So you got the grant, great! Now what?

You have done your due diligence and submitted the proposal and have been awarded the grant. Great news. Now you can relax right? Wrong! Your work has just begun.

Now you have to actually do what you said you were going to do in the proposal. Hopefully you set realistic goals, objectives and activities. You need to be able to track those as well as the financial expenditures. The most effective way to do this is to utilize some type of software. For the financial component you may be able to use your organization's current financial software such as QuickBooks, or Quicken. Whatever you have be sure to track each and every penny of the granting agencies funds. Creating a simple excel spreadsheet might be all you need to use to track activities. Use software that will give you the best ability to track your progress. You will need the information at a later date and it can be tedious trying to remember what you did seven months ago.

With the check you will probably receive an award letter that outlines when reports are due, how the funds can be expended and other important information. Review this letter immediately and store in a prominent place in case you need to refer back to it.

There should be an internal process in place to book and track the funds. This process needs to have the capability to differentiate grant funds from individual gifts or endowments. Often times funders will require you to place the check in its own separate account so that interest can be calculated and expenses made specifically for the program or project that they funded. Make sure your bank can do this for you.

After six months or a year, funders normally require an accounting of how you spent their gift in the form of a progress or final report. Since budgets are projections and necessitate educated guesses, sometimes the funds need to be expended in a different way than originally proposed. Some organizations will allow for a certain percentage of the total amount to be moved between line items. For example, lets say the funder gave $40,000 for salary, $2,500 for equipment, $2,500 for consulting and $5,000 for supplies for program X. The director of the program leaves the organization after six months. After two months without replacing the program director you have additional funds available in the salary line, while you have depleted the funds in the consultant line because you have had to rely more heavily on the consultant to meet the constituent needs. Let's say the funder allows you to move 10% of the total grant ($50,000), you may be able to move $5,000 from the salary line to the consultants line to defray the additional cost. Remember that unless the project or program completely stopped when the program director left, someone was doing the work. If another staff member took on the responsibilities of the program, he or she should be compensated with a portion of the grant funds. When in doubt contact the funder to find out what they will allow as far as line item changes.

This brings up a very important point-contact the funder throughout the course of the grant on a regular basis, especially when challenges arise. Invite the program officer to the event they are sponsoring. Send that press release to the funder even if it is not directly tied to the program they are funding. Send your quarterly newsletter, and annual report. You want to use every opportunity to market your entire organization, not just the program they are funding. Making them aware of other programs or projects that your organization is involved in may boost potential interest in those programs from the funder in the future. They may not have time to read the press release or decline your invitation, but contact has been made and that is important. It shows them that you care about their support. Of course, don't harass the funder by sending weekly updates, but don't wait until the final report is due to let them know about the progress that has been made.

A colleague recently wrote an excellent article called Stewardship: What Happens after the Grant is Won that nicely details the relational aspects between granting and recipient organizations.