The article below is basically what I say in the video.

I want to tell you about a place that has claimed many people's lives. A place more dense and bewildering than an Amazonian jungle. I am talking about the grant tracker.

The document that keeps track of all your funding sources and the details that come with them. Let me tell you something, the more detailed the grant tracker is, the more bewildering and confusing it becomes. Let me just read you what my old grant tracker used to track.

• Official deadline

• Timeline

• Alternative deadline

• Funding source

• Grant purpose focus

I'm so sorry we're not even close to be doing yet.

• Grant notes

• Grant link

• Type of grant

• Status

• Prospect amount

Seriously, we're just getting started.

• Request amount

• Amount awarded

• Amount reduced

• Percent success

• Expected decision date

Yes, I really tracked all this information.

• Duration of funding

• Report due date

• Report submitted

• Website application portal link

• Online username

Here's an idea, let's track more information.

• Online password

• Login notes

• History

• Relations

• Blood type

• Are you Sagittarius or Aquarius?

Alright, those last two I added. But you can see my point.

Here is the bigger insight. A grant tracker is a system. And like any system, what you put into it shapes what you get out of it. Nonprofits and funders who do not think carefully about how their systems are designed end up with tools that cost more time than they save. An overly complicated tracker is not a sign of thoroughness. It is a sign that nobody has asked what this system is supposed to do.

The same is true for your entire grant writing and major gifts infrastructure. When your systems are not designed with clarity and intention, the people using them spend more time managing the system than doing the work the system was built to support. (Look no further than how many bells and whistles CRMs or funder prospects have).

That time loss compounds quietly and most organizations never connect it back to the system design itself.

Your grant tracker should give you life. You should open it and instantly know what you need to know. Because the work work is talking to your program officers, building relationships with funders, doing the actual work. The tracker is merely something to quickly engage with and then step away from.

Over the years as my clients and I kept returning to the same document, we found ourselves doing one thing consistently. Removing. Removing. Removing. Simplicity is elegance.

Here is what we use now.