Coaching a Team on Program Management Best Practices

How we trained an organization in strategic grant management to ensure their own grant making achieved its goals, and to foster the creation of a sustainable movement

An organization had a vision to create a pooled donor vehicle to scale effective global work in their sector of interest while initiating strategic grantmaking of their own. To do this, the client had hired a core team of smart and capable staff who had extensive regional and sector expertise but lacked program and grant management experience necessary to effectively scale its initiatives.

The solution

Geneva Global provided the client’s team coaching, training, and tools necessary to ensure thoughtful grantmaking and grant management. The engagement included a week-long training session, where we used a mixed-methods approach to train and workshop with the team through every step of the program management cycle.

The week’s sessions focused on:

  • helping the client refine and clarify their mission, values, and goals to inform their future work
  • training the client to design, set up, and manage programs
  • developing tools and coaching the client on how to conduct due diligence on grantees
  • sharing innovative resources to help the client monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of its grants
  • advising the client on the best ways to measure its impact and communicate that with funders

We provided the newly-formed entity with more than 20 tools and trained the staff on how to appropriately apply them to their unique programs. We also coached the team through the process of qualifying and developing a detailed project plan with a grantee organization.

After this intensive retreat concluded, we provided ongoing coaching and served as a thought partner as the client continued to develop and ramp up its organizational processes.

The results

As a result of our operational support, the organization was able to quickly launch their fund and its initial set of programs. By the end of the program management training engagement, the organization was able to:

  • significantly accelerate their ability to design program strategies
  • more effectively identify and qualify partners
  • better determine realistic, measurable, and useful progress metrics
  • more clearly understand and communicate project and program-level impact

Using the customized tools and systems we developed specifically for its staff’s use, the client has since enhanced its overall operation and extended its reach by creating and managing a strong portfolio of programs.