How to create a grant funding report

Grant fundraising is often the cornerstone of charitable funding, especially for small charities. Data published on the 360Giving Data Standard showed that 77% of grant recipients had an income of less than £1 million. 

If charities are awarded a grant from a trust or foundation, it is likely to come with a requirement for reporting. Funders are set up with goals or aims and reporting helps them to assess whether these goals are being met by the organisations they’re funding.  

Reporting back to a funder is how your charity can demonstrate the impact of the work the grant has funded on the people or place that you serve. If the impact has been positive, this could also put you in a good position for receiving support again, depending on the funder requirements.  

Many charities find grant reporting frustrating and time consuming. The Institute of Voluntary Action Research has developed principles for grant-making organisations to help streamline the process. They say that funders should:  

Charities awarded funding, and feeling unclear on any of the points above, should feel confident trying to get some clarity from the funder. It will make reporting far easier and again, increase the likelihood of support continuing in the future.  

Consider using data visualization techniques to make the statistics in your reporting pop on the page. You could use charts or infographics to help bring your reporting to life.  

Remember to consider and plan for qualitative data analysis too. Encourage a practice of evidence gathering throughout the programme to capture testimonials, stories, images and even video. With the correct release forms in place these could also be used for press releases, case studies, annual impact reporting, fundraising appeals and more.  

Failures 

Funders don’t expect everything about your programme or project to be perfect. Trying and failing is part of the learning process. If you’ve tried something that hasn’t been effective, they will expect that you share that and provide some analysis and data on why and how you will approach the same goal differently in the future.  

Finances 

Stay on top of the financial details so that you can demonstrate how you have spent the grant. This is something to be aware of throughout the project so that you don’t overspend and find that you’re unable to complete the work.  

Storytelling 

Once you have collected all the data and evidence you can and gathered all of the information required by the funder for the report, sit with it for a little while and consider: 

The answers to these questions, along with the reporting requirements from the funder, form the basis of your report.