Growing with Grants-Webinar Slides

Webinar Slides

Pdf Summary

This presentation, “Growing with Grants: Preparing to Win and Manage Federal Awards,” explains how organizations can successfully pursue and manage federal grant funding. It emphasizes that the grants landscape is changing due to shifting priorities, new guidance, court decisions, and updates to Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), so grant professionals must stay informed and build strong internal systems.<br /><br />The presentation outlines the full grants management lifecycle: pre-award, award, post-award, monitoring, closeout, and audit. It stresses that compliance, internal controls, and regular staff training are essential before applying for grants. Key application steps include building a funding strategy, identifying team leaders and partners, finding opportunities, reviewing eligibility and cost-sharing rules, developing a proposal, submitting the application, and managing the grant after award.<br /><br />A major theme is organizational readiness, which depends on three areas: leadership, staff/culture, and processes. Leadership must support grants work with resources, technology, training, and cybersecurity protections. A strong grants team should include multiple skill sets because one person cannot manage everything effectively. The presentation also promotes a culture of ethics based on transparency, accountability, and equity.<br /><br />On the process side, organizations should use risk management, policies and procedures, internal controls, and sustainability planning to reduce noncompliance and financial risk. It also highlights the importance of monitoring, single audits, and maintaining strong documentation.<br /><br />Finally, the presentation reviews common grant problems such as poor understanding of rules, financial mismanagement, weak reporting, and legal or ethical issues. These can lead to repayment of funds, fines, audits, suspension, debarment, or reputational damage. A readiness self-assessment tool is provided to help organizations evaluate whether they are prepared to manage federal awards effectively.

Keywords

federal grants

grant management lifecycle

Uniform Guidance

organizational readiness

internal controls

compliance

grant application process

risk management

single audit

award closeout