Whitepaper: Risk management and the grantmaking lifecycle
Don’t make your grants a gamble, get a good handle on risks
From catastrophic bushfires to the ongoing health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, grantmakers in recent years have faced an array of threats that have disrupted well-crafted funding programs.
Grantmakers with established risk management frameworks and practices have weathered those storms better, and will be better placed for the inevitable ones to come.
Those grantmakers will always have the capacity to be more responsive and agile in the face of unpredictable events in every area of their portfolio: program management, finance, workplace health and safety, human resources, the political environment, media management and much more.
SmartyGrants has produced a white paper to help grantmakers to manage risk, avoid trouble, embrace opportunity and make the most of their grant programs.
The benefits of managing risk well include:
- Improved efficiency
- Improved effectiveness of grants programs and hence increased impact
- Better meeting of compliance obligations
The benefits of a healthy understanding of risk
Grantmakers who manage risk effectively are able to reduce the administrative burden on their organisations and on grantseekers by avoiding excessive interventions, leaving their programs free to flourish.
Implementing and maintaining a well-formed risk management program will pay dividends in terms of your time, your effort and your impact.
This white paper explores risk management in the context of each step of the grantmaking lifecycle as outlined in the SmartyGrants Grantmaking Toolkit, the definitive guide to building best practice into your grants processes and programs.
In applying it to your organisation, you should also consider your existing risk management frameworks.
This paper also forms part of the SmartyGrants suite of information, guidance and resources at smartygrants.com.au
(free) and at help.smartygrants.com.au
(SmartyGrants users only).