The below video below provides more information on what a grant application is, and why you would use it.
What is a shelf project?
The grants calendar also helps you to gain a valuable oversight into the workload of your team, keeps everyone on track during the process, and is a good prompt to use during meetings to identify potential funding.
Whilst the tool I’ve provided to you is focused on grants, I encourage you to use it for sponsorships and tenders as well.
The instructions tab in the spreadsheet, provides suggestions on how you can modify/use the tool.
Some grant calendars also have columns to track the reporting progress of successful grants, to track progress, right through to acquittal stage.
My tool doesn’t do that and here’s why:
Once a grant has been secured, it becomes a contractual arrangement between you and the funder, and this arrangement should be monitored through a separate tool, I refer to as the ‘contracts table’. The contracts table, actually explores the true relationship and performance indicators that specific contract has, not just the reporting process.
So how do you create a grants calendar?
1. Make sure you have a list of projects/programs you want to deliver in the next 18-24 months.
2. Download the GRANTS CALENDAR TEMPLATE
3. Research available grants – you can use a variety of sources for that, personally, I love using the EasyGrants from Our Community and I suggest going back 12 months to identify suitable grants. If you don’t have access to 12 months of past information on grants, Google this site: www.grants.gov.au or state websites like www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au.
4. Document those grants that you feel align with your organisation’s purpose, or, fund similar projects and programs with your purpose.
5. Sort the data in the table to show it in order of month (see here for instructions)
6. Track progress on your activity by selecting the right status type in the status column.
7. Discuss at every meeting and continue to update and add funders as you go.