proper change.

Want to see how Fluxx will revolutionize your grants process? Schedule a meeting now and be prepared to be blown away.