Tracking Grant Writing Work & Organization

When writing applications for grants you begin to need help. You'll be swimming in applications, giving guidelines, copies of letters of inquiries or applications, and contact information FOR EVERY GRANT DONOR YOU SERIOUSLY CONSIDER APPLYING TO AND THOSE YOU APPLY TO. This winds up being a lot of papers for a good number of foundations, corporations, governments, and more.

Plus, you'll need to know for each of these grant donors where you are in your process with them; have you received their giving guidelines if they don't have a website? Have they received your letter of inquiry and responded that your organization may apply for their grant? Again, you'll be dealing with a good number of organizations that you'll have to manage information for.

Non profits are not without resources, but having said that, you know that they wisely conserve them to achieve their mission statement's goal. Unfortunately, a part of this experience is the difficulty in managing operations. We all know that one of the benefits of being in business today is the advent of technologies such as computers and software.

I have not heard of a good computer program that manages the grant writing process well. If you know of one, please post a comment and share that information with me and my readers. Let us know what the software is called, who makes it, any negatives, and why you recommend it.

My experience remains that the best way to track grant writing is managing both a hard copy set of files and creating a spreadsheet. For instance, if your office works on Microsoft software create a grant work tracking spreadsheet in either Excel or Access.

I created and use a spreadsheet that tracks everything for my grant writing work, in Excel, and have used it as both a staff grant writer and as a contractor for various clients. Contact me if you are interested in seeing or using it. (To contact me click on the "View My Complete Profile" link in the sidebar of this blog page, to the left, and next click "Email" in the "Contact Me" section).

The spreadsheet is a chart with every stage of the steps to grant writing as category headings, along the top. Down the chart, to the left, are each entity that I am researching or applying to for grants. So, for each foundation, corporation, business, government, etc. that I am considering sending an application for a grant to, I have the opportunity to note (under each pertinent heading) whether I've completed each step to apply, when I heard back from them, whether they've said that we can apply, what I'm applying for, when the deadline is for applications, and information like this. I also have a "Notes" heading for each entity where I state any information that I learn such as, 'no longer accepts applications for medical equipment', or 'phone number has changed from 555-2233 to 555-1212'.

The benefit of this information management system is that it is quick. If my client or if my Executive Director asks, "Hey, Arlene, where are we with the Boeing grant?" I can simply cursor down my long list to the Boeing line in the spreadsheet and toggle across and look at what I've done, what we've heard back, and what the next step is in the process. Obviously, the down side of this method (or any software tracking method) is if errors are entered into the spreadsheet, then it isn't helpful. Data entry must be followed up with checks with the hard documents, communication with the grant donor, and your colleagues. Just making sure that what you have down, every so often, is a great time saver in the future. Trust me!

For all of our modern technology - the old method is still invaluable. For every client and certainly when I was a staff grant writer, I kept files. The filing system that you either set up or inherit should both be easy to use (for you, your co-workers, and future users) and should be complete with each entity your organization has ever applied to a grant for and is anyone your org is receiving a grant from. You could also organize a set of files for every organization you consider applying to, if you have the time, but I hazard to guess you'll only wind up applying to half to two thirds of the long list of potential grant donors. I only maintained files for two groups; organizations we were seriously considering to apply to and those we'd received grants from (which wind up being one in the same, eventually)). For each potential grant donor I kept all communication, their information, or printed info (that was current), any articles I found in the newspaper or on the Internet, copies of anything sent to them or received from them, and any other pertinent info. When I went to call them, I had in the file everything that I knew/received. If the office's computer network was down for a day, I could continue my work by using the hard copies. The downside of having paper files is that maintaining files means keeping them up to date, having space for filing cabinets, and as documents get old you'll need to either recycle/destroy the old files or find a place to store them.

The benefits of keeping organized are obvious; you'll know what's going on with each organization that you're applying for grants from at any time via your software and hard copies. You'll have a current copy of each grant donating entity's giving guidelines, current application, and contact info in their files. On the spreadsheet you'll be able to see where you are in your work at any given time. If you work in a team that does the grant writing, this of course keeps you all on the same page (information, time line, and progress made - wise). If you leave your position you'll pass on current, clear, historied information to the next person. Most importantly, your organization benefits the most; everything will be documented, recorded, and clear. The cause, population, or effort that your mission strives to benefit - will benefit, in the end.

Keeping organized is not natural to everyone - it helps to be, though, because a little stress is reduced, knowing that you at least know what is going on with each potential grant donor, and each application. If you aren't one of those automatically organized people ask a regular in-office volunteer, who is, if they have time to manage your grant files and grant spreadsheet. Or, ask your Volunteer Coordinator if they know of someone, who is really organized, that wants to help in your office with data entry and filing.

If, like all of us, you are very stressed and are more so just thinking of the suggestions that I've made here, check out my post "Where to Put Overwhelmed On the Calendar?" at http://thegrantplant.blogspot.com/2004/07/where-to-put-overwhelmed-on-calendar.html

Once you get your system underway the organizational management system that you establish will become an invaluable ally and a great asset to your grant writing success.