Grants Management Roles

Below are summaries of the typical grants management roles that we see across most foundations. Check out our tool to design the ideal grants management team.   

LEAD:

Guides the strategic vision for the grants management function and provides operational oversight across all grants management activities while also acting as the business owner of the foundation’s grantmaking system. The lead is responsible for designing, implementing, and managing grantmaking policies and practices to best support the foundation’s grantmaking priorities and activities. The lead may manage a team of grants management professionals and may also be a point of escalation when processing more complex grants. Typically has a minimum of 7-10 years of grants management experience with 5 or more years of management experience. 

Officer/Manager:

Partners closely with program teams to provide comprehensive grants management support to one or more grant portfolios throughout the full grant lifecycle, including concept, application, award, payment, reporting, and closeout. The officer/manager supports process design efforts as well as trains staff on grantmaking policies and procedures. The officer/manager ensures that the foundation adheres to legal requirements while supporting staff and grantee partners when navigating grantmaking policies and processes. This role enables timely, responsive, and high quality grants processing by overseeing grant data entry/integrity, maintaining system coding and forms, and liaising with other operational departments as needed. Typically has 5 or more years of grants management experience.

Associate: 

Provides general grants management support to a smaller portfolio of grants throughout the full grant lifecycle, including concept, application, award, payment, reporting, and closeout. This role partners with assigned program teams and grantees to coordinate day-to-day operational aspects of the foundation’s grantmaking policies and procedures, including supporting award letter, payment, and grantee report processing/tracking.  May also support training activities. Typically has 2 to 4 years of philanthropy or nonprofit experience.

Assistant:

Supports the grants management team with administrative activities such as data entry, record maintenance, meeting scheduling, and note-taking. Provides customer service to applicants and grantees, including responding to and triaging ad hoc questions and requests. May also process matching gifts and foundation memberships or sponsorships. Typically an entry-level position with no related experience.

GM Systems/Data:

Acts as the primary administrator of the foundation’s grantmaking system. This includes supporting and training staff and grantees on the system, maintaining data quality, producing reports and analyses of the foundation’s grantmaking activities, and managing relationships with software vendors. This role also identifies opportunities to optimize the platform, including collecting requirements for system enhancements and working with available resources to plan, design, test and deploy updates to existing functionality. Typically has 5 or more years of related experience and should be situated within the grants management function to maximize familiarity with the funder’s processes.

Please note: The above role summaries are intended for illustrative purposes only. Additional factors may need to be considered for your particular grantmaking organization, including how job titles and salaries in grants management should align with other foundation functions.

For a more tailored assessment of your foundation’s grants management function, please contact us.