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Free Grant Tracker Spreadsheet [Template + How To Use]

Keeping track of multiple grant applications can be messy, as you must deal with deadlines and proposals. You don’t just talk to an organization representative and ask them to give you the funds — you actually have to present to them why they should do so.

It’s fairly easy to track your grant applications, though. Just open our Grant Tracker Spreadsheet on a new tab, toggle the “Make a copy” button, and enter your details into the template. In this article, we’ll explore some tips for keeping tabs on your grants, how to use our template, and how to create one yourself if you so wish.

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Tips on How to Track Your Grant Applications

Whether you want to use the classic pen and paper duo for tracking your grant applications, a spreadsheet, or a more convenient grant tracker software, there are several best practices that you’d want to follow. Here are some of them:

  1. Have a centralized record: Keep your applications and proposals in one place, such as a cloud-based spreadsheet. This will help you organize and easily access the crucial details of each application.
  2. Set reminders: This lets you do your tasks on time, which is crucial when you need to submit the required documentation or follow up on your application status.
  3. Save copies of your applications: Having duplicates of everything that you submitted for your grant application, such as the forms and supporting materials, allows you to track and reference your applications.
  4. Follow-up: If you’re not seeing any response about your funding application, never hesitate to follow up with the organization you applied to. Send an email or call their contact person to hear about the current status of your application.
  5. Evaluate your success: Retrospect about possible reasons a certain grant funder rejected your proposal and work to improve on these areas.

Best Grant Tracking Template You Can Use for Free

One of the best ways to monitor your funding requests is to use a grant spreadsheet. And if you haven’t gotten yourself a copy of our template yet, you can get it here. It’s based on Google Sheets and has two separate tabs that let you organize your application details and prospective funders accordingly.

But who is this template for? As long as you’re someone who works with not-for-profit funding projects, whether as an individual or an organization representative, you might find yourself using our free spreadsheet.

Access Template

Applications Tab

Upon opening our template, you’ll see the fields where you can enter the information about your grant application, together with the funder you’re trying to connect with, deadlines, and other useful data. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of this tab.

Columns A, B, and C — Main Application Details

This is where you’ll put the primary information about your funding request. Under “Applying For,” you’ll want to describe what your proposal is all about. Right beside this is the “Applying To” column, where you put the organization you’ve submitted the application to.

Grant tracker spreadsheet template

 

You can easily pick your progress under Application Status” from the drop-down lists we’ve pre-loaded for you. Among your choices are in progress, rejected, pending, and funded.

Columns D and E — Categories

From the names “Project Type” and “Application Type,” it’s easy to tell that these are columns that help you easily course through your grant requests. In the first one, you can simply describe your funding application in short phrases like educational purposes and environmental drive to give them a concise theme.

Grant tracker spreadsheet project type and application type

 

Meanwhile, you can select the type of document you’ve submitted to a certain organization under the latter column. The drop-down lists included allow you to pick from common application types like a response to RFP, concept paper, letter, and report.

Columns F, G, and H — Dates

These columns will detail the important dates regarding your grant, particularly the deadlines and the next steps you need to accomplish. Note that the “Deadline” and “Date Sent” columns have data validation — you can’t enter other types of input except dates.

Grant deadlines

 

Columns I and J — Financial Details and Notes

The last columns under this tab will be for the financial aspect of your funding requests. You can put here the amount you’re expecting versus the actual money you have received. At the side is the “Notes” section, where you can put feedback from the organization that might have rejected your application and whatnot.

Financial amount for grants

 

Foundations Tab

This is another tab where you can put the detailed information you have about the foundations and organization you are dealing with. It has seven columns that contain the basic details of the institutions, their contacts, and your application’s status.

Columns A, B, and C — Grant Funder Details

The first three columns allow you to put the name of the foundation, together with their description and your application. Take note that, in this tab, the “Applying For” column is automatically generated based on the foundation name you’ve entered in column A.

Grant funder details

 

Columns D, E, and F — Contact Channels

These fields simply contain the name of the organization’s representative, together with their contact details. Also included in this part is the website of the organization, which you can leave blank if unavailable.

Organization contact details

 

Column G — Application Status

The last part of the “Foundations” tab is the “Application Status” column. Our template automatically retrieves your application’s current progress from the other tab, and this column simply serves to constantly display it.

Why Use This Grant Tracker Spreadsheet

When dealing with a multitude of grant applications, being a one-man team might be difficult. This is where our grant tracker spreadsheet comes in — it’s cloud-based via Google Sheets, which means you can easily share it with other team members for collaboration.

Additionally, our template is also built with formulas and functions that make the work a bit easier for you, together with data validation rules and drop-down lists for convenience. And the best thing about it is it’s free.

What Should a Grant Management Template Have?

There’s really no benchmark when it comes to grant tracking spreadsheets, but here are a few nice-to-haves in a template.

  • Name of the funding organization
  • Grant details like the fund amount available and requested
  • Grant deadlines and other important steps
  • Application status and the next steps to accomplish
  • Application details like project type
  • Notes section

How to Create a Grant Tracker in Google Sheets

If you’re interested in creating a grant tracker from scratch to ensure that every part of it is customized for you or your organization’s needs, here are a few steps you can follow.

  1. To start, go to Google Sheets and create a new “Blank” sheet.
Creating a blank spreadsheet in Google Sheets

 

  1. Next, on the top row, create column headers for your application details, organization’s name, grant status, deadline, amount requested, and notes.
Adding column headers

 

  1. After that, press Ctrl + A, then go to “Format” > “Alternating colors” to ease visibility in your spreadsheet.
Using alternating colors in Google Sheets

 

  1. Finally, pick your theme and click “Done.”
Using alternating colors in Google Sheets

 

By then, you will have your simple but effective grant-tracking spreadsheet. If you want to incorporate more advanced features like functions, data validation, and drop-downs into your tracker, browse online Google Sheets courses at Udemy today.

Final Thoughts

Monitoring your grant applications that are meant for a great purpose can be as easy as downloading our free grant tracker spreadsheet. To see more of these templates, don’t forget to browse our other blogs too.

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