Grant Readiness
Self Assessment

Nearly every foundation portal requires it as an upload before you can submit. If it takes a week to find, applications stall at step one.

State attorneys general enforce this, and foundations check it. Soliciting while lapsed can disqualify an application and creates legal exposure.

Foundations read it for realism, and reviewers use it to test whether your request fits your capacity. No approved budget reads as no board oversight.

Funders pull it from Candid before you ever apply. A missing or late 990 is a red flag you never get the chance to explain.

Larger foundations and most government funders ask. Knowing you are not required is an acceptable answer; not knowing is not.

Federal applications cannot be submitted without an active registration, and renewals take weeks. A lapse blocks the application, not just the award.

Reviewers score staff capacity, and federal proposals that claim credentialed staff get tested against personnel records at audit.

Program officers ask for this mid grant. A slow answer signals weak financial management, and weak financial management loses renewals.

Cost allocation is what government funders test hardest. Category-only books cannot prove a federal dollar was spent on the federal program.

Every federal budget requires the choice, and foundations increasingly honor it. Not knowing means leaving overhead recovery on the table.

Time and effort documentation is the most common audit finding in the sector. Funders that pay for staff expect proof of where the time went.

Funders read reserves as survival odds. Not knowing the number reads worse than a small one.

Federal awards require one that meets the 2 CFR 200 standards, and auditors test actual purchases against it.

The first question in almost every application. A number you cannot defend undermines every other number you report.

Funders fund change, not attendance. Output-only reporting is the most common reason strong programs read as weak on paper.

Sustained outcomes are what sophisticated funders pay attention to. Without follow up, you can only claim what happened in the room.

Privacy incidents end funder relationships, and government funders ask about safeguards in the application itself.

Renewals and new asks both stall while a report is assembled by hand. Speed here is what turns one grant into the next.

Federal programs and most large foundations require it, and reviewers use it to test whether your budget matches your theory.

Minutes are the proof of governance. Funders and auditors both sample them, and missing minutes read as a board in name only.

The Form 990 asks, the Uniform Guidance requires it, and funders check the box before money moves.

Both are Form 990 questions, and both are on the list of policies auditors request on day one.

Funders read this as the difference between oversight and rubber stamping, and it shows up in the minutes they sample.

A missed report is the fastest way to lose a renewal, and program officers talk to each other.

Track record is scored, formally in federal past performance and informally everywhere else.

Renewals and new proposals are built from old ones. Losing them means paying to rewrite what you already wrote.

A pipeline is the difference between fundraising and hoping, and it is how concentration risk comes down.

Unowned reporting is how deadlines get missed. Funders ask who to call, and it depends is the wrong answer.