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What to put in a grant pipeline report for your board

Board members usually do not need every detail of every grant. They need to know whether the organization is on track to fund its budget, what decisions are coming, and where their help would matter. A short, steady pipeline report answers those questions. This guide covers what to include and what to leave out.

Start with what the board has to decide

A report that tries to show everything ends up showing nothing. Before you build it, ask what the board actually does with it. Most boards use grant information to do three things:

• Judge whether the revenue plan in the budget is realistic.
• Offer introductions, endorsements or follow-up with funders.
• Spot risks early, such as a big renewal that may not come through.

Build the report around those three uses.

The one-page layout

Aim for a single page, with a short list of sections that appear in the same order every time. Familiar order makes the report faster to read and makes changes stand out.

1. A summary line

Open with three figures in plain words: dollars awarded so far this year, dollars asked and still waiting for a decision, and the expected amount from open asks. Label the expected amount as an estimate, and say how you calculated it (see below).

2. The pipeline by stage

Show a small table with one row per stage: researching, letter of inquiry, drafting, submitted, awarded, declined. For each, give the number of asks and the dollars requested. Here is an example with made-up numbers:

The numbers above are examples only. The point is that a board member can see the shape of the work in about ten seconds.

3. What changed since the last meeting

List new awards, new declines, and asks that moved to the next stage. Keep each to a line. Include declines. A board that only hears good news cannot help when something goes wrong, and it will trust the report less over time.

4. Deadlines in the next 60 days

Name the funder, the date, the amount, and who owns it. This is where the board can see whether the workload is realistic. Five proposals due in one month with one person writing them is a conversation worth having.

5. Reports you owe

List reports due in the next quarter. Reports are where funder relationships are quietly built or damaged, and boards often forget they exist. A short line such as "Interim report to the community foundation due in three weeks, draft started" is enough.

6. Where the board can help

This is the most valuable section and the one most often skipped. Be specific: "We would like an introduction to a program officer at the health trust," or "Please thank the family foundation at the March event." Board members are more likely to act on a clear small request than on a general invitation to help.

How to estimate expected dollars honestly

Many reports add up every submitted ask as if it were revenue. That overstates what is likely to arrive. A common alternative is to weight each stage by a likelihood: a lower percentage for early stages and a higher one for submitted asks. You choose those percentages.

Two rules keep this honest. First, base the percentages on your own history once you have enough decisions to look at. Until then, treat them as rough planning guesses and say so in the report. Second, never count an ask as awarded until you have a letter or an agreement. Show awarded and expected as separate lines, so nobody mistakes one for the other.

Compare the pipeline to the budget

If your budget assumes a certain amount of grant revenue, add one line showing the gap between that amount and what you have awarded so far. For example: "Budgeted grant revenue: $X. Awarded: $Y. Expected from open asks: $Z." The board can then see whether the plan is covered, close, or exposed. Keep the wording neutral and factual.

How often to send it

Match the report to your board's meeting rhythm, usually quarterly or at every meeting. Send it a few days ahead so people can read it, and keep the format identical each time. If something urgent comes up between meetings, such as a major decline or a deadline at risk, send a short note instead of waiting.

Mistakes to avoid

• Counting submitted asks as income. A submitted proposal is a request, not revenue.
• Leaving out declines. They show your real win rate and what you are learning.
• Going past one page. Put detail in an appendix, and offer it on request.
• Changing the format every time. Consistency lets the board notice real change.
• Asking for nothing. If the report never includes a request, the board has no way to help.

Where the data comes from

A good report is mostly a byproduct of a well-kept tracker. If every ask has a stage, an amount and dates, then the report is a matter of counting and sorting. If you keep the information current as you work, preparing the board report takes minutes rather than an evening. That is the best reason to keep one clear list from the start.