What is value in grant giving?

We know that value for money is inherently difficult to measure – and can be even harder to demonstrate. We often recommend that grant makers undertake an evaluation of their current solutions, in order to establish baseline metrics that can be used to measure improvement and track value for money.

Some metrics you might find useful

• What is your cost per grant awarded?
• What percentage of your grant funds is the cost of administration?
• What are your turnaround times, for processing, for reviews?
• What are your success rates?
• What percentage of your grants have overdue final balances, e.g. >6 months overdue?
• Measure the time, resources and cost of implanting changes and new programmes?

And, if and when an organisation begins to use a new system, we suggest that some longer-term metrics related to the transition are measured

• How has the system been adopted, with internal satisfaction surveys?
• How has the external facing portal for applicants and reviewers been adopted, again with surveys?
• Are any legacy systems still required, at 6 months, a year after first go-live?
• Support – reporting of all issues, queries and requests logged and performance within SLAs.

An efficient grant management system can reduce administration load, which in turn reduced your cost per grant. A robust assessment process supports increased success rates. Asking the right questions – with the appropriate amount of detail for the funding available – allows you to collect the data you need to assess the impact of your awards.

AIMS grant management software is designed for the needs of grant administrators of all sizes – get in touch to find out how we could help you improve the value for money in your grant giving.