Interview! Joe Miele, TNR project coordinator, Broken Promises SW
February 4, 2017
Interview! Meg Bond, Owner, Staging & Organizing By Meg
February 7, 2017
Managing grant applications can be a nightmare if it isn’t done right! The foundations you potentially work with are prospects that can mean bringing in real dollars to your organization. But it is an incredible challenge to track your potential funders, those organizations that you have applied too and then those that have granted funds to you. So, How to Track Those Pesky Grants, you ask?
I can’t tell you how many times I have submitted an application to a foundation and never heard anything back from them. Or even worse, I did hear back, but didn’t record the message in a place I would remember. Soon, I emailed them asking about a result (well… that was embarrassing!).
Therefore, you need to have a system in place to help with tracking all of this information. Over time, your organization will want to have a history of this donor information in your donor management software, but it is also good to keep the information in a handy google doc or Excel sheet that you and your team can work on, as well.
How to Track Those Pesky Grants
I have created a Google Doc Link for you to view to see a few templates of how I have followed the grant writing in the past. These templates take you from prospects, to application, to historical tracking, to the actual tracking of the specific grant, so follow up reporting won’t be painful.
If you are working with a team, this is an essential tool to make sure that everyone is on the same page with regards to prospects. I would like to thank Heidi Paek of Grantwell, Julie Jacobson of Spay Tennesse and the staff at MRFRS to creating many parts of these tracking documents.
How do you manage your grant applications? Do you have any tips? Feel free to share your comments on our Facebook page.
Check out these links about upcoming grant opportunities and foundation listings:
Happy Grant Writing in 2017!
