7 Key Factors of a Complete Grant Lifecycle Management System
24th November 2022
5 min read
by Jak Kirwin
Successfully administering funding programs and projects for public services and social sectors is at the core of grant management, but what are the processes involved in the full grant lifecycle and how can organisations optimise these processes to ensure that successful and positive impacts are made? Let’s dive deeper into what the grant lifecycle looks like and what key factors play a role in order to achieve impactful outcomes for communities and individuals involved.
What does the Grant Lifecycle look like?
The grant lifecycle encompasses the complete end-to-end processes of grant management. This starts with the stages.
- The pre-award stage: grant writing, publishing, applications and reviewing.
- The award stage: contract, finances, and delivery management.
- The post-award stage: impact reporting and auditing.
There are 7 key factors at the core of a comprehensive grant lifecycle system. These factors must be addressed to provide the features and capabilities an organisation needs:
Access and Availability
Provide internal users and external stakeholders secure access, anytime and anywhere using a standard internet browser. Access is based on roles, securely providing access to data and features only necessary to the role’s function. Users require no additional local infrastructure, IT resources or other investments.
Grant Lifecycle Administration
Deliver streamlined administration of all grant processes. This ranges from planning, data capture, and workflows to acquittal with tracking and alerts to ensure traceability and process adherence.
Secure Central Data Management
Manage all data critical within a centralised system, while reducing errors and inefficiencies in data input, access, and management. Maintain all data, from applications, finances and correspondence for historical review and performance reporting. Even parked or completed projects should be kept in the same place. Document management plays an important role in this as well. Get a real sense of streamlined document management in the grant lifecycle here.
➔ Download this FREE guide to see the features you should be looking for in a lifecycle management system
Budget and Financial Management
Provide full financial management capabilities including accessing real time budget data, payments management. Drill-down and roll-up capabilities to support all stakeholders’ needs, from investors to delivery agents.
Contract and Compliance Management
Ensure control, clarity, and confidence with business rules to ensure visibility and adherence to grant contract terms and conditions, as well as compliance and regulatory requirements.
Performance Management and Reporting
Set KPIs, align to plans, measure, manage and report on all aspects of the whole grant lifecycle. Enable customisable, on-demand and automated reporting to ensure all stakeholders receive the data they require.
Configurability, Scalability, and Interoperability
Provide the flexibility to customise data, user roles, business logic, templates, workflows, and other features. Easily scalable to handle any volume of users, programs, projects and finances, and the ability to interface into other business critical systems, like financial accounting systems.
Why is holistic management of the grant lifecycle important?
Addressing each of these 7 factors is critical in order to deliver the full scale of benefits, and importantly realising a rate of return on the investment. Fund management systems that manage applications and forms only, or payments and contracts fail to provide full end to end capabilities and inevitably lead to organisations employing work arounds or sub-optimal patches undermining the entire investment goal.
Tactiv’s Enquire Grant Lifecycle Management software is not only designed to support most organisations with the standard capabilities required but also offers an impressive degree of configurability so that Enquire adapts to an organisation’s requirements.
This means organisations spend less time and expenses in change management and retraining within their teams, and more time and effort in delivering efficiencies and capacity to manage the whole grant lifecycle, from planning to performance reporting.
Enquire’s Fund Management Software
Tactiv’s Enquire Funds Lifecycle Management software seeks to ensure organisations can meet the requirements of every stage of the whole fund lifecycle, from planning to historical performance reporting. Enquire is widely used by a diverse group of organisations, including the NRM, government, not for profit and international aid and development sectors to achieve end-to-end fund lifecycle management.
Enquire offers organisations a complete fund lifecycle management system with a wider range of features and capabilities than any other fund management system available in the marketplace.
Want to know more?
Dive into more details on the grant management page.
Alternatively, explore the capabilities of Enquire by watching our explainer videos narrated by Tactiv specialists.
Essential Guide to Choosing a Grants Management System
