Nonprofit Grant Tracking Spreadsheet Template

What a grant tracking spreadsheet is

A nonprofit grant tracking spreadsheet template is a single Excel workbook that records every grant an organization receives — award terms, restrictions, and reporting deadlines — and every grant it makes, keyed to the same grantee and compliance detail. This nonprofit grant tracker template covers both directions in one workbook.

Most free trackers online cover only the money coming in — award terms, restrictions, and reporting deadlines owed to a grantor. This one adds the money going out: grantee diligence, expenditure responsibility, and the reports owed back.

This is a record, not software, with no formulas or automated alerts until a team builds its own. A close-out report comes due before anyone circles it on a calendar. A restricted award gets spent, but nothing on the workbook proves it was spent the way the grantor required.

What’s inside the Excel workbook

The workbook ships as one Excel file, six sheets deep. A Start Here tab leads, followed by five data sheets covering grants received, restrictions, grants made, and reports in both directions.

Together, the five data sheets hold 86 fields behind 12 dropdown lists — most free trackers stop at grants received; this one adds grants made. This grant management template for Excel opens in Google Sheets as well as Excel.

Grants received and restrictions

Grants Received — 27 fields — holds grantor and grantor type: Private Foundation, Community Foundation, Corporate Foundation, Federal Agency, State Agency, or Local Government. Program area and award, start, end, and close-out dates round out the row.

Award amount and amount received run as two separate clocks, so a grant with staggered drawdowns never looks fully funded before it is. A restricted flag on the row pairs with its own line on Grant Restrictions.

Grant Restrictions — 8 fields — carries restriction type: Use of Funds, Geographic, Time-Limited, Population, or Activity. Each row also holds the compliance requirement it creates, plus a verification method and frequency. That structure makes this a restricted grant funds spreadsheet, not just an award list.

Grants made and grantee diligence

Grants Made — 27 fields — is the sheet nobody ships free. It holds grantee and grantee type (501(c)(3) Public Charity, 501(c)(3) Private Foundation, Government, Foreign Organization, Individual). Grantee EIN, tax-status verified, and its verification date round out the row.

Expenditure responsibility and its type — Foreign Organization, Non-501(c)(3), Individual — sit on the same row as payment schedule, amount disbursed, and grant agreement date. Close-out report received closes the loop.

That vocabulary — expenditure responsibility, tax-status verified, private-foundation grantee types — makes this a grantmaking tracker template built for the funder’s side. It’s not a relabeled award list.

Reports to and from grantors

Reports to Grantor and Reports from Grantee — 12 fields each — mirror each other across the same workbook. That symmetry keeps every outbound and inbound report on equal footing.

Reports to Grantor tracks reporting period, due date, submission date and method, and confirmation number. A revision due date appears if the grantor sends the report back. Reports from Grantee tracks due date, received date, reviewed by, review date, and follow-up notes.

How to track reporting deadlines

A grant reporting spreadsheet template earns its name by keeping every due date, submission, and confirmation number on its own row. Nothing stays buried in email. This section shows how to track grant reporting deadlines in Excel with this workbook.

To track grant reporting deadlines in Excel:

1. Add a row per award on Grants Received. Every foundation, government, or corporate grant gets its own row with grantor, award date, and end date.
2. Flag restricted awards and log their restriction rows. A restricted flag on Grants Received pairs with a restriction type, requirement, and verification method on Grant Restrictions.
3. Log every grantor report with a confirmation number. Due date, submission date, and confirmation number on Reports to Grantor keep each outbound report provable.
4. Log every grantee report with due, received, and review dates. Reports from Grantee tracks reviewed by and follow-up notes for each report that comes in.
5. Record close-out and renewal dates as they’re set. Close-out date, renewal deadline, and renewal eligible each get their own field, not one shared date.
6. Sort Grants Received by the nearest due date. The report or restriction verification coming up soonest rises to the top.

Restricted funds and matching

A restricted flag and its restriction summary keep a spend condition provable long after the award letter is filed away. Matching required, matching amount, and matching type sit on the same row, so a cost-share obligation never gets separated from the award it belongs to.

Indirect cost rate lives there too. Together these fields turn Grants Received into a grantor reporting requirements template, not just a list of dollar amounts.

Renewal and close-out dates

Renewal deadline, renewal eligible, and total and current grant years each get their own field, separate from the grant’s end date. A three-year award renews on a different clock than the one that marks when it simply ends.

Close-out date sits apart from both. A multi-year renewal never hides behind an end date that only tells half the story.

Built for grantmakers and grantees

Nonprofit finance directors, grants managers, and foundation program officers feel a scattered grant record first. A community foundation often works both sides in the same fiscal year. It receives grants from a state agency and makes grants to a dozen local nonprofits.

A finance director watches the grants-received side for renewal deadlines and restriction proof. A program officer watches the grants-made side for expenditure responsibility and close-out reports. This workbook keeps both in the same six sheets, instead of splitting them across two separate tools.

Restriction and reporting compliance don’t stop at the grant record. They meet the organization’s annual filing calendar, which is nonprofit compliance.

When a spreadsheet stops working

This tracker covers a growing portfolio of grants received and made before it hits real edges. There’s no version history, so an overwritten close-out date erases its own past.

Nothing fires when a grantor report or a restriction verification comes due — that gap surfaces as a missed deadline at the worst possible time. Add your own conditional-formatting rule to flag either date — in Excel: Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > A Date Occurring.

From workbook to software

This template’s column headers match Lextree’s import templates, so it loads directly into grant tracking software — no re-keying, no remapping. Access control, real alerts, and multi-user editing start on the other side of that import.

That handoff matters most once a portfolio spans dozens of grants on both sides, one missed verification away from an audit finding. Software keys that portfolio to the entities already tracked elsewhere in Lextree.

Deadlines that surface themselves

From there, Lextree turns dates into reminders, instead of waiting for someone to open the workbook. A grantor report chases its owner on schedule, and a restriction verification surfaces itself before its date arrives.

A grants manager stops opening the workbook every Monday to check what’s coming due, because the system already flagged it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a nonprofit grant tracking spreadsheet template? A nonprofit grant tracking spreadsheet template is a single Excel workbook that records every grant an organization receives and every grant it makes — grantor and grantee, award and reporting dates, restricted-fund conditions, and the compliance obligations attached to each. It functions as a grant compliance tracking spreadsheet for nonprofits working on both sides of the grant relationship.

Does it track both grants received and grants made? Yes. Grants Received and Grant Restrictions cover the money coming in; Grants Made covers the money going out, with grantee tax-status verification and expenditure responsibility built in.

Is there a grant tracking spreadsheet for grantmakers and foundations? Yes. The Grants Made and Reports from Grantee sheets carry grantee tax-status verification, expenditure responsibility, payment schedules, and close-out reports — the funder side most free trackers skip entirely. A foundation or grantmaking nonprofit gets the same row-level structure grantees expect, built for the side that writes the check.

Is this fund accounting software? No. This tracks grants, restrictions, and reporting dates — not a general ledger or bookkeeping system. Fund accounting stays in your accounting software.

Is this for grant writing or grant applications? No. This tracks grants after the award is made — reporting, restrictions, and grantee diligence — not grant writing, proposal drafting, or an application pipeline of prospects.

How do I track grant reporting deadlines in Excel? Log every grantor report on Reports to Grantor with a due date, submission date, and confirmation number. Log every grantee report on Reports from Grantee with due, received, and review dates, then sort Grants Received by the nearest due date.

Does it track restricted grant funds? Yes. A RESTRICTED flag on Grants Received pairs with a restriction type, compliance requirement, and verification method and frequency on Grant Restrictions.

Can it track grantee tax-status verification and expenditure responsibility? Yes. Grants Made carries grantee type, EIN, tax-status verified and its verification date, plus expenditure responsibility and its type for foreign organizations, non-501(c)(3) grantees, and individuals.

Does it handle multi-year and renewal grants? Yes. Multi-year grant, total grant years, current grant year, renewal deadline, and renewal eligible each get their own field on Grants Received, separate from the award’s end date.

Does it track matching or cost-share requirements? Yes. Matching required, matching amount, and matching type sit on the same row as the award, alongside the indirect cost rate the grantor allows.

Does the tracker send deadline reminders? No. The workbook holds raw dates only, with no built-in alerts. Add your own conditional-formatting rule to flag a due date, or move to software that fires reminders on its own.

Is it free, and does it work in Google Sheets? Yes. Enter your email below and the workbook is sent to your inbox — no credit card, no sales call. It opens in Google Sheets as well as Excel, dropdowns included.

Is there a free grant management template for Excel? Yes — this one. It’s a free workbook with 6 worksheets and 86 fields, covering grants received and grants made — sent to your email, and it opens in Google Sheets as well as Excel.