Small Business & Freelance · Web
GrantCalendar: grant tracking software for small nonprofits
Every funder, every application due date, and every report in one calendar.
GrantCalendar is grant tracking software for small nonprofits with no development staff. The pipeline sits beside the application due dates, the report dates hidden in award letters, and the person who owns each one, so nothing surfaces the week it is due.
Waitlist Not built yet Updated 5 September 2026
What problem does GrantCalendar solve?
You are the executive director, and grant work is the thing you do after nine at night. Award letters sit in your inbox. Deadlines live in your head, on a wall calendar, and in a spreadsheet a program manager built before she left. Three funders use three portals, each with a password nobody wrote down. The first way this bites is a renewal you learn about late. A family foundation that has backed your after school program for four years moves its date forward, the notice arrives in your busiest fortnight, and you either submit something thin or skip a cycle. The second way is quieter and costs more. An interim report was due at the mid point of the grant period, the condition sat on page three of the award letter, and nobody had read page three since the money landed. The program officer is gracious about it. She also makes a note. Small organizations rarely lose a funder in one dramatic moment. They lose one a late report at a time.
Grant deadline sheet
One row per grant with the funder, the amount, the application and report dates, the owner, and where it stands.
| Funder | Grant | Amount | Application due | Report due | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free to use. No account. Nothing you type here is stored.
What would GrantCalendar do?
GrantCalendar would keep one record for every grant, pending or live, with the dates taken off the award letter instead of out of memory. You enter the funder, the amount, the grant period, the application due date, and the reporting schedule the letter describes. The calendar then works backwards: a date to have numbers ready, a date to have a draft, a date for board signature, and the day it goes in. Each of those carries an owner, even when the owner is you three times over. Funder notes live with the record, so the program officer's name, the portal address, what she asked last year, and what she disliked in the budget narrative all sit beside the deadline. A pipeline view splits researching, writing, submitted, awarded, and declined, so a board question takes a minute rather than an evening.
How would it work?
- 1Enter each funder, amount, grant period, application due date, and the reporting schedule from the award letter.
- 2Let the calendar work backwards to numbers ready, draft, board signature, and submission dates.
- 3Give every date an owner, including the treasurer who signs and the volunteer who pulls figures.
- 4Open the pipeline before a board meeting to see what is researching, submitted, awarded, and declined.
Who is it for?
- An executive director who writes the grants, runs the program, and does both after closing.
- A part time development coordinator who inherited a spreadsheet from someone who left last year.
- A board treasurer who wants to know what is pending before approving next year's budget.
How do you build a grant reporting calendar in a spreadsheet this week?
Start with the award letters, not the deadlines. Make one folder and put every current award letter and grant agreement in it, one file per funder, named with the funder and the year. Read pages two and three of each, where reporting conditions usually hide, and mark three things: what the report must contain, when it is due, and how it must be filed. Now open a spreadsheet with one row per grant and these columns: funder, grant name, amount, period start, period end, application due, report due, report type, portal or email, and owner. Fill the report columns first. Reports are obligations you have already accepted, and a missed one costs you a funder who was already saying yes. Then work backwards from each report date. Add three columns: numbers ready, draft written, signed and sent. Count back from the due date using how long your finance volunteer actually takes, not how long you wish she took. Do the same for applications: research done, letter of inquiry sent, draft, board review, submitted. Sort by the earliest date in any column and look at the next eight weeks. That view is the whole point of the exercise, so pin it somewhere you will see it on a Monday morning. Two habits keep the sheet alive. Whenever a funder emails, move the substance into the row rather than leaving it in your inbox: the program officer's name, the question she asked, the remark about your budget. And when a grant is declined, write one line about why, if anyone told you. Next year's application to that funder starts from that line.
What do people use today?
| Option | Good at | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| A spreadsheet you build yourself | Free, quick to shape, and good enough to hold funders, amounts, and due dates in one grid. | Nothing reminds you, every date is typed by hand, and the file goes stale the month its author gets busy. |
| Grant management platforms for larger organizations | Deep pipeline, budget, and reporting features for a development team with several officers. | Priced and shaped for an organization with staff to run them, not a two person office writing at night. |
| A shared calendar with reminder events | Free, already open on everyone's screen, and reminders arrive without anyone chasing them. | A date with no context. Award conditions, portal logins, and funder history stay in the inbox. |
| Your donor database | Gift history and relationships, often with a grants module that links a funder to their giving. | Deadlines tend to be a secondary feature, and the reporting side is thinner than the donor side. |
What would it cost?
Free
$0
- Up to three grants
- Application and report dates
- Printable deadline sheet
Org
$29/mo
- Unlimited grants and funders
- Backwards dates from every deadline
- Funder notes and document library
- Pipeline view for board meetings
Network
$79/mo
- Everything in Org
- Up to five organizations in one account
- Shared funder notes across the group
Prices are proposed. Founding members lock in the lowest price if we build GrantCalendar.
Questions people ask
What is grant tracking software for small nonprofits?
Grant tracking software for small nonprofits keeps applications, deadlines, award conditions, and report dates in one place instead of an inbox and a spreadsheet. GrantCalendar would take the dates off your award letters once, then work backwards to the day drafting has to start.
Do we need this if we only hold four grants?
Four grants can still mean a dozen dates across a year once interim and final reports are counted. The value is not volume. The value is that a date comes off the award letter once and then arrives on its own.
Does GrantCalendar find funders for us?
No. Prospect research is a different job, and the databases that do it are priced for it. GrantCalendar picks up once a funder is in view, and carries the record from the first letter of inquiry to the final report.
Can our board treasurer see what is pending?
Yes. The pipeline shows researching, writing, submitted, awarded, and declined with amounts, which is what a treasurer usually wants before a budget vote. Read only access means nobody edits a deadline by accident.
What happens when a funder moves a deadline?
You change one date and everything behind it moves with it: numbers ready, draft, board signature. Moving a deadline in a spreadsheet means finding four other cells, and one of them is always missed.
Where do the funder requirements live?
Requirements sit on the grant record in your own words, next to the date they create. The award letter goes in the document library beside them, so the condition on page three is one click from the deadline it produced.
Does it handle government or contract funding?
Partly. Reporting periods, owners, and documents behave the same way for a city or state contract. Invoicing, drawdowns, and compliance paperwork are heavier than GrantCalendar plans to carry, so those stay with your finance system.
When will GrantCalendar launch?
There is no date. GrantCalendar is built only if enough small organizations join this waitlist and say they would pay for it. Joining costs nothing, and the deadline sheet on this page is free to print regardless.
Where does this stand?
GrantCalendar is a proposal, not a product. This page collects demand from search and answer engines. Askwright builds it only if enough people join the waitlist and say they would pay. Read how this works.