Grant reporting is where good grantmaking becomes credible grantmaking. It is where a foundation can demonstrate, in a clear and transparent manner, what happened after the grant, what was accomplished, how the money was used, and what’s next. A good format for reporting can save time, ensure grantees are kept on track, and provide a common understanding of progress for a foundation’s teams. Without a good format for reporting, a foundation can spend a lot of time clarifying the story and numbers, rather than learning from the results.
In this guide, you will learn about what grant reporting is, how it works, how you should format your grant report, and where manual reporting can create risks. In addition, you will learn where compliance risks can occur, how to make reporting work for different audiences, and how reporting can become much simpler when using a purpose-built system like Fluxx.
What Is Grant Reporting?
Grant reporting is the process of documenting how the funds were utilized and what was accomplished during the entire period of the grant. In most cases, reporting entails a combination of narrative reporting, quantifiable reporting, and sometimes financial reporting. In the case of foundations, reporting is not just about wrapping things up; it is a process of verifying, measuring, and learning what works and what doesn’t. Reporting can also help foundations become accountable to their board, their constituents, and even the larger community. In addition, reporting can also help a foundation build better relations with their grantees.
The grant reporting process usually mirrors the life cycle of a grant, from its setup to its closeout. The foundations determine the reporting requirements at the point when a grant is approved, including due dates, questions that must be answered, and the metrics and financial documentation that must be provided. The reports are then sent in at intervals that have been agreed upon, which can be in conjunction with payment schedules, milestones, or phases.
The reporting process for foundations entails the evaluation and tracking of reports by both the programs and finance teams. The programs team verifies the reports, while the finance team verifies the costs and budgets. The reporting process for foundations is very useful and can be done in a way that makes it a repetitive and routine process.
How You Should Format Your Grant Reporting
A well-designed grant reporting format is simple and straightforward and must be easy to read and review. The best grant reporting format is clear and helps the reader understand what was done, what happened, and what was achieved. The best formats for grant reporting share some common elements that can be used in conjunction with the specific requirements that funders provide. A simple and useful format for a grant report can be outlined as follows:
- Cover Information and Grant Summary
The section must include the name of the grant, the name of the grantee, the reporting period, the amount that was approved, and the area that was supported. This section must be written in a way that helps readers understand the purpose of the grant in a few sentences so that the report can be understood even if it is read separately.
- Executive Summary
A brief overview of the report that includes what was done and what was achieved. This section is where you can state what was achieved and what is most important in the reporting period and any significant changes that have taken place.
- Goals and Activities
Restate the goals that were agreed on during the award and the activities that were completed during the reporting period. This section will be most effective if it follows the same format as the original proposal.
- Outcomes and metrics
Include the results using the metrics defined at the beginning. Include outputs and outcomes, where possible. Outputs are what you have accomplished, and outcomes are the changes that have occurred because of your output. If the metrics have changed, describe the reason for the change and the steps being taken to correct the metrics.
- Budget and financial reporting
Demonstrate how the money was spent in relation to the budget. Highlight any variances, describe any budget reallocations, and include any necessary documentation. This section should clearly delineate the restricted grant dollars spent versus other funding sources used in the program, depending on the blending of funds used in the program.
- Challenges, risks, and changes
Describe the challenges, obstacles, and changes that were not anticipated, the challenges that were experienced, and the changes that were implemented. This section is usually the most useful to the portfolio reader. It reflects the “real world” and the decision-making process.
- Lessons learned and next steps
Discuss the lessons that the foundation and the grantee can use to benefit the organization in the future. Next, describe what is next in the project, what the foundation can expect, and what the next reporting date is.
- Attachments and supporting documents
Include all necessary documents required to be attached to the grant, such as financial statements, invoices, evaluation, photos, attendance logs, and/or project deliverables. This section should be well-organized and labeled so the reader can find the necessary information quickly and efficiently.
The best format guideline is to be consistent. If all reports have the same basic structure, it makes it easier to read, evaluate, and respond to the reports, and reduces the back-and-forth communication with the grantees.
Difficulties Of Doing It Manually
However, the process of manual reporting also tends to break down in predictable ways. Templates live in email threads, versions proliferate among staff members, due dates live on personal calendars, and supporting documentation resides in disassociated folders. Eventually, a reporting process emerges that is difficult to scale and simple to mismanage.
Where You May Run Into Compliance Issues
Compliance risks tend to manifest themselves when it comes to reporting because that is where the grant terms intersect with the actual activity. Reporting is where the grant terms intersect with the actual activity.
Typical compliance issues may include failing to meet a reporting deadline and facing a hold on payments or a governance issue, failing to submit adequate documentation such as unsigned contracts or failing to submit adequate supporting documentation for expenditures, exceeding budget categories for expenditures, making changes to the budget that were discussed but not formally approved, or failing to maintain adequate audit trails to prove who reviewed and approved or changed certain elements.
Compliance problems are not usually the result of a single major problem. They are usually the result of a number of small problems that add up over the course of a portfolio.
Tailoring Reports To Who You're Speaking To
Not everyone needs the same amount of detail. A good reporting process is one that is able to maintain a standard structure while also tailoring the level of detail based on the audience.
For program teams, reporting should focus on goal achievement, outcome data, lessons learned, and implementation issues. For finance and compliance stakeholders, reporting should focus on budget alignment, allowable expenses, documentation requirements, and variance analysis. Finally, for leadership and board stakeholders, reporting should focus on portfolio-level insights such as goal achievement against strategic priorities, risk analysis, equity impact, and high-level outcomes related to funding decisions.
Stakeholders outside the foundation may require even greater tailoring. A donor may need a simple narrative of impact and credibility markers, while a co-founder may need standardized data and documentation of alignment. The important thing is to have one source of truth in the data and present it in the way that is most helpful to the relationship.
Why Reporting is Easy with Fluxx
Reporting is easy with Fluxx because it is part of the grant lifecycle rather than an afterthought. Fluxx makes it easy for foundations to standardize reporting requirements upfront, link reporting to milestone schedules and payment schedules, and manage reporting as an ongoing process.
With Fluxx, it’s easy to centralize report templates, required questions, and document requests in the same record as the grant. Everyone can see what’s due, what’s overdue, what’s in review, and what’s approved, all in one place. No more digging through emails. Role-based access helps with governance by giving the right people access to sensitive financial or program information. Audit history helps with compliance by providing a clear record of what happened, when it happened, and who approved it.
Whether you’re a foundation with many programs, many reporting cycles, or complex grant award structures, this approach helps you manage risk and speed up reporting. Reporting becomes more efficient, more consistent, more reliable, and more learnable.
Make Reporting Clear, Consistent, and Audit-Ready
A good grant report format is not about making it longer. It’s about making it easier to understand, easier to compare, and easier to trust. That’s why it’s so powerful to standardize structure, build compliance into every step, and make it easy to present data in a way that meets the needs of different stakeholders.
If you want reporting that adapts to your changing portfolio, helps with compliance, and helps leadership make decisions with real insight into outcomes, book a demo to show you how Fluxx helps with grant reporting.
