Grant Readiness Checklist

Do you have a grant readiness checklist? Would it be helpful to know what you need to jump in and start working on most grant applications before beginning the proposal writing process?

Would you love to have a checklist of the most requested documents, the required documents, and the data you will likely need when working on grant applications?

We have been writing grant proposals for over two decades and decided to put together a Grant Readiness Checklist to use in-house and with clients. This list has saved us so much time over the past few years and helps nonprofits get organized, which expedites the writing and submission process.

What’s in this list, you ask?

We break down the areas where foundations will request additional information into six focus areas. Then we list the most popular items needed in each section with checkboxes. We create this worksheet for our team with new proposal writing clients or with new coaching clients. Create a folder on your computer titled ‘Grant Documents’ and then set up subfolders for each heading. As each document is developed or located, save it in the corresponding folders for easy access. 

The six headings in our Grant Readiness Checklist are:

• Organizational Background
• Tax Documents
• Financial Information
• Governance
• Program/Project Information
• Other

Under each heading, we break out items such as:

1. Organizational Background

• History of organization (narrative)
• Year established
• Mission, vision, values statement

2. Tax Documents

• Tax-exempt status letter
• 990
• W9

3. Financial Information 

• Detailed organizational budget
• Financial statement
• Audit

4.  Governance

• Board of directors (including affiliations and contact info)
• Organizational chart
• Current strategic plan

5.  Program/Project Information

• Detailed program/project description
• Number served in previous year
• Current outcome measures

6.  Other

• Letters of support
• Percentage of board giving financially
• Solicitation license (where applicable)

This list should give you an idea of the type of information included in the Grant Readiness Checklist. Creating these files for easy access now will save you and your team precious time and energy when you prepare to work on grants for programs, projects, capital campaigns, or general operating funds.

If you’d like to have the full Grant Readiness Checklist so you can get started organizing your files today, click here, and we’ll email it over to you in an editable Word document. I hope it helps as you work to make grant proposal writing a little less hectic.

Keep growing for good!