Grant Report
Tips for making a grant report: What to report and how? What data and material to collect for reporting?
By Riitta Huttunen, Sirpa Lahti and Laura Lehtinen, Uniarts Helsinki
Grant recipients usually need to submit a final report to the grant provider. In the report, you will explain whether your project went as planned. What was done, where and when, with whom? What kind of audience did your work reach and how was it received? Was the media interested in your work? Was it discussed on social media platforms? What kind of comments and feedback did you receive?
Report on how the objectives set for the project were achieved. If your project deviated from the original plan, explain what changes were made and why. Also, make a full report of the finances of the project and submit it in the form required by the grant provider.
A grant report should be 1-3 pages in length and should be accompanied by a separate financial report, examples of media coverage, and other relevant material such as concert programs.
Financial Report
Recipients of grants and subsidies usually clear the expenditures at the end of the project or the work period. Read the grant decision carefully and check out the reporting policy and possible report form provided by the funding body. The grant decision usually includes the deadline and instructions for drawing up the financial report.
Many funders refuse to award new grants until the applicant has cleared the expenditures of the previous project they have supported. In some cases, grantees may be required to pay back the funds if they do not clear the finances appropriately. So, draw up the financial report carefully and submit it on time.
If you have received several grants and subsidies for your project, make sure you use the correct form and fill in the sections carefully. Keep receipts for all purchases and other expenses related to your project until you have cleared the finances. Some funders require you to keep receipts for up to two years after submitting the financial report. For each grant, report only the expenses related to the project you received the grant for. You must not use the same receipts for financial reports of other grants. Also note that once you’ve included the expenses in your financial grant report, you can no longer deduct the expenses from your income taxation.
How to Make a Grant Report Easily?
- Right after you receive the grant, check the grant provider’s requirements for the final report.
Be prepared to produce or collect the necessary data during your work or project.
- Check the deadline for grant report submission.
Sometimes you must submit the report before the end of the project, sometimes the project ends long before the report is due.
In either case, it’s a good idea to submit the report as early as possible.
- Keep track of project finances as the project progresses, not just at the end.
If you don’t want to keep books yourself, hire an accountant or appoint a financial manager for the project.
In any case, as a grant recipient you are responsible for reporting the finances, so it is good to be aware of how the finances are tracked, even if you don’t do it yourself.
- Keep all the invoices and receipts for purchases paid for with the grant.
There must be a document for each transaction involving the grant, including expenditure and revenues (e.g., ticket sales and performance fees).
Such document can be, for example:
- Receipt for a purchase
- Paid invoice, for example, for a service or a purchase
- Summary of the box office
- Agreement on a performance fee
- An invoice sent to a client, for example for a performance, service or a piece of art)
- What are the objectives of your project? From the outset, think about what information you need to collect during the project so that you can report on the fulfilment of your objectives in your grant report.
- Save all reviews and media coverage, event programmes and other relevant material related to the project so that you can easily attach them to the grant report.
- If the work takes place within an organisation, it may be necessary to create a separate cost pool or tracking number for the grant in the accounts. Check the guidelines of the grant provider and your own organisation for this.
