This Grant Administration Template was developed by Courtney Oliphant, Founder & CEO of Coastal Nonprofit Consulting, and shared in partnership with Instrumentl to help nonprofits streamline their funding workflows.
For many nonprofits, grants are both a lifeline and a source of stress. Between juggling deadlines, satisfying reporting requirements, and fielding board questions, many grant managers feel like they’re constantly in reactive mode. Courtney Oliphant, Founder and CEO of Coastal Nonprofit Consulting, has seen this firsthand. Her solution: structure and clarity through systems like a Grant Administration Template.
This article breaks down the key sections of Courtney’s Grant Administration Template and explains how nonprofits can use it to strengthen their funding strategy, reduce stress, and build long-term sustainability.
🎧 Want to go deeper? Check out our podcast interview with Courtney Oliphant to explore how nonprofits can assess their grant readiness, right-size their grant teams, and train grant professionals to act as translators between programs, finance, and leadership.
Many nonprofits equate “grant capacity” with having someone to write proposals. But as Courtney points out, true capacity comes from systems.
“Real grant capacity means that you have the internal systems, clarity, and ways of collaborating to consistently pursue and manage funding.”
Without a centralized structure, organizations risk missed deadlines, strained staff, and a reactive approach. A template provides the foundation for alignment, enabling teams to track, forecast, and communicate effectively with leadership and funders.
The grant funding snapshot section of the template provides a high-level overview of your grant pipeline, including how much you’ve applied for and how much has been awarded. It forces organizations to align asks with institutional goals.
Courtney recommends nonprofits apply for significantly more than their target to account for inevitable declines:
“We really need to be applying for two and a half to five times what we need to bring in the door in order to try and hit that number.”
Next, the grant pipeline section organizes each individual grant opportunity, including its:
Everything is tracked by month, helping organizations move from chasing opportunities to executing a plan.
“We start every grant engagement by building a funding strategy…so that they're not applying reactively, but have a thoughtful, fundable pipeline.”
With a tracker in place, nonprofits can see their year at a glance and avoid the scramble of last-minute applications.
Once a grant is awarded, the active grant tracker ensures nonprofits stay on top of financial allocations, reporting deadlines, and compliance requirements.
“When you put the right structure in place, you free up internal staff to focus on programs and help move into more of a strategy mindset instead of reaction.”
By tracking deliverables and reporting timelines, nonprofits build trust with funders while protecting internal bandwidth.
Simple but essential, this tab centralizes access to grant application portals. Rather than relying on one staff member’s personal login, teams can use a shared system.
As Courtney notes, providing tools and systems lightens the load for internal teams:
“The best thing that you can give someone coming in from the outside is a strategy and templates and tools that they didn't have to build.”
A shared password tracker may seem small, but it eliminates common bottlenecks and improves collaboration.
Finally, maintaining funder relationships often requires specific acknowledgements—event mentions, website banners, or social media shoutouts. This tracker ensures those commitments aren’t forgotten.
By honoring recognition requests consistently, nonprofits build credibility and increase their chances of renewal funding.
Courtney recommends rolling out the template in phases: start with the funding snapshot, build your annual pipeline, and then use the active grant tracker to monitor awarded grants. Updating it monthly keeps leadership informed and funders engaged.
One key use case: helping nonprofits handle the constant influx of “urgent” grant suggestions from board members.
“If you have a checklist or a plan, it's easier to handle those board emails where they say, oh, I saw this grant due in three days. You can say, actually we’ve assessed this and we’ll look at it next year.”
Instrumentl can take this further by centralizing the pipeline, automating deadline reminders, and syncing strategy with execution.
By using Courtney’s Grant Administration Template and pairing it with tools like Instrumentl, nonprofits can move from scrambling to sustainability—and unlock the real power of grants to advance their missions.
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