Grant Management Guiding Principles

“Best practice” can be an inappropriate term to use – as what suits one organisation may not suit another. But having assisted a number of grant providers over the past number of years, there are common themes – “guiding principles” - that impact a grant provider and its grant management processes. So, while I have not listed out these “guiding principles” here, I have gathered these common themes together.

Naturally, there will be certain assumptions that support grant management “guiding principles” (to try and close the gap between grant providers and the way that they work) so I have used the following grant management process as the basis (drawing on the practical experience that I encountered with grant providers):

Supporting this value chain are the following assumptions (which underpin the “guiding principles” which I have identified:

 Grant management is an end-to-end process that is initiate with the initial application for a grant through the final payment of that grant
 Compliance with all donor requirements can be met throughout the grant management processes (initial grant application, through to final payment), including compliance with sound financial management practice and controls.
 The actual payment (settlement of the financial responsibility) of a grant is a financial transaction within the accounts payable (AP) function and as such must meet the appropriate financial management standards of control, reconciliation and audit.

I have prepared 27 “guiding principles” (15 management principles and 12 process principles that, combined support the overall grant management) under the following headings
 Planning & Design (5)
 Operations Management (5)
 Performance Management (5)
 Technology Management & Enablement (6)
 Data Management (3)
 Financial Management (3 – not including corporate governance & compliance requirements)