How to Write a Grant Report 

The first thing you should include in your report — or any correspondence with your funder — is a heartfelt message communicating your gratitude. Though this may seem like common sense, reminding your grantor how thankful you are can go a long way. Address your funder by name, whether they’re a staff member, officer or trustee of the foundation, and thank them for accepting your application and allowing your agency to embark on a new mission or project.

Even if you regularly communicate with your grant agency, it’s still crucial to reiterate your appreciation for the grant funds you’ve received. You can also express your hopes for a continued relationship in the future.

Next, you need to provide financial data for how your organization or agency used the money. Depending on the type of grant you receive, funders may give you direct cash for you to spend or provide you with funds on a reimbursement basis. Either way, it’s critical to record all receipts, proof-of-purchase documents and other accounting data you need to demonstrate compliance, such as technology, materials, staffing, utilities and other project expenses. 

You might also need to include your organization’s financial data to comply with other legal grant reporting requirements. In addition to providing the actual costs, you should also describe each one, explaining how you chose to allocate these funds and how they contributed to the grant’s overall purpose. 

In the grant activities section, you should include a brief narrative describing the activities you’ve implemented so far and how they fit into your broader program objectives. Grantors will want to see how your individual expenditures contributed to these activities. 

To help write this section, you can use the details from your original grant application. Include any changes you’ve made since signing your grant agreement, such as if you leveraged volunteer resources to maximize your funds. Describe the process for how you accomplished any significant milestones in your program or project this far and highlight any organizations you’ve collaborated with and how they supported your project. 

For this step, summarize the goals and aspirations you outlined in your original application request. This section will vary widely depending on the project you’re implementing and how far along you are in the process. Using your initial grant proposal, you can reflect on your fundamental objectives and discuss what you’ve learned, your assumptions, the changes you want to see and whether your program has met your expectations.

If you’re writing an end-of-project report, explain the results and outcome of these goals and their impact on your agency and community. Describe how the grant funding positively impacted your results and what you and your team have accomplished. Providing additional information in your report, such as demographic details or qualitative data, can demonstrate your organization regularly monitors your project progress. 

You can include specific numbers that relate to your project, such as how many meals you provided, how many patients you’ve helped or how many clients you’ve served since the beginning of the program. This real-time data can help grantors see where and why their funds helped you make a difference in the community. You may also want to share participants’ quotes or stories of transformation that resulted directly from your agency’s project.

While grant reporting allows you to emphasize your success, it’s equally crucial to discuss where you expected to do better and how you came to a resolution. With any project, there will always be unexpected factors that can make meeting your proposed deadlines and objectives challenging. Throughout your grant program, keep a detailed list of obstacles you and your team have faced, including:

• Details on aspects that presented a challenge
• How these issues affected your projected activities
• The lessons your organization learned from these challenging experiences
• How you and your team can incorporate these lessons to improve present and future efforts

Though this can be a difficult section of the grant report to write, be open and honest with funders. Share your challenges and how you used creativity and resilience to overcome them. This information can be helpful for your grantor, who can advise other grantees who implement similar projects in the future.

Grantors want to know that the projects they’ve supported will remain successful and continue to make an impact even after closeout. In your report, share your project or program’s plans and how you intend to sustain them, such as earned income, fundraising or additional grants. Discuss the next phase or direction of your project and any preparations your organization has made to continue the impact and influence the funds from your grantor have made. 

Before writing your report, review any relevant details your grantor gave you in your grant agreement. Look for report deadlines, questions to answer or specific information they want to know, and follow the directions to the letter. 

Starting your report at the last minute won’t give you enough time to thoroughly complete every section, which can leave a negative impression on your funder. Create a writing timeline weeks or months from your report deadline to sidestep unexpected delays and ensure you have all the necessary information. 

As you would with any document, read your report a few times and pass it along to your team to check for spelling and grammar issues and confirm you’ve included all the necessary details. 

Though it’s not always necessary, grantors will love to see images, videos and community testimonials about the impact their funds have allowed you to make through your program or project. You can even include a link to your project’s website or a video tour of your program’s results.