Government Grant Management for Funders: Navigating Regulations and Public Impact

With over $500 billion awarded annually by federal grantmaking agencies, public funders track an overwhelming amount of activity across governments, nonprofits, and other recipients.

And every dollar must be accounted for, who received it, how it was spent, and its contribution toward program impacts, to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and judicious allocations.

It’s no easy feat.

However, grant management tasks become exponentially more difficult when the public funders overseeing them grapple with manual processes, endless spreadsheets, and ill-suited technology platforms. 

These outdated methods take up a significant amount of time and energy, preventing funders from addressing or assisting other recipients and applicants. Not to mention, they introduce potential mistakes or lapses.

To better ensure continued financial resources for recipients’ altruistic aims, public funders tasked with government grant management deserve better strategies and technologies.

Why government grant management is high-stakes work

As important as many government programs are, some of the most essential and impactful work performed throughout the US depends on public grant funding. Public health, education, social services, community development, and more initiatives that improve Americans’ daily lives couldn’t be performed without this financial assistance.

Awarded funds prove so crucial that, per analysis by the Urban Institute, 60-80% of nonprofit organizations receiving government grants wouldn’t be able to meet their expenses without them.

For grant money to continue supporting these programs, grantmakers (and recipients) must ensure transparency, equity, and accountability under strict scrutiny. However, the grantmakers who compile reports often contend with the compounding challenges of tight timelines and limited tools, many of which weren’t built for public funders’ needs. 

Additionally, pass-through funding (i.e., an awarded federal grant that is further distributed to state and local governments or other organizations) requires ongoing communication with other entities and their reporting to effectively monitor funds.

If funders can’t sufficiently demonstrate where and how taxpayer money is spent, their grant may be discontinued (due to proof or perceptions of regulatory noncompliance, fraud, waste, or abuse). Meanwhile, funders and recipients risk severe penalties.

At perhaps no other time has optimized government grant management and the ability to demonstrate accountability and impact been more crucial. In January 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) blocked all federal grants and loans, resulting in significant downstream effects on over 2,600 federal programs. 

While some programs were quickly resumed and others successfully challenged the freeze’s legality, funding delays still carried significant consequences, and the disbursement of many awards remains uncertain.

Navigating regulations in government grant management

Ever since the Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act became law in 1977, government grant management has faced increased scrutiny and oversight. Today’s awards all demand detailed audits, structured processes, and regulatory compliance. 

For example, funders and non-federal recipients must comply with:

• Congressional law: This includes laws like 2016’s Grants Oversight and New Efficiency Act (PL114-117), which requires agencies to submit annual reports with information including the number of federal grant awards held and challenges prolonging grant closeouts. 

• The OMB’s ‘Uniform Guidance’: The OMB compiles and maintains its set of regulations and guidelines within 2 CFR part 200: Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards. Compliance includes non-federal entities performing a single or program-specific audit if they receive $1,000,000 or more in federal grant money within one year.

• Agency-specific guidelines: Government grant management practices must also comply with any agency-specific regulations and requirements, such as establishing performance goals and timelines.

Navigating all these regulations (and the timely collection of information and data from grant recipients) is virtually impossible with manual efforts. 

Instead of tracking awards through spreadsheets, implementing a configurable, purpose-built software platform will help public grantmakers stay organized, reduce risk, and respond confidently to these various levels of oversight.

Reducing admin burden without sacrificing control

Aside from complicating compliance efforts, manual workflows significantly increase the administrative burden on public funders. Teams cannot effectively track their grant management progress and deadlines, nor can they collaborate.

Consider how government grant management might unfold without dedicated technology to facilitate these operations. Someone might spend hours digging through files to confirm necessary information. 

A team might miss compliance reporting deadlines because it didn’t receive reminder notifications or failed to detect that one of its award recipients hadn’t reported on its performance goals. 

Let’s say teams operate in silos, particularly as distributed teams and remote work become more common. In that case, multiple people might redundantly complete the same task, or someone might write up a report using incomplete or outdated data.

Implementing a grant management system prevents these issues and optimizes efficiency. Collaboration becomes seamless when all personnel work within the same platform that automatically reminds them of upcoming deadlines or remaining work, stores documents and data, and facilitates communication.

With their reduced administrative burden, team members can focus on higher-value work or proactively engage with award recipients. For example, helping grantee organizations improve their reporting processes and checking in more regularly will reduce errors and delays, further streamlining efforts.

How modern government grant management tools support public impact

Today’s leading government grant management tools deliver greater process optimization and, in turn, greater impact and public benefit. By connecting all personnel and stakeholders through an easy-to-use and seamlessly integrated system, public funders can gather better, more timely data that informs and drives strategic outcomes for their programs.

For example, templated forms eliminate tedious paper submissions and error-prone manual data entry. Faster, uniform application intake processes connected to a centralized cloud management system enable grant managers to review applications online and determine awards (and then disburse funds) rapidly. 

And with dashboards presenting real-time data and notifications for follow-up reports, all team members are aware of the current status of various awards, can track their next steps, and gain insight to identify and proactively address any issues.

Better data collection also provides grantmaking entities with more granular information that they can use to better understand the effects and outcomes of their programs, such as spending patterns. This information, along with audit-ready workflows and reports for stakeholders, helps demonstrate accountability and public impact while guiding future decision-making.

What to look for in government grant management solutions

Evaluating government grant management solutions can be challenging, as many tools aren’t designed specifically for grantmakers. Rather than forcing your workflows to conform to ill-suited platforms, it’s better to identify technologies purpose-built for both grantors and grantees.

With functionality designed to facilitate both sides of funding, grantmakers can achieve seamless communication and workflows while also providing recipients with a better experience. 

This includes functionality such as auto-saving partially completed forms, reducing bias through anonymous applications, and sending proactive individual or ‘blast’ communications.

However, some of the most crucial functionality to look for includes:

• Unlimited users: Grant management solutions should operate as centralized collaboration and communication platforms. However, some stakeholders may only need to log in occasionally to review impact or financial data, whereas grant managers and their teams require daily access. Without unlimited user counts, it’s incredibly costly to give everyone access to program data.

• Flexible and restricted access: The growth of remote or distributed teams necessitates a cloud-based platform to simplify access to applications, program data, and other information or communications. For example, online application reviews significantly reduce the time lost to organizing and attending in-person meetings. However, be sure to evaluate security as well, since providing more flexible access for staff and reviewers also requires robust access controls.

• Audit-ready workflows: Every grantmaking and recipient organization needs to continuously demonstrate its programs’ regulatory compliance and transparency, equity, and accountability. Platforms that don’t support audit-ready workflows or automatically compile activity logs to generate reports will only leave grantmakers floundering at one of the most critical points in grant lifecycle management.

Platforms like Foundant’s GLM (Grant Lifecycle Manager) and SmartSimples Grant Management offer these essential functionalities and more, including AI-powered application summaries, application site visit metrics, and integrations with standard tools such as QuickBooks and DocuSign. 

With these capabilities for grantmakers, Foundant’s purpose-built GLM solution supports complex cycles and diverse stakeholder needs.

Government grant management that works for people, not just policy

When evaluating government grant management technologies, remember that the best systems won’t simply check boxes on a features list. They’ll target real-world, impactful outcomes. 

A platform’s government grant management support (and the development and support teams that build and maintain it) must be oriented toward delivering value to grant recipients and the people the awards are meant to serve.

That level of expertise can only be earned over years of involvement with grant lifecycle management, as 40% of Foundant’s team brings to every engagement or interaction.

With Foundant’s purpose-built functionality and insight, every grantmaking entity can reduce friction throughout the grant lifecycle. And thanks to increased capacity for planning, outreach, and meaningful community partnerships, grantmakers who partner with Foundant can set themselves up to achieve more beneficial outcomes for the populations they serve.

Start a conversation about better government grant management

Public funders who spend more time resolving government grant management issues than measuring and improving their community impact deserve better technologies. They need a platform built on philanthropic insight that supports their mission.

Customizable application forms, centralized and automated communications, and reporting and analytics are the new standard for modern grant lifecycle management. Foundant’s purpose-built platform and audit-ready workflows meet and exceed funder needs, optimizing processes and facilitating strategies that deliver better outcomes to the populations and causes you serve.

Start a conversation with our team today to see how our GLM platform supports funders and drives results.