Top 10 Reasons to Have a Grants Management System

1. Competition Is Fierce. The past few years have seen a new level of competition for grant funding from both federal and non-federal sources. An effective grants management system supports your organization with the right technology and technical support team to help you properly pursue grant funding and effectively manage both program and financial requirements across the entire grants lifecycle.

2. One Central Location. A grants management system provides a single,  centralized system to help you administer your grants through the entire grants lifecycle. Properly tracking all of your activities is critical to mitigating financial risk, avoiding audit findings and efficiently managing all of your grant activities. A grant management system will also store all of your files to avoid the common challenge of trying to track them down when you need them.

3. Save Money/Time. With a comprehensive grants management system at your fingertips, you no longer have to scour the internet for funding opportunities, track down files, wait for reports or determine where in the process you and your team are. Instead, you can let the system automate and manage your tasks, search for grants for you, and remind you when your work needs to be completed.

4. Explore a Massive Grant Storehouse. A comprehensive grants database gives you access to thousands of federal, state, and foundation grants. The best systems will standardize and organize grant opportunities according to your most important search criteria so you can eliminate the time required to read through a NOA/NOFA.

5. Keep the Money You Are Awarded. A grants management system will help identify indirect costs so you can calculate the cost required to properly spend down your full grant award. “Use it or lose it” holds true with grant funding. Properly managing awarded funding is as important as winning the grant, and a grants management software system eliminates the financial risk of not meeting all project, reporting, and reimbursement deadlines.

6. The Pass-Through Dilemma. A comprehensive grants management system will help pass-through entities manage the very complex and administratively burdensome process of integrating both grantee and grantor requirements into a seamless process, which includes the often difficult task of managing subrecipients.

7. Align Grant Activities with Your Organization’s Goals. It’s tough to meet your strategic goals when you lack visibility and the ability to track who is doing what in your organization. A grants management system ensures accountability and alignment of grant activities relative to organizational priorities, with reliable tracking of grant and project financials, goals, and performance metrics.

8. Standardization. A grants management system will standardize data collection and reporting processes across your entire organization. This will help drive transparency, produce more timely and accurate reporting, and help comply with federal grant requirements, such as the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), DATA Act, GONE Act and GREAT Act.

9. Stay Up-to-Date on Changes to Grant Information. Grant application dates, amounts, eligibility requirements, and other critical information all may change from the initial publication of a grant notice. A grants management software system ensures early warning and timely response to relevant funding opportunities with configurable real-time email alerts.

10. Stop Worrying About Who Is Applying for What. Knowing which departments are applying for which grants can be nightmarishly difficult, and that lack of knowledge can be costly when agencies compete for the same grant. A grants management system is the right solution for ensuring transparency among departments and organizing multiple deliverables.

Any other reasons to have a grants management system? We want to hear from you! Leave us a comment.