Understanding Impact: 5 KPIs to Track for Effective Grants Management

Corporate grants, including employee-led grants, are becoming a key facet of companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. As consumers and employees pay more attention to CSR and the broader impact of businesses, intentional and effective grants management is now a priority for most companies.

Effective grantmaking can only happen if your company measures the metrics that matter. If your business is thinking about establishing a corporate grants program or looking to hone an existing one, Groundswell has compiled a list of five key performance indicators you can monitor to optimize operations.

Table of Contents:

• The Importance of Impact Reporting for Grants
• 5 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Measure Impact of Grants
• Best Practices for Reporting on Grant Impact
• Stretch Your CSR Dollars Further with Effective Grants Management Software

The Importance of Impact Reporting for Grants

Before we dive into KPIs for grantmaking management, we should say a few words about impact reporting. Impact reporting, in the context of grants, involves detailed reporting about the grant’s impact—more specifically, how it benefited organizations or people in need.

Why does your company need a grant report? It can accomplish the following:

• Prove the value of your company’s grant program to the C-suite and higher-ups
• Deepen relationships with local nonprofits and charitable leaders
• Provide invaluable content distributed to internal and external stakeholders

Impact reporting also dovetails with a few key performance indicators, as we’ll cover below.

5 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Measure Impact of Grants

Impact reporting is just one piece of the puzzle when evaluating your corporate grants program. It’s crucial that the funds get put to good use, but it’s also important that the grants management process goes smoothly from the grantor’s perspective. To that end, you may want to monitor the following KPIs to maximize efficiency.

1. Total Dollars Disbursed

Perhaps the most-prioritized KPI for corporate grantmaking programs is the total amount of funds companies disburse to recipients. 

Ideally, the funds distributed should match your company’s overall budget for the grants program. Only in unusual or extraordinary circumstances should your employees leave money on the table; in that event, prompt diagnosis of the issue should take place.

2. Time Spent on Application Analysis

It’s also crucial to make sure your corporate grantmaking program isn’t taking up an inordinate amount of your team’s time. 

Only your employees (and, perhaps, project managers) can determine the appropriate amount of time to analyze grant applications, but putting a specific number is important for effective time management. 

If your team ends up spending too much time, future grants might require a cap on applications or help from more employees.

3. Employee Participation Rates

Not every employee will participate in your company’s grantmaking programs and other CSR initiatives. That’s simply the reality with voluntary activities, so don’t take it as a personal slight. 

However, if employee participation rates remain stubbornly low or each grant gets managed by the same group of workers, it might be time to evaluate some things. 

How are you presenting your company’s CSR programs to your employees? Do they simply not have time to engage in the grants process, or do they not feel that CSR participation is worthwhile? It never hurts to poll your employees and seek anonymous feedback.

4. Average Time from Grant Application to Funds Disbursement

Yet another KPI your CSR team should keep a close eye on in grants management is the average or median time to complete a grant’s lifecycle. In some cases, awardees take a while to use every dollar they receive, though, so it might be better for your company to evaluate the time between grant establishment and disbursement of funds.

As with a few other KPIs on this list, the ideal range for your organization will vary based on factors such as your company's size and the intended impact of your grants. Grants management software with analytics and reporting can identify any bottlenecks and deficiencies that delay the process.

5. Grant Impact Reports

A grant impact report, as we mentioned earlier, is often more valuable to third parties and decision-makers who might not be directly involved in the program. 

Depending on the nature of your company’s grants, these reports can identify the number of people who benefited from funds or services or the collective amount of funds each grant recipient received, to give two examples.

Best Practices for Reporting on Grant Impact

Starting a corporate grants program at your company can feel a little overwhelming. With appropriate preparation and a commitment to nailing the basics, the first grant management process will probably go more smoothly than you might expect. 

You can further increase your chances of success by following best practices like these:

• Expect each facet of the program to take a little longer than you initially anticipated. Giving your team some cushion in between milestones can help prevent the process from derailing other crucial projects your employees are working on.
• Craft a detailed application that properly calibrates expectations and the grant’s broader terms. Leaving anything to chance with applicants can result in miscommunication, which often leads to suboptimal results. Don’t assume awardees will be on the same wavelength as your team.
• Clearly identify roles for your employees. You might want to assign specific duties to certain personnel and name a supervisor to oversee the process. Having ill-defined roles can make the process complicated and stressful. It can also sour employees on future grants.
• Employ the right software to facilitate the grants process. Your team has no shortage of options for digital CSR platforms, but the well-known “legacy” providers often have hidden fees, complex dashboards, and time-consuming administrative burdens. CSR software should make it easier, not harder, to execute your company’s CSR program.

Stretch Your CSR Dollars Further with Effective Grants Management Software

We actually have one more KPI to discuss in this blog: dollars disbursed through grants relative to administrative costs. For many companies, it doesn’t make sense to spend $50,000 or more on CSR software when their grants budget is $50,000 or less. You could go without digital tools and rely on spreadsheets, but that might end up creating more work in the end.

Companies of all sizes have found success with Groundswell’s intuitive CSR software. You can manage grants, volunteering, employee assistance funds, donor-advised funds, donation matching, and more with one comprehensive tool. 

Our software reduces administrative burdens by up to 90%, and we don’t stack ad-hoc fees on top of our subscription prices. Another feature unique to Groundswell is the ability to allow employees and multiple users to manage the grants process.

Groundswell is the first platform to unite effective grants management with corporate giving, volunteering, and other essential CSR programs. Ready to see how Groundswell can work for you? Reach out for a personalized demo to get started.