Requesting a grant budget or financial report

Keeping ArtsPool in the Loop

Your ArtsPool team meets periodically to review everything that is coming up for your company and coordinate our efforts, so it's very helpful for us to have significant dates around grants on our internal Google calendar for your company well in advance. To learn how to "invite" your ArtsPool Google calendar to events on your company's internal calendar, see the article Share Important Events or Deadlines with ArtsPool's Calendar.

Grant Applications

In order to ask ArtsPool to prepare materials for an upcoming grant application, fill out the new grant application form in the ArtsPool app. This form can be found by logging into the ArtsPool app, selecting the blue New Task button in the upper right part of your screen, selecting Request a grant budget, and then selecting For an Application.

You can bookmark this form using the link https://app.artspool.co/grants/new.

Form fields

The new grant application form will ask you to fill out all the information ArtsPool needs to prepare materials for the grant application.

• Funder name: Enter the name of the foundation or government agency from whom you are requesting funding, e.g. Very Big Foundation of America, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. We work on a LOT of grants, so to help us find things please avoid abbreviations.
• Project name: The name of the project as you will describe it to the funder.
• Request amount: How much are you asking for in total? Enter numbers only and don’t include any words such as “per year,” etc. for a multi-year request. You can add this contextual information in the Notes field.
• Materials request deadline: When do you need the requested materials from ArtsPool? We ask that you give us at least two weeks’ lead time to prepare accurate grant financials. We understand that things come up last minute, and we will do our best to accommodate,  but most grant applications can and should be planned for in advance. As ArtsPool grows, it’s challenging for us to turn grant applications around on very short notice, so please submit your grant application requests as soon as you know that you will be applying.
• Application deadline: When is the application due to the funder?
• Project start fiscal year: In which fiscal year of YOURS will the project start?
• Project end fiscal year: In which fiscal year of YOURS will the project end?
• Program: Select the Budget program that this will be tracked under in your budget. The list of programs is populated from your books in Xero, so if you see an empty list there may be a connection problem with Xero. If that happens, select New Program and let your Financial Maintenance Lead know about the connection problem in the Notes field. If you select New Program for a program that is actually new, please describe the new program briefly in the Notes field.
• Activity: Select the Budget activity that this will be tracked under in your budget. The list of activities is populated from your books in Xero, so if you see an empty list there may be a connection problem with Xero. If that happens, select New Activity and let your Financial Maintenance Lead know about the connection problem in the Notes field. If you select New Activity for an activity that is actually new, please describe the new activity briefly in the Notes field. If you don’t use activity tracking or don’t need this tracked on an activity level, select Not Applicable.
• New funder or existing funder: Have you been funded by this foundation or agency before?
• New project or existing project: Is this something new that your organization is doing? If so, be sure to give us some context on the project in the Notes field or by sharing a draft of your narrative.
• Link to guidelines: Please provide a link to the guidelines if they are available online so we can familiarize ourselves with them or review them for changes from prior cycles. Be sure to include the http:// or https:// portion of the web address. If the guidelines were provided as a document, you can upload them in the Documents section of the form.
• Link to narrative draft: Please provide a link to your draft narrative if it’s available so that we can review it for consistency with the financials. Be sure to include the http:// or https:// portion of the web address. If you don’t have a draft available online you can upload it in the Documents section of the form.
• Materials requested: Common materials requested by funders include: single or multi-year organization budget, project-specific budget, budget or variance notes, funding plan, and/or a list of funders. Please be as specific as possible in your request.
• Notes: Provide any clarifying information related to the above fields or any information, e.g. submission method (PDF vs online), people to add to the task, etc. Please be as specific as possible in your notes. If you don’t have any other information to add, you can leave this blank.

Documents

If there are documents related to your grant application, add them in the Documents section. To add a document, drag and drop one or more files from your computer, paste files from your clipboard, or click the browse link to open the file picker. There is also a webcam option, which is handy if you are creating a task from your phone and want to take a picture of a document with your phone's camera while creating a task.

Submitting the form

Once you have filled out the new grant application form, submit the form by selecting the blue Submit button. If your submission is successful, you’ll see a blue bar appear at the top of the screen letting you know the new grant application form was submitted and assigned to your Financial Maintenance Lead.

Submitting the grant application

If the grant application is to be submitted online, you are responsible for entering the financial data prepared by ArtsPool into the relevant grant application/reporting portal.

If the grant application is not submitted online, your Financial Maintenance Lead will upload the final materials to the task in the ArtsPool app so that you can submit them via mail/email.

Grant Reports

In order to ask ArtsPool to prepare materials for an upcoming grant report, fill out the new grant report form in the ArtsPool app. This form can be found by logging into the ArtsPool app, selecting the blue New Task button in the upper right part of your screen, selecting Request a grant budget, and then selecting For a Report.

You can bookmark this form using the link https://app.artspool.co/grant_reports/new.

Form fields

The new grant report form will ask you to fill out all the information ArtsPool needs to prepare materials for the grant report. Many of the fields are similar to the grant application form so only report-specific fields will be described here.

• Award amount: How much are you reporting on in total? Enter numbers only and don’t include any words such as “per year,” etc. for a multi-year request. You can add this contextual information in the Notes field.
• Materials request deadline: When do you need the requested materials from ArtsPool? For reports, we ask that you give us at least one week's lead time to prepare accurate grant financials. We understand that things come up last minute, and we will do our best to accommodate,  but most grant reports can and should be planned for in advance. As ArtsPool grows, it’s challenging for us to turn grant reports around on very short notice, so please submit your grant report requests as soon as you know that you will be reporting.
• Report deadline: When is the report due to the funder?
• Materials requested: Common materials requested by funders include: single or multi-year organization budget, project-specific budget, budget or variance notes, funding plan, and/or a list of funders. Please be as specific as possible in your request.
  • If the funder requires a scope of service revisions at the time of reporting, please indicate whether your budget or program activity differed significantly from your original application.  
• Notes: Provide any clarifying information related to the above fields or any information, e.g. submission method (PDF vs online), people to add to the task, etc. Please be as specific as possible in your notes. If you don’t have any other information to add, you can leave this blank.
  • If the grant was made prior to your ArtsPool membership start date, attach the grant letter or contract and the original application budget/narrative in the Documents section. We will schedule a follow-up call to discuss the details of the grant activity.

Documents

If the funder has specific report templates that need to be filled out, add them in the Documents section. To add a document, drag and drop one or more files from your computer, paste files from your clipboard, or click the browse link to open the file picker. There is also a webcam option, which is handy if you are creating a task from your phone and want to take a picture of a document with your phone's camera while creating a task.

Submitting the form

Once you have filled out the new grant report form, submit the form by selecting the blue Submit button. If your submission is successful, you’ll see a blue bar appear at the top of the screen letting you know the new grant report form was submitted and assigned to your Financial Maintenance Lead.

Submitting the grant report

If the grant report is to be submitted online, you are responsible for entering the financial data prepared by ArtsPool into the relevant grant application/reporting portal.

If the grant report is not submitted online, your Financial Maintenance Lead will upload the final materials to the task in the ArtsPool app so that you can submit them via mail/email.