Grant Reports

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Any donor who ever wrote a check to a nonprofit organization and provided contact information knows that they are almost certain to receive continuous updates and ongoing communications from that organization, often long after a single contribution. But for some major donors and most foundations, formal grant reports on their specific donation are an important way of staying informed about how the money is spent and the progress the organization is making toward achieving its mission. 

Many foundations believe that requiring grant reports from the organizations they support is part of their mandated “fiduciary duty” to ensure funds are spent in accordance with the funders’ own obligations. Legally, there is no requirement for foundations to collect grant reports, and there are many funders that find they can learn what they need from their grantees without formal reporting mechanisms. The “trust-based philanthropy” movement emphasizes giving general operating support with minimal or no strings attached, including minimizing reporting requirements. 

Still, grant reports at the end of a grant period (and sometimes at multiple points during the grant period of large and/or multi-year grants) are the norm in institutional philanthropy. Sometimes, grantmakers that give for general operating support accept grantees’ general annual report as a report on the grant, but funders making grants for special projects or initiatives almost always require specialized grant reporting. It is uncommon for individual donors to request grant reports, but not unheard of for particularly large grants or special projects. 

What’s Usually in a Grant Report?

A grant report should document for the funder how their grant has been used, if as intended and with the hoped-for results. Grant recipients create these reports to showcase to funders how funds have been spent, how the organization is succeeding, and/or the impact of the funded program. 

Many grantmakers have specific reporting requirements that are stated in the grant agreement. Some require interim and final reports at stated intervals on a funded project, some require annual reports, and some require only one report at the end of the grant period. 

In general, grantmakers require reports, and grantees create and submit them. But not all grantmakers require formal reports. Some are satisfied by receiving the organization’s more general annual report, or by more informal project reports such as conversations with project staff or a brief email update that can be placed in the grantee file. And some grantmakers do not request reports at all.

The length, format, and contents of grant reports vary considerably. Key elements typically included in grant reports are: 

Basic Grant Information

  • Name of organization

  • Name of funded project

  • Type of support

  • Grant period 

Narrative

  • Program achievements, progress toward goals

  • Impact (e.g., number of people reached, number of program units completed)

  • Staff changes affecting the funded program

  • Challenges or lessons learned   

Budget

For general operating grants, the organization’s operating budget; for project or capital grants, a project-specific budget showing how grant funds were spent in comparison to the proposed budget. 

Additional Materials

Funders often encourage or allow grantees to include additional optional or required materials such as photographs, press coverage of the funded program, and so forth. 

Pros and Cons

Information is power. Demanding it can be a form of taking it. But having it can also make you a better grantmaker. Donors should weigh how much of the information they require from grantees will actually be used to inform grantmaking in the future and how much is simply the result of their own organizational inertia. 

  • Sets a tone of mistrust. A core concept of trust-based philanthropy is allowing organizations to minimize time spent on reporting to funders so that they can focus on the work that’s at the heart of their mission. If a nonprofit accepts a gift for a specific project, they are already legally obligated to use the funds for the purposes for which the donor directed it. Demanding a report basically says you don’t believe your grantee will use the funds as they agreed. 

  • Repackaging information many times for many funders. Many grantmakers have specific guidelines or formats that nonprofits must use when reporting to them. This means a nonprofit is likely to be required to write many reports on the same project. Consider whether you need a custom report or whether a report the organization has already created (e.g., its annual report) might suffice.

  • Keeping your contribution in perspective. Are you one of many funders of an organization or program, or are you a lead or major funder? It’s more reasonable to ask for a custom report if you are a major supporter. But even then, think about how much time you want the organization to spend reporting specifically to you and whether it might be possible to gather the information you need without asking so much of their time. 

  • Collecting Specialized Data to Inform Future Grantmaking. Some funders support a large number of organizations in the same field and conscientiously seek to collect information from funded projects to assess progress across the field. If donors are collecting information for this purpose, that information should be shared with the contributing organizations so they can all benefit from that learning. Donors operating from this field-learning perspective may want to think about ways of coordinating with other major funders of the field to support evaluations that comprehensively assess what’s going on, rather than trying to piece together conclusions from their own grantees’ likely flattering reports. 

Taking Action

  • If you set specific requirements for grantee reporting, be sure these are clear to the grant recipient and stated in the grant agreement.

  • Design the simplest, least intrusive reporting process that requires only the information you need to make good decisions in the future. A report can be substantive, informative and meaningful without requiring a ton of nonprofit staff time and effort.

  • If you require grantee reports, you have a moral obligation to read and think deeply about every page of their reports. If you can’t deeply read all of the reports you request, you are asking grantees to do work that you aren’t valuing.  

  • Consider letting the organization decide how to report to you. Maybe they’ll want to create a single report they could share with multiple funders or they have ideas for how to best represent the project. This gives grant recipients space to be creative and to come up with a reporting process that is efficient for them, while also building trust.

  • If you are giving general operating support, consider accepting the organization’s annual report as the report on your grant. That would save them valuable time and costs compared to creating a custom-tailored report for you.

  • Be flexible when the situation calls for it. In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many nonprofits were struggling to adapt to huge and unexpected changes, some grantmakers converted project support to general support, waived reporting requirements or extended deadlines.