Grants Lifecycle 101
Grants Management is crucial for your organization if you would like to continue receiving grants. The focus on performance, accountability, and transparency play a major role as you manage the grants. To continue receiving grant dollars we highly encourage you to consider the grants lifecycle- it will allow you to streamline your organizational processes.
What is a Grant Lifecycle?
Grant Lifecycle implies to the complete process a grant goes through from researching, writing, submitting, receiving, implementing, managing, closing, and auditing. In simplicity, it means the following:
You started thinking about a project idea
Researched the funder
Started writing the grant
Submitted the grant
Received communication from the funder (Yes or No)
Got the grant, yeah!!!
Started spending the grant dollars
Spent all the money and finished the project
Ran reports on your programmatic goals and financials
Submitted all the reports
Completed the grant
Filed it away
Now in detail, we will go over each out the steps in grants language. Below are the steps to the grant lifecycle:
Idea - In this phase, you have strategically determined why you need the funding and what programs require the grant money?
Pre-Award - During this phase, you will see the RFP posted on Grants.gov or the funder’s website. The application is due within 30-60 days and you will work with your grant to the team to get this grant submitted on time.
Award - During this phase, you learn if you have received the award or not. You will receive communication from the program officer on the next steps. You should expect to receive notice of grant award. If you were not funded, always get feedback from the funder.
Post-Award - This phase is crucial to your organization as it entails the heavy chunk of grant management During this step, you will ensure you have all the policies & procedures in place that the grant requires. You will set up budgets, compare budgets, bill expenses, request reimbursements, review expenditures, modify budgets, communicate with the project officers as needed, and provide grant reporting. Review if there is program income, budget revisions, and performance measurement.
Closeout - You can close out the grant once the project date has ended and there will no other expenditures coming thru. You are responsible to comply with all federal regulations for expenditures and accounting. This step includes terminating the grant fund, generating reports, internal controls over all funds, property, and other assets. Consideration on payment allowability from 2 CFR 200.
Audit - The grant is audited by the organization’s audit team. Some organization allow internal audits. And, it may get audited by the Federal agency. You will be audited on programmatic and financial activities of the grant.
Grant Management is a topic that will vary from organization to organization due to the types of funding they receive. So, all organizations may not have the same grant lifecycle; you can probably have a similar lifecycle but your process will differ. We hope this post helps you strengthen your grant processes. If you have any questions or comments please let us know.
