Guiding Principles for Grants Management
The $2.3 trillion in COVID-19 relief and stimulus funds provided by the CARES Act is the single largest relief bill in U.S. history. The bill provides significant direct payments to individuals and billions in loan authority for businesses large and small. One key aspect of the new law is the noteworthy amount of money the federal government can provide in the form of grants or other financial assistance. Various programs across the government will support activities like increasing the use of telemedicine technologies to provide many types of health care, providing grants in aid to airports, enhancing states’ ability to support elections by mail and supporting rural businesses. Those programs and others will provide up to 10%, or $230 billion, in grants and financial assistance to America.
Federal agencies and program staff are charged with moving the financial assistance funds quickly and efficiently while coping with ambitious deadlines and ensuring the funded projects will accomplish program objectives.
Facing Significant Challenges Ahead
Federal program staff members face big challenges in making sure COVID-19 stimulus and relief funds provide benefits to the American public:
Abundance of details. Officials now have deadlines for awards, reporting, new legislative language, changes to existing programs made by the CARES Act, ensuring that grant programs adhere to 2 CFR 200 and all agency requirements.
Stakeholder Pressure. Officials throughout the federal government from the White House to Cabinet Secretaries to front line managers understand the urgency of providing economic relief and stimulus to help Americans cope with COVID-19. Additionally, the American public are facing uncertainty and hardship in all areas of their lives, and the media continued to document the economic and health impacts of the pandemic. They all will expect to see efficient, effective programs and program administration quickly.
Long Approval Chains. High visibility funding often means close coordination with agency chains of approval, public/external affairs affairs offices, as well as interactions with the finance office, general counsel, grants policy team, and the grant awarding office. Short timelines require federal program staff to quickly educate the approval chain and have an organized, through process.
Scrutiny and Oversight. In addition to the usual program oversight from Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and Inspectors General (IG), there are some added layers of oversight for the CARES Act funds. In addition to a new special inspector general and new congressional oversight commission, the GAO will conduct studies on the $500 billion loan fund at the Department of Treasury. Moreover, a new oversight committee of IGs, a Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), is being created to identify major risks cutting across program and agency boundaries and to coordinate the work of the entire inspectors general community.
Data Collection. The CARES Act mandates data collection strict requirements that are analogous to those created in the 2009 Recovery Act. PRAC will use this data to monitor the effects of the CARES Act funding. Quarterly reports are also due to the Office of Management and Budget, Treasury, the PRAC, and appropriate congressional committees on how funds are spent on each project or activity. PRAC will publicly release data from this reporting within 30 days after receipt.
Define Success Early
What does success look like for your program’s CARES Act funding? Are there new beneficiaries to target? Will the funding support your existing pool of applicants and awardees? How will you know? The CARES Act contains varying degrees of specificity for programs, so it’s up to you to define success. And it’s best to do so early, because the decisions you make now will determine the program’s impact later. Clear and measurable objectives based in law will form the basis of the applications submitted for your program, how you review applications and make award decisions, and how you administer and report on the impact those awards have on the country.
The presence of COVID-19 has determined that now more than ever, Americans need federal agencies to be successful with grant execution so nobody gets left behind. It is up to you to make that difference.Defining what success would look like for your CARES Act program early and carefully will help meet those efficiency expectations. And a clear definition of success will help you meet the challenges outlined in 2018 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO):
Streamlining. Grants management requirements that are duplicative, unnecessarily burdensome, and conflicting require agencies to direct resources toward meeting them and can burden recipients of federal grants.
Transparency. Transparency will increase the types of information available on federal spending, including grants.
Collaboration and consultation. Collaboration between grantor and grantee results into a better implementation and prioritization of initiatives.
Duplication, overlap, and fragmentation. Agencies’ grants management practices, such as requirements to avoid duplication before making awards, can help agencies to achieve cost savings and result in greater efficiencies.
Internal controls and oversight. Agencies should more consistently close out grants when the grantee’s period of performance has ended to ensure all requirements are met.
Corner Alliance Can Help.
We can help federal agencies distribute emergency funds quickly—with the right process, systems, people, and priorities—to support response and recovery. We use our proven, customizable process and our trusted administration, management, and reporting capabilities to achieve maximum impact toward relief efforts.
Our guiding principles for grants management are:
Accurate understanding of recipient’s current state
Clear objectives and a way to measure impact
Complete funding packages with detailed processes, procedures, and requirements
Rigorous day-to-day management and oversight
Download our free Guiding Principles for Grants Management Cheat Sheet
Authors
Joan Keiser, Consultant to the USDA, has a mission to leave the world a better place than she found it. That mission has been the thread that flows throughout her careers as an advocate for rural America, a federal civil servant and now at Corner Alliance. Joan is a native Pennsylvanian and a proud alumna of the University of Pittsburgh.
Roxanna (Roxy) Barboza, former Consultant to the USDA, has cultivated a passion for mission-driven work through her personal connection with broadband access. A California native, her dedication to serving others led her to a career with Corner Alliance after earning her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.
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