The SmartyGrants Grantmaking Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to walk you through the process of building, reviewing or refreshing a…
Institute of Grants Management
The Institute of Grants Management (IGM) is your hub for tools, research, innovation, and professional development for grantmakers.
IGM, an Our Community enterprise, is our vehicle for sharing our expertise in grants management gained from more than two decades working with grantmakers and grantees.
Our sibling enterprise, SmartyGrants (also part of the Our Community Group), is your vehicle for operationalising those good practices – find out more about our software.
Learning Pathways:
LEVEL 1
Foundations of Grantmaking
Audience: New grant officers/admin staff
Core processes and inclusion basics
Grantmaking glossary
Application: An application for a grant might also be referred to as an expression of interest,…
Best practice for writing grants guidelines
Fine-tuning your grants guidelines to ensure they are accessible and user-friendly will make life…
Making your grants program accessible to individuals with a disability
If you want to target the disadvantaged and the marginalised in your grantmaking, recognise that…
Ten top tips on providing feedback
Carefully considered feedback can be helpful to grantseekers, and it can also make life easier for…
Avoiding jargon
Grantmaking is surrounded by words. Words describe overall missions and goals; they explain…
Grantmaking for beginners
Whether you're taking responsibility for an existing grants program or designing one from scratch,…
Application checklists
A good application checklist can save both grantmakers and grantseekers a significant amount of…
LEVEL 2
Effective Grant Design
Audience: Program/policy officers
Equitable, needs-based, measurable programs
Applying a 'gender lens' to your work
Different genders are socially conditioned to occupy different roles. They face different…
Whitepaper: Unrestricted funding - why grantmakers need it
If you're serious about making a big difference to the organisations you support, you must consider…
At the crossroads: How to use grants to tackle climate change and equity
Climate change has become a crucial issue for grantmakers, as governments, philanthropists and…
Funding collaboratives
Many of the issues grantmakers seek to tackle are complex, and large: the scale and complexity is…
Enabling innovation and risk-friendly grantmaking
It is often assumed that in funding innovative or high-impact projects, grantmakers take a big risk…
Designing or redesigning your grants program
It can be difficult to know where to start in designing a grants policy and program. This help…
LEVEL 3
Strategic Grantmaking
Audience: Senior officers/managers
Portfolio planning, policy alignment
Whitepaper: Risk management and the grantmaking lifecycle
SmartyGrants experts have delved into the myriad of ways that proper risk management will ensure…
How to prepare for when something goes wrong and how to respond when it does
The best way to address performance issues is to anticipate them, have an early-intervention plan…
Engaging in strategic grantmaking
Switching from a small, one-off grants program to strategic, multi-year partnerships can help…
Benchmarking basics
Benchmarking can assist you with planning and with continuous improvement. You can do it any time;…
Scanning the landscape: finding the best targets for your funds
When you plan your grants program - or if you're reconsidering the direction of an existing program…
Matching grants to strengthen communities
Providing funding that matches - in cash or in kind - community resources builds community capacity…
Managing your grants staff
Grants staff have a tough gig - they are often pressed for time and juggling numerous roles. They…
LEVEL 4
Impact & Learning Leader
Audience: Directors / MEL leads
Outcomes focus, evaluation, adaptive learning
Whitepaper: Shifting to Outcomes-Orientated Grantmaking
This white paper is for anyone who’s ever asked, “Are our grants actually making a difference?”
How to turn grant data into meaningful reports using the Outcomes Engine
Tracking the outcomes of grant programs is complex. While individual grant reports provide…
Outcome Measurement Frameworks
Coming up with a list of outcomes or an outcome framework can be a daunting task, especially when…
The Seven Deadly Sins of Program Evaluation
Are you seeking grantmaking perfection? Of course you are. And the best find a way to nirvana is to…
The seven principles of impact reporting
Reporting on impact is a challenge all grantmakers face, but keeping these seven principles in mind…
Establishing a strategy for evaluation
Every evaluation undertaken by a grantmaker should be unique, and needs to be designed accordingly.…
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Learning Pathways for Grantmakers
Build capability across the nine stages of the grantmaking lifecycle and 24 templates to guide grantmakers to success
Grantmaking Research
Grantmaking Research - All Publications
The Future of Funding: How well are Australian grants addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals?
The Future of Funding: What are the priorities and directions of Australian grantmakers?
The ethics of automated classification: a case study using a dignity lens
Data for social good
Explore R&D projects, frameworks and case studies from the Innovation Lab, including CLASSIE/CLASSIEfier guidance, ethics work, and capability-building resources.
Our unique mix of social sector and grantmaking experts, experienced developers, and data specialists mean the Innovation Lab team is able to work on revolutionary initiatives designed to change the social sector for good. Read more.
This framework reflects our experience working with hundreds of grantmakers across Australia and New Zealand who use SmartyGrants, from small community foundations to larger philanthropic foundations, corporate funders and all levels of government – each keen to understand and measure the impact of their funding programs. Read more.
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