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ONLINE COURSES (/ONLINE-COURSES) CLASSROOM COURSES (/FACETOFACE-COURSES) TOOLKITS (/TOOLKITS)

❮ ▸ Grant seeking and management ❯

Key to Success
Developing good relationships and shared understanding with funders is important to achieve the common goals. The key
to making funding relationships work is open and regular two way communication, and updating the donors regularly, as
they do not like surprises.
Negotiation with donors about their conditions can be very succesfull - especially if certain conditions are unreasonable or
too difficult to meet for specific reasons.
Restricted funds should be handled separately and carefully.

Challenges
Grants are usually restricted funds, and specific guidelines need to be followed. This is not always in line with the objectives
or first priorities of an organisation.

Grant seeking and management

Introduction
Grants are external funds received by an organisation and an important source of funding. Effective grant management helps
to have a stable income over several months or years.

Why
This toolkit is useful for your organisation when it needs:

funds for a specific project.

to cover part of its budget through a grant.
to manage the grants given professionally in order to enhance the chance of receiving more in future.

What you can expect

In nine steps we support you to create a system to manage your grant funding and ensure you can maintain relationships with
funders in the long term. You’ll find a step-by-step guide, tools, examples and other resources for managing grants.

Step 1: Budget Review

Review your budget and decide which part of it could be funded by an external grant. Keep in mind that some grant
makers only fund program costs and not operational costs.

Step 2: Research
Identify potential grant makers. Grants are generally provided by institutions, governments, foundations and development
banks. Information on international grant makers is published in handbooks and online guides. Such tools may also be
available for your country. Use search engines like google to find them. 
 Get as much information as possible about each potential funding agency identified: visit their website, study their year LANGUAGE  
report and other publications.
Look for the areas of support of each agency: does your area of work match the funder’s interest and mandate?
Review which other organisations received funding and for what type of programs.
Decide which grant makers and which of their grants to concentrate on.
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Step 3: Analyse Information
Read through the guidelines, once you have identified a potential funder.
Note its grant cycle or any deadline for application.
Look then for eligibility criteria: are there any geographic or thematic priorities? Is a minimum size of the applicant
organisation required? Etc.
Check whether there are specific requirements for reporting, attending meetings or workshops, site visits, etc.
Consider whether it is feasible for you to meet the funder.

Step 4: Proposal Writing

Write a grant proposal for the chosen funding agency by following its guidelines and format (if provided).
Collect all the required information and documentation with the help of managers and relevant staff.
Make clear plans and budgets.
Demonstrate that you have controls in place for grant management.

Step 5: Agreement
Read through the agreement drafted by the funding agency and signed by both parties.
Read through it in detail before signing.
If you feel that a requirement is not reasonable, negotiate with the funding agency for more favourable conditions.

Step 6: If your Application is rejected

Analyse the reasons given (if any) in case the application is rejected.
Contact the grant maker (if allowed) if no reasons are given and ask if the reasons for rejecting the application can be
shared.
Evaluate how the proposal could have been written better.
Consider investing in proposal writing skills if proposals are rejected frequently.

Step 7: Grant Management

Create an implementation plan based on the agreement.
Decide for each task related to the grant who will have the lead responsibility and who will assist. Usually the grant will be
primarily handled by the program and finance staff. This checklist
(https://www.changethegameacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Network-
Checklist-Responsibilities-in-Grant-Management.docx) gives recommendations on who should take
the lead responsibility and who should provide additional support when required.

Step 8: Monitoring and Reporting

Set up a timeline for internal reporting to ensure that you can meet the donor’s deadlines.
Follow the format for narrative and financial reporting given by the donor.
Ensure that the financial as well as narrative reports match and complement each other.

Step 9: Grant Closure

Prepare for the closure in time. Grants are always provided for a limited time period, usually for the time of a specific
project.
Ensure maximum usage of any remaining funds (within the agreement).
Ensure that all financial statements and reporting documents are complete and ready for audit.
Prepare the final donor report.

Key to Success
Developing good relationships and shared understanding with funders is important to achieve the common goals. The key
to making funding relationships work is open and regular two way communication, and updating the donors regularly, as
 they do not like surprises.  LANGUAGE  
Negotiation with donors about their conditions can be very succesfull - especially if certain conditions are unreasonable or
too difficult to meet for specific reasons.
Restricted funds should be handled separately and carefully.

Challenges
ONLINE COURSES (/ONLINE-COURSES) CLASSROOM COURSES (/FACETOFACE-COURSES) TOOLKITS (/TOOLKITS)
Grants are usually restricted funds, and specific guidelines need to be followed. This is not always in line with the objectives
or first priorities of an organisation.

This toolkit is largely based on the learning materials of the ATMA Network

The purchase of these materials was co-funded by Edukans.