It is a require­ment of all grant fund­ing that progress updates and final eval­u­a­tions are com­plet­ed by the stip­u­lat­ed report­ing dates, unless it has been agreed with the Grants Manager. 

Projects put a lot of time and effort into secur­ing grant fund­ing, but some­times for­get an impor­tant key stage: report­ing to fun­ders. Oth­ers pro­duce per­func­to­ry reports which do not bring their work to life, and do not con­vey the pos­i­tive impact the grant has had on both the organ­i­sa­tion and its beneficiaries.

Instead, report­ing to fun­ders should be a cru­cial part of your fundrais­ing cycle as it plays such an impor­tant part in how any sub­se­quent grant appli­ca­tions will be viewed. 

The problems

Although the major­i­ty of projects we fund return report­ing when required, there has been increas­ing instances of:

  • Projects fail­ing to sub­mit reports
  • Fail­ing to inform us of issues
  • Request­ing exten­sions on the final day
  • Ignor­ing prompts and reminders
  • Fail­ing to inform us of changes to con­tact information
  • Very basic report­ing that does not demon­strate the pos­i­tive work being done

The impact

Fail­ure to sub­mit report­ing may put this fund­ing at risk which would adverse­ly impact the com­mu­ni­ties and vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple we are all try­ing to sup­port though this work. We hope you under­stand why we have to be so strict about this mat­ter, and please be assured this is not a process we wish to or enjoy using. 

We do recog­nise that for some groups the report­ing process is per­haps new and some­thing you have con­cerns about, if this is the case please talk to us and we can put you in touch with peo­ple that can sup­port you.

3 Step Process for late/ missing reports

Step 1

Out of cour­tesy The VCS Alliance will send out email reminders two weeks before a report is due. 

  • It is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the grant appli­cant to check spam fil­ters etc, this will not be accept­ed as a rea­son­able exten­sion request.
  • If you try and sub­mit a report through Sur­vey Mon­key but have prob­lems that pre­vent the sub­mis­sion you must inform us asap. 
  • If the prob­lem can’t be resolved we will make alter­na­tive arrange­ments for your submission. 
  • We will not accept this as a gen­uine rea­son if we are not informed and the process will move to Step 2.

Step 2

If a report is late or miss­ing, and an exten­sion has not been grant­ed, we will give the project a final oppor­tu­ni­ty to sub­mit the report(s).

  • The project will be grant­ed a one day exten­sion to sub­mit, if there are still no sub­mis­sions or they are incom­plete the project will be placed on a Fund­ing Pro­ba­tion list for a peri­od of 12 months.
  • This means that the project will be allowed to apply for fund­ing but any fur­ther late or miss­ing reports will result in imme­di­ate pro­gres­sion to Step 3, and pos­si­bly a request for the return of any grant funding. 
  • No exten­sions will be grant­ed dur­ing this period.

Step 3

The project will revert to a nor­mal appli­ca­tion sta­tus if all report­ing is returned on time in this 12 month peri­od. If it is not returned on time:

  • The project will be barred from any and all grant fund­ing for a peri­od of 12 months
  • After the 12 month bar­ring peri­od the project will return to the Pro­ba­tion­ary sta­tus for 6 months. The project may once again apply for grant fund­ing, in this period.
  • If any reports are late or miss­ing in this 6 month peri­od the project will be per­ma­nent­ly barred from any and all grant fund­ing with The VCS Alliance.
  • The VCS Alliance reserves the right to require the return of any grant funding

It is a nec­es­sary com­po­nent of all grant award fund­ing that report­ing is com­plet­ed by the stip­u­lat­ed dates unless exten­sions have been sought and agreed with the Grants Man­ag­er, all requests for an exten­sion must be in writ­ing to: david@thevcsalliance.org.uk

A request is not a guar­an­tee that an exten­sion will be granted.

Though The VCS Alliance tries to be as sup­port­ive and under­stand­ing as pos­si­ble there may be times when we have to impose sanc­tions on grant appli­cants as a result of reports being late or miss­ing. Where pos­si­ble we will send out reminders as a mat­ter of course, but this is a cour­tesy. It is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of all grant appli­cants to make them­selves aware of any and all sub­mis­sion dates and ensure these are met. 

To enable us to send out report­ing reminders grant appli­cants are asked to inform us when there are changes to con­tact emails etc, this will ensure that reminders are received. 

We try to keep the report­ing process as sim­ple as pos­si­ble and are con­tin­u­al­ly eval­u­at­ing it to see where it can be improved. If you have any sug­ges­tions or obser­va­tions please feel free to con­tact david@thevcsalliance.org.uk

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