Government Grant Considerations: The New Era-Slides

Slides
Pdf Summary
The "Government Grant Considerations: The New Era" webinar, led by Rachel Werner, MPA, PMP, GPC, addresses recent significant changes and compliance challenges in federal grantmaking. Rachel, a grants expert with over 22 years of experience and CEO of RBW Strategy, highlights the increased scrutiny on federal funding, legislative updates including the executive order on improving federal grant oversight, and their impacts on grant administration.<br /><br />Key points include new executive order mandates such as senior review of Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs), pre-approval holds, annual award reviews, possible mid-award terminations, stricter indirect cost restrictions, conditional drawdowns requiring justification, and prohibitions on funding certain policy-related activities. These changes shift grant review focus from technical merit to policy alignment and introduce more administrative complexities, delays, and financial oversight.<br /><br />The webinar stresses the importance of building a strong culture of compliance through people, processes, policies, systems, and knowledge. Internal controls like separation of duties, authorization, documentation, and asset safeguarding are essential. Organizations must align policies with updated federal regulations, particularly 2 CFR Part 200, and prepare for forthcoming revisions.<br /><br />Additional compliance priorities include conducting risk assessments, ensuring current indirect cost rate agreements, robust recordkeeping, vigilant subrecipient monitoring, updated procurement practices reflecting new clauses, and comprehensive data measurement and reporting. The importance of advocacy and collaboration with peers and associations is also underscored.<br /><br />To build a "grant ready" organization, the webinar advises reviewing award terms at kickoff, building cross-functional teams, understanding regulatory requirements, holding regular meetings, and maintaining ongoing monitoring and documentation to ensure compliance and readiness for audits.<br /><br />Common questions addressed include how to respond if grants are terminated, aligning organizational strategic priorities with grant opportunities, and navigating the evolving federal funding landscape. Resources and case studies illustrate real-world scenarios reflecting these challenges.<br /><br />In summary, navigating federal grants today requires strategic alignment, robust compliance systems, ongoing risk management, and proactive adaptation to evolving policies to sustain funding and mission impact.
Keywords
Government Grants
Federal Grantmaking
Compliance Challenges
Executive Order
Grant Administration
2 CFR Part 200
Risk Assessment
Indirect Cost Restrictions
Subrecipient Monitoring
Grant Readiness