The Challenge
A national nonprofit managing $120M in annual grant funding across 180 active grants could not efficiently locate documentation during federal audits. One audit cycle required 6 weeks to assemble documents, resulting in 3 grant findings totaling $4.2M at risk. Grant documents were scattered across personal OneDrive accounts, shared drives, and a legacy SharePoint 2016 site. 23% of required progress reports were submitted late due to no centralized deadline tracking.
Our Solution
EPC Group designed a SharePoint Online grant management platform with a standardized site template provisioned for each of the 180 active grants. Each grant site contained structured libraries: Proposal, Award Documents, Financial Documents, Progress Reports, Correspondence, and a Power Apps Compliance Checklist tracking 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance requirements. Metadata standardization across all grants included Grant ID, CFDA/ALN number, grantor, program officer, and report due dates. A Power Automate audit response workflow reduced documentation assembly from weeks to days by pre-linking source documents to auditor request items. A central grant reporting calendar tracked 720 annual deadlines with 30/14/7-day automated alerts. A board portal surfaced grant portfolio data and Power BI impact dashboards for executive stakeholders.
Key Results
"Our federal program officers have commented on our documentation practices. Two grants that were previously at risk for non-renewal were renewed. The platform paid for itself in the first grant cycle."
Project Overview
A national nonprofit managing $120M in grants across 180 active funders needed to achieve 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance compliance, eliminate late reporting, and dramatically reduce federal audit preparation time.
The Challenge
Documents scattered across 6 storage systems. A single audit cycle took 6 weeks and produced 3 findings with $4.2M at risk. 23% late report rate. No central deadline visibility.
Solution Highlights
Standardized Grant Sites: 180 grant sites from a single provisioned template. Structured libraries: Proposal, Award Documents, Financial, Progress Reports, Correspondence, Compliance Checklist.
2 CFR 200 Compliance: Equipment inventory tracking, subrecipient monitoring with expiration alerts, time and effort documentation, prior approval request tracking.
Audit Response Workflow: Audit notice → Power Automate creates audit response site → document request items linked to source documents → 3-day average assembly time.
Reporting Calendar: 720 annual deadlines tracked. Automated 30/14/7-day email alerts. Real-time dashboard: Overdue / At Risk / On Track / Completed.
Results
- Federal audit findings: 3 (prev.) → 0
- Documentation retrieval: 6 weeks → 3 days (95% faster)
- Late report rate: 23% → 2%
- 3 FTE reassigned from document admin to program delivery
- Two renewal grants (previously flagged) successfully renewed
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