Metrics to Drive Grant PerformanceTammy TilzeyDirector, Foundant for Grantseekers

Diane Demarest Director of Grant Development, Jannus, Inc.

We will address:

• Clarifying your grants goal

• Metrics in the field of grant writing

• Data driven metrics

• Gather and analyzing your data

• Looking ahead – benchmarking grant performance

Do you know your goal?If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else!

• What does your organization expect?

• How is it quantified?

• How do you know if you’ve succeeded?

• Should you be asking? Or telling?

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• 23% of your Budget?

• X times Grant Writer’s Salary?

• 10% more than last year?

• 18% of what you submit?

• How much you need to meet your budget?

What ‘Should’ Be our Grant Award Goal?

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S e t t i n g Ta r g e t s f o r G r a n t F u n d r a i s i n g G o a l s

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Recipe

TRACK WHAT YOU ARE DOING TODAY

COMPARE WITH BENCHMARKS

USE DATA TO SET FUTURE GOALS

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How do you track grants?

❑ Excel Combo: Excel Spreadsheets + Calendars + Binders + Whiteboards + Stickies + File Systems

❑ Grant Database, Donor Management System (DMS/CRM)

❑ Fiscal Office Reports

❑ Nothing Yet

Essential Grant Metrics Dashboard KPIs – Key Performance Indicators

• Basic Status:• Number / Amount grants Submitted • Number / Amount grants Awarded vs Denied• Win Rate

• Key Variables to Break Down:• Type of Funder (Federal / Foundation / Corp)• Repeat Funders vs New Funders• Which Program / Initiative Funded

• Growth Initiatives:• New Funders Researched / Applied to• Average Amount Awarded• Contacts / Meetings / Etc to Build Relationships

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https://resources.foundant.com/grantseeker-resources/8-grant-reports-metrics-kpis

• Monthly Activity Reports

• Number of LOIs & Grants Submitted

• Number of Funder Reports Submitted

• Progress on Goals: Year-To-Date

• Amount Awarded/Denied/Submitted/Planned

• Update on Initiatives

• Professional Development

• Grant Management System

• Capacity & Resource Planning (hiring, outsourcing, interns, etc.)

Tracking your Progress Towards Goals

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Track Your Information

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Funders: Elements to Track

• Deadlines

• Decision Process

• Funding History

• Funder Name• EIN / 990s• Funder Type• “Buckets” (Repeat, Strategic, New)• Areas of Interest• Geographical Focus• Min/Max Funding• Key Contacts / Board Members• Address• Website• Social Media Sites

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Grants: Elements to Track

• Funder Name• Grant Name• Key Contact at Funder• Submission Link / Login• Owner• Status (Pending, Awarded, Denied)• Type of Funding• Restrictions• Programs Funded• Award Details (Matching, Multi-Year, etc.)• Reporting Requirements/Deadlines

• Amounts• Amount Requested• Amount Awarded• Amount Received

• Dates:• Proposal Deadline (Or Open)• Date Submitted• Decision Date• Date Received• Grant Term

PRACTICE DATA

Data for Gina Grant Writer's Non-Profit

2016 2017 2018 2019 Projection

Grants Status of Submissions by Count

# Awarded 15 20 25

# Denied 10 10 20

Total Submitted 25 30 45

Calculate Success Rate 60% Awarded/Submitted

Grant Status of Submissions by Dollars

Total $ Awarded 750,000$ 900,000$ 1,000,000$

Total $ Denied 325,000$ 375,000$ 375,000$

Total $ Requested 1,075,000$ 1,275,000$ 1,375,000$

Success Rate 70% $ Awarded/$ Requested

Applied by Source

Private foundation 22 19 30

Corporate grantmakers 2 5 7

Government (Fed, State, Local) 2 6 8

Total Submissions 25 30 45

How has % of Foundation Grants changed?

D a s h b o a r d s a n d g r a p h s

Exploring Ways to Share Your Data

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Sharing Your MetricsA dashboard view is a good method to quickly monitor your Key Performance Metrics.

• Describing grants at different stages

• Quantify and visualize your efforts and results

• Comparing year over year

• Making a case

• Projecting for future year

• Preparing to visit with a funder – what is your history with them?

• Reporting to your board informs fiscal decisions.

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Grants by StageA summary of what stage each grants and sponsorships applications are at one point in time, is a good progress update of your grant efforts over time .

Phase Research Planned In-ProgressLOI

SubmittedProposal

SubmittedAwarded Denied Pending Closed

Number Proposals July 1, 2018

25 10 3 1 14 9 3 2 5

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Meaningful DataChoose the data that supports the story you want to tell.

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Based on this information what does the grant writer’s success rate look like?

Awarded / Awarded + Denied = Success Rate

53 / (53 + 34) = 60.9%

Meaningful DataThe data you choose can tell more than one story.

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$8,483,218

$2,735,110

$4,935,911

$1,174,501

$0

$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,000,000

$4,000,000

$5,000,000

$6,000,000

$7,000,000

$8,000,000

$9,000,000

Comparison by Status July 1, 2018-April 30, 2019

Awarded

Denied

Pending

In Process

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Based on this information what does the grant writer’s success rate look like?

Awarded / Awarded + Denied = Success Rate

$8,483,218/ $11,218,328= 75%

53

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Overall success is about 64%

(numbers of grants) but when

you compare the success in

each source – about 50%

success rate for Corporate

and 53% for Foundation

grants but among

Government applications 86%

are successful.

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Ways to Describe Success

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Another way to illustrate the data

S e t t i n g Ta r g e t s f o r G r a n t F u n d r a i s i n g G o a l s

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Recipe

TRACK WHAT YOU ARE DOING TODAY

COMPARE WITH BENCHMARKS

USE DATA TO SET FUTURE GOALS

Benchmarking

• Did you follow someone who left a good record?

• Do you set your goals based on your previous year’s performance?

• Consider State of Grantseeking Survey to benchmark against national trends.

The 2019 State of Grantseeking Report; Grant Station https://grantstation.com/sites/default/files/2019-05/The%202019%20State%20of%20Grantseeking%20Report_0.pdf

• Size of organization budget

• Type of organization

• % of budget made up by grant funding

• Foundation v. Government (Private v. Public)

• Size of largest grants

Compare apples to apples!

Benchmarking Parameters

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State of Grantmaking Survey Defines Agencies this way:

Budget Range Range Name % of Respondents Median Budget

Under $100,000 Small 19% $40,000

$100,000 - $999,999 Medium 35% $350,000

$1 Million - $9,999,999 Large 31% $2,770,350

$10 Million - $24,999,999 Very Large 7% $14,500,000

$25 Million and Over Extra-Large 9% $65,000,000

Benchmark for Comparison

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Sources of Awards Very Large Org Data New Hope Data

Federal Gov 36% 59%

State Gov 22% 31%

Local Gov 6% 0.30%

Private Foundation 29% 9.6%

Corporate 7% .13%

Total 100% 100%

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Mix of Funding Sources as % of Grant Budget

Indicator (Medians) Grantseeking Report

Largest Federal Gov Award $425,00

Largest State Gov Award $150,000

Largest Local Gov Award $ 92,000

Largest Foundation Award $ 50,000

Largest Corporate Award $ 25,000

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Data for A Very Large Organization

**These are all the Medians of the largest award of all survey respondents (the number in the middle of a set of numbers.

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Median v. Average AwardsGina Grant Writer's Data

Grants

Awarded

2016

Average

Grant 2016

Median

Grant

2016

Total 15 $50,000 $20,000

$250 $250

$250 $250

$300 $300

$1,000 $1,000

$1,500 $1,500

$2,900 Avg w/o $2,900

$8,300 Outlier $8,300

$20,000 $26,785.71 $20,000

$25,000 $25,000

$25,000 $25,000

$30,000 $30,000

$35,000 $35,000

$75,000 $75,000

$150,500 $150,500

$375,000 $375,000

$750,000 Total $750,000

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How does New Hope compare?

Indicator Grantseeking Report Largest Median Award

New Hope –Largest Awards

New Hope-Average Award

New Hope-Median Award

Largest Federal Gov Award $425,000 $2,041,613 $379,925 $187,500

Largest State Gov Award $150,000 $2,458,154 $ 285,744 $45,000

Largest Local Gov Award $ 92,000 $18,000 $ 7,600 $ 5,000

Largest Foundation Award $ 50,000 $112,403 $ 27,250 $ 17,250

Largest Corporate Award $ 25,000 $5,000 $ 2,600 $ 2,500

Gearing Up for Capacity: https://resources.foundant.com/granthub-documents/gearing-up-for-capacity

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What Benchmarks Would Meaningful for you?

- for your Supervisor?

- for your Board?

Giving USA 2019 Report

https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-2019-americans-gave-427-71-billion-to-charity-in-2018-amid-complex-year-for-charitable-giving/ 30

S e t t i n g Ta r g e t s f o r G r a n t F u n d r a i s i n g G o a l s

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Recipe

TRACK WHAT YOU ARE DOING TODAY

COMPARE WITH BENCHMARKS

USE DATA TO SET FUTURE GOALS

What’s Next? How to use your metrics:

QualityEstablishing metrics to establish a solid, repeatable, and proper grant process.

• The percentage of grants that went through proper signoff and have all important grant documents archived.

• Number of staff trained in tracking, grant writing, evaluations

• Number of LOIs that were invited for full proposal

ROI (Return on Investment)You can use your metrics to predict the return on investment for additional tools & resources to continue building your sustainable grant practice.

• Show the impact of professional development –has your success rate changed?

• Show impact of grant management system – can you submit and manage more successful proposals?

• Estimating the number of number of proposals one FTE can complete in 1 year.

• Setting a benchmark for minimum size grants to go after (I.e. nothing under $25k). When you look at the time invested in small grants that are awarded you could still end up ahead by doing them.

33Metrics to Drive Grant Performance: https://resources.foundant.com/blog/metrics-to-drive-grant-performance

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Bonus: Using Your Metrics to Get Support for a Tracking Solution

• Opportunity Costs: Have you ever missed a grant application deadline? A report due date?

• Capacity: Do you struggle to quickly articulate the work required to successfully execute on your grant process to meet your fundraising plan?

• Strategic Growth: Are you looking for strategies to be more effective, to increase the maturity of your grant process?

• Funder Support: If you present your need for a better solution, you could get assistance with related costs. Here is an outline of how to approach this: https://resources.foundant.com/granthub-documents/gearing-up-for-capacity

QUESTIONS?

Thank You

ResourcesGPA Strategy Paper: Designing Performance Metrics for Grant Professionals: Recommendations from the field: http://www.informz.net/GPASSOC/data/images/Strategy%20Papers/Strategy_Papers_Volume_6_Issue_2.pdf

8 Grant Reports (Metrics and KPI’s for Grantseekers): https://resources.foundant.com/resources-foundant-corporate/8-grant-reports-metrics-kpis

Metrics to Drive Grant Performance: https://resources.foundant.com/blog/metrics-to-drive-grant-performance

Gearing Up for Capacity: https://resources.foundant.com/granthub-documents/gearing-up-for-capacity

The 2019 State of Grantseeking Report; Grant Station https://grantstation.com/sites/default/files/2019-05/The%202019%20State%20of%20Grantseeking%20Report_0.pdf

Presenter Contact Information:Tammy Tilzey tammy.tilzey@foundant.comDiane Demarest ddemarest@jannus.org