Federal Grant Readiness Assessment version 2 (2020)

Federal grants are an excellent option for nonprofit organizations; they should represent a portion of every nonprofit’s annual revenue. Too often, however, many nonprofits go after federal grants before they have the capacity to manage the awards. Regulations involved with managing federal grants are more complicated than state and local government grants, private/corporate grants and private donations. Without the proper systems to manage federal funds, the consequences for a nonprofit can be severe: wasted funds, theft, audit findings, repayments, suspension, debarment and/or legal action.

Our assessment tool measures a nonprofit organization’s readiness to apply for, and manage, federal grants by looking at 26 indicators of organizational maturity across four major domains: governance; organizational capacity; policies, systems and controls; and external environment. The 26 indicators are scored using a five-point scale: Exceptional (5), Very Good (4), Satisfactory (3), Developing (2), and Beginning (1).