29 Sep

Posted at 18:00h in AGS Staff, Competency Eight, Competency Five, Competency Four, Evaluation, Grant Reporting, Grants Management, Relationships
Many organizations lack the qualified staff to conduct a program evaluation. While some organizations do have the capacity and expertise, many need to contract with an external evaluator for one or several reasons. For instance, using an external evaluator can be more economical and efficient, can provide a more credible report due to objectivity, and is sometimes a grant requirement.

04 Sep

Posted at 08:55h in Competency Five, Grants Management, Kellie Brunguard
Too often, grant management is seen as a scary, messy aspect of grant funding, and we have a vague understanding of the requirements or components. In the nonprofit field, it’s common for staff to be put in a role where they manage grants but might not have the knowledge or resources to understand what that entails. These are common scenarios, and while they may be new or unknown, taking steps to understand how grant funds should be managed is critical to the nonprofit’s success.

16 Jun

Posted at 21:59h in Competency Eight, Competency Five, Competency Four, Evaluation, Grant Reporting, Program Development, Relationships
Observation is a method to gather data by watching events or behaviors that can give information beyond what you can draw from numbers and is helpful in several situations:
  • To collect data that is unavailable through other methods. People are sometimes unable or unwilling to participate in surveys or interviews.
  • To understand an ongoing situation or process. For example, you want to identify efficiencies/inefficiencies in the process of college registration process as students meet with advisors to create a semester schedule.
  • To know more about a physical setting. For example, you want to determine if a residential rehabilitation center’s facilities are conducive to recovery.
  • To understand more about interactions. For example, you want to determine if a motivational guest speaker sparks interest in at-risk youth in a college preparatory program.

09 Jun

Posted at 18:00h in Competency Eight, Competency Five, Competency Four, Evaluation, Grants Management, Relationships
Have you been tasked with evaluating a program and don’t know where to begin? If so, you aren’t alone. Many people struggle with program evaluation. This new three-part series on evaluation will prepare you to design and implement a strong evaluation comprised of quantitative and qualitative data analysis. You will also understand how to secure a third-party evaluator, if you need one. This post focuses on how to conduct an environmental scan and needs assessment.

07 Apr

Posted at 18:00h in Competency Eight, Competency Five, Grants Management, Megan Campbell, Relationships
All the time and effort you put into designing a great project and developing a clear, well-written grant proposal has paid off and you’ve received a notice of award from the funder. Now, it’s time to ensure that you are a great steward of the grant funds that you have received.

30 Oct

Posted at 23:43h in Competency Five, Competency Six, Consulting, Courses, Ethics, Ethics, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, How-To, Julie Alsup

    Grant Ethics: Grant Ethics for Consultants Session 8 of the Ethics Series While all nonprofit professionals have many ethical issues to consider as they conduct pre-award and post-award grant activities, grant consultants have additional areas of which to be mindful because they run their own businesses instead...

30 Oct

Posted at 23:39h in Competency Five, Competency Six, Consulting, Courses, Ethics, Ethics, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, How-To, Julie Alsup

    Grant Ethics: The Ethics of Program Implementation and Reporting After a Grant is Funded Session 7 of the Ethics Series While ethics must be considered in all stages of the grant lifecycle, the part that most people worry about is program implementation and reporting. Here grant professionals...

01 Oct

Posted at 23:53h in Competency Eight, Competency Five, Competency Seven, Competency Six, Courses, GPCI Competencies, Partnerships, Uncategorized, Whitney Gray

  Building Collaborative Partnerships through Subrecipient Monitoring Session 8 of the Partnerships Series $50 | 60 minutes Enroll Now     Organizations which serve as pass-through entities for federal funding are required to monitor their subrecipients. This responsibility comes with a great opportunity to strengthen collaborative partnerships by intentionally building the subrecipients’...

17 Apr

Posted at 16:18h in Competency Five, Competency Three, Courses, GPCI Competencies, Grant Funding Basics, Grant Management, Grant MGMT, Grant Writing, How-To, Julie Assel, GPC, Uncategorized

    Basic Grant Management Session 11 of the Grant Funding Basics Series Grant management is a continuum directly related to grant readiness. It points to an organization’s ability to follow through on what it said it would do and follow established best practices for financial, data, and records management. This...