Tools for Grant Success: Grant Calendars
A grant calendar is a key starting place for any organization applying for grants. It doesn’t have to be fancy, or be in an expensive database, but it has to exist, and it has to capture a few key things. At it most basic, a calendar needs to keep track of deadlines, but a solid calendar template will do more than that, helping keep all the elements of a grant portfolio on track in one central location. What are the components to capture?
Your grant deadlines. Yes, I know, thank you captain obvious. Indeed, your calendar should capture, at its most basic, I don’t have time to get fancy iteration – the name of the funder you are applying to, the grant you are applying for, and when it is due. Having that information all in one place will make it so much easier to keep track of who needs to do what when. But you’d be surprised by how many organizations don’t have that basic central list, available where everyone working on grants can access it in some way.
Your report deadlines. See above. Winning a bunch of grants can actually hurt you more than help you if you don’t keep track of when your reports are due, and miss telling all your funders about how you spent their money. Once you’ve won a grant, start tracking the same information you do for applications, with reporting deadlines instead of application deadlines.
Ready to move beyond the basics? A great grant calendar can also help you organize:
What programs you are applying for. Tagging a grant application to a specific project or to general operating funds gives you a nice quick picture of what you’re applying for, and then, what you’re winning. Are you applying for three major programs but only winning grants for one? It can be hard to get a sense of that if you’re applying for a lot of grants but not tracking that information in one place.
What your funders prioritize, and how much they tend to award. Drop a quick description of each funder in your calendar and you won’t have to do a google check on which funder cares about what piece of your work before you write an application. It’s a two minute time saver that adds up to a ton of time over the course of a year.
The status of your application and/or report. Like the above, if you throw the date you submitted something, or decided not to submit something, or were awarded something, into your calendar, it saves you the trouble of having to look up that information later. Especially if you’re submitting an application to a funder with multiple deadlines over a year. Did you already submit this year? Last quarter is a giant fog, punctuated by the gala you spent 400 hours planning. Having a note in the calendar saves you the time digging through emails and files to check what has gone in or not.
The priority level of a funder. This is helpful to some and not to others. Personally, I like to assign three groupings to my funder pool – those that are strong fits, and require no additional cultivation before submitting a grant; those that are strong fits, but require some additional cultivation before submitting a grant; those that may be strong fits, but require extensive additional cultivation before submitting a grant, either to assess the fit, or to get an invitation to apply. This helps me plan out my work by telling me what time and resources need to be dedicated where, and what applications need to go to the top of the list, and which can wait when things are busy.
Getting a good calendar put together does require an investment of time up front (and hey, we can help with that!). But once it’s in place it shouldn’t require a lot of additional time to manage, and in the long run it will save a lot of time spent tracking down information, and help prevent last minute realizations about pending deadlines. I love Google Sheets for grants calendars – easy to share, always backed up. But any format will do, as long as it’s a central place for your grants information.
