Top Ten Ways to Sabotage Your Grants Program

“I can’t complete this funder report because I don’t have access to our financials related to grants.”

“Our Executive Director wants to use grant funds to cover a budget shortfall.”

“I can’t complete proposals because program staff won’t answer my questions.”

“I feel all alone.”

I frequently hear these comments from grants professionals.

“I don’t understand why our grants program is struggling.”

“Why do we have so much staff turnover in our grants department?”

“Our grants staff member is not meeting deadlines.”

“We are wasting staff time tracking down details nobody cares about.”

I frequently hear these comments from nonprofit leadership.

Clearly, there is a divide. When I started in the grants profession 12 years ago, grants professionals’ focus was largely on developing their own skills. Now, experienced grants professionals are focused on trying to overcome the many hurdles to success that are inherent in the way their organization operates.

Here are the top ten ways your organization may be sabotaging its own grants program:

1.       Assigning grants to an entry-level employee.

A successful grants program involves developing long-term organization-wide strategy, tailoring the organization’s budgeting process, implementing new program evaluation techniques, and integrating grants work into the overall development strategy. This is leadership-level work. Is your Development Assistant really going to educate your VP of Programs on her evaluation design? Is your Grants Coordinator going to help your CFO develop appropriate expense allocation procedures, or challenge reports that don’t look quite right? Your grants staff’s choices are: 1) To try to influence upwards (often burning bridges with staff), or 2) To not try, and accept subpar grants work. Many grants professionals choose hidden option 3: Leave the organization.

2.       Isolating your grants program from the rest of your development efforts.

Grantseeking is fundraising. Your grants program should operate as part of your development program. Grants are intertwined in other areas of fundraising through matching gift programs, corporate involvement, capital or other specific campaigns, and major gifts. Your grants program is a gold mine for all of your other areas of fundraising as well; copy for case statements, major gift solicitation materials, program data, and other resources can be found in your grants program. Isolating the grants program from the rest of your development efforts hinders both.   

3.       Permitting your program staff, development staff, marketing staff, and your finance department to work in silos

“That’s not my job” is the grant proposal killer. Grants programs often struggle because of lack of communication between program, development, marketing, and finance department within an organization. If “silo work” is the organization’s culture, it is a long uphill battle for your grants professional.

4.       Failing to provide grants training to your team (after all, our grants person does all of that…)

Program staff, finance staff, marketing staff, and development staff are all part of the grants team. To be successful, the entire team needs working knowledge of how the organization manages grants and the role of each team member.

5.       Forgetting about the funder after you get the money.

Funders are partners. They should be kept updated on the organization’s programs, challenges, and successes. But often, organizations do not think about a funder until the next time they need money. Ignore your funders and they will go away.

6.       “We don’t really need all these numbers.”

Grants require lots of data. To be successful in grants, your organization must have strong program evaluation and track organization-wide data. This commitment must come from the organization’s leadership.

7.       Involving program staff only AFTER you’ve received the grant.

Sometimes, program staff are bewildered to learn that their program has been grant-funded, but they were never consulted about the program deliverables they are now committed to achieving. Program staff should “drive the bus” in designing grant-fundable programs.

8.       Not budgeting by program.

Grants professionals’ work is very challenging when they have to submit program budgets to funders but the organization doesn’t have program-level budgets. The worst case scenario here is fraud – the organization cannot accurately project or track funds by program, and is thus susceptible to mismanagement of funds.

9.       When a grant-funded program doesn’t deliver the expected results, hiding it from the funder.

Programs are like science experiments – all resulting data is useful. Funders are partners. Open communication is key. Trying to hide information from a funder deteriorates trust and damages your relationship.

10.   Spending the funder’s money on unallowable expenses.

This will not only sabotage your grants program – it may land you in jail. Grants are agreements between a funding agency and the funded organization. Grant funds may ONLY be spent on expenses that the funder has approved as part of the grant agreement. Misspending federal or state funds is illegal. Misspending foundation funds is unethical. If your organization “moves money around,” any ethical grants professional will leave.

Many organizations unknowingly sabotage their grants program in one or more of these ways. Eliminating these pitfalls and strengthening the way your organization operates can reduce turnover in your grants department and set you up for success.