Ops Insights #069 - Grants in Moves Tracking
July 8, 2025 | Read Time: 2 minutes | Written by Jenny Kleintop
When I’m asked: How do grants fit into moves tracking?
I respond: In a similar way that you track your major gifts. There is uniqueness, such as in the stages, but keep it simple and follow your overall moves tracking processes for clarity.
Moves tracking is made of 4 things:
Assigned relationship managers, such as Primary and Secondary.
Prospect coding, such as Classification and Prospect Stage.
Actions to track all interactions with prospects and report movement.
Opportunities to track future asks and view projections.
Track grants in a similar way that you track your major gifts.
Keep it simple and follow your overall moves tracking processes for clarity.
For grants:
You can still use Primary and Secondary assignments if you have a small team and the primary ask for the prospect will be a grant. Otherwise, add a Grants Relationship Manager to the prospect’s record.
Classification would be Grant Support if that is the primary ask.
Grant Support: An entity we are engaging with to try and secure grant support.
Actions would follow the same ones you use for major gift fundraising. However, if you have a reporting need or require action reminders on specific steps in the process, you can create actions unique to grants, such as Grant Solicit, Grant Progress Report, and Grant Final Report.
Opportunities tracking would follow the same methods as you track for major gifts. The opportunity status is one field that may differ if you have a strong preference to do that. For example, Cultivating/Letter of Intent, Ask Made/Submitted, Closed/Funded, Closed/Declined, Withdrawn.
1 Cultivating/Letter of Intent: All prospects where we either have a strategy to solicit or a potential grant to apply for. General timing in this status: 3 to 18 months.
2 Ask Made/Submitted: Either the solicitation/“ask” has been made and we are awaiting a response from the prospect, or the grant has been applied for and we are awaiting a response. General timing in this status: 30 to 90 days.
3 Closed/Funded: Either the gift has been received or the grant has been awarded. The gift or grant has been entered into the system and linked to the proposal.
4 Closed/Declined: Either the prospect said “no” to the ask or the grant we applied for has been rejected. A new strategy may or may not be developed.
5 Withdrawn: The opportunity was withdrawn for internal reasons, and the ask was never made.
Take Action
It’s your turn. Take the following 3 steps to incorporate grants into your moves tracking.
1 ➡ Review your moves tracking methods and documentation.
2 ➡ Work with your team to incorporate grant prospects, aiming to keep it aligned with your current tracking and simple.
3 ➡ Assess the reports and ensure grants prospects, interactions, and opportunities are pulled into reports correctly.
You’ve got this!
👋 See you next time,
Jenny
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