Running a small grant-giving charity: applications and decisions
A confidential register of who has asked for help, what the trustees decided, and why.
In The Charity Office: Grants we give → Applicants
Who can see it
This is for charities that give money to people: a welfare charity, a relief-in-need fund, an educational trust. It is the opposite of the Grants section, which is for money your charity applies for.
Owners, administrators, the treasurer, the secretary and trustees can read it. Trustees can read everything and change nothing, because the decision is theirs but the record of it should not shift afterwards. A volunteer never sees that the section exists.
Names, addresses, what the person wrote and the reasons for your decision are all stored encrypted. That is also why you cannot search by name: sort by reference, or by when they last asked.
When a form arrives
Add the person under Grants we give → Applicants, unless they have asked before, in which case open them. They are given a reference such as A-0012, which you can say aloud at a meeting, or write in the minutes, without naming anybody.
On their page press Add a request. The boxes follow the usual application form, and you can attach the signed form itself as a PDF or a photograph. It is kept privately and only the same people can open it.
Recording the decision
After the meeting, open the request and fill in What the trustees decided: awarded, declined, deferred or withdrawn, how much, the date, and the reasons. A yes or a no cannot be saved without reasons.
Once you have written to them, add the letter under The letter you sent them in the same section. It is kept privately with the request, and the Decision letter button at the top of the request opens it again.
Grants we give → Decisions register lists every request from everybody, side by side, with a total. Reading down the Reasons column is how you check that two similar requests were treated alike.
Keeping a note of calls and letters
Open the applicant and choose the Correspondence tab. Press Add a note whenever you ring, write to or see them: how, when, what it was about and any detail. It shows who noted it, newest first, and what you write is stored encrypted.
The cheque, and the accounts
Once a request is marked Awarded a section called The cheque appears, for the cheque number, its date, and the two trustees who signed it.
Then press the three dots on the request and choose Record in Spending. The payment goes into Money → Spending as "Grant awarded, G-0012" with the cheque number and who signed. The person's name is deliberately left out, so your accounts can be read by people who should not know who was helped.
Worth knowing. The Decisions register has a filter called "Awarded, not yet in Spending". It is the quickest way to find a cheque that was written and never reached the books.
More guides
See your own year, in full, in an afternoon
Start free, put in what is in the bank and this year's figures, and look at the forecast before you decide anything.