Civora
Guide contents

Department guide

Grants & Funding

From funding opportunity to closed grant: pipeline, awards, money in, donor rules, reporting and donor relationships.

Who uses it: Resource mobilisation, grants and finance staff, the executive directorOpen in Civora

What it is for

Grants & Funding follows the money from the first idea to the last report. Opportunities move through a pipeline (idea, concept note, proposal, submitted, negotiation); when a donor says yes, the same record becomes the grant, so nothing is typed twice.

Each grant carries its payment schedule (tranches), its donor rules (which Civora checks every time money is spent), its reporting deadlines, amendments agreed with the donor and a close-out checklist. The overview turns all of it into a funding outlook: what is secured for this year and the next two, what the pipeline is likely to add, and the gap to your fundraising target.

Its menu

Each entry in the workspace menu and what you do there. You only see the entries your role allows.

  • Overview

    The funding outlook, the gap to target, who funds you, money expected and what is due to donors.

  • PipelineFunding

    Opportunities by stage, with value and chance of success; move them forward and record the donor's decision.

  • GrantsFunding

    Every award: what it is worth, received, spent or committed, and the next report. Filter by ending soon, to close out or no budget.

  • DonorsFunding

    Funders and prospects: what they gave, what is in the pipeline, the relationship lead, last contact and next step.

  • Tranches & cashMoney

    Every instalment donors owe, cash expected by month, and what has arrived.

  • BudgetsMoney

    Budget lines by grant, project and category, with submitted, committed, actual and available amounts.

  • Donor rulesCompliance

    The donor rules on each grant and the requests they flagged.

  • AmendmentsCompliance

    No-cost extensions, top-ups and realignments in progress and decided.

  • Reporting calendarReporting

    Every report owed to a donor, month by month, with the report pack to prepare it.

  • Report packsReporting

    The donor report pack for any grant and period.

  • Funding settingsSettings

    Fundraising targets for each year, pipeline stage chances and how donor rules work.

Setting it up

1Set your fundraising targets

Executive director or grants lead

  1. Open Funding settings.
  2. Enter what the organisation needs to raise this year and the next two (usually the approved budget, less unrestricted income).
  3. The overview now shows the gap to each target.

2Record your donors and current grants

  1. Add each donor in Donors with what they fund, their funding cycle, contacts and who looks after the relationship.
  2. Choose New → Grant award for each active grant: amount, currency (with a budget exchange rate if it is not your own currency), dates, reporting frequency, indirect cost rate and co-funding.
  3. On each grant add its payment schedule, its reporting deadlines and its donor rules from the agreement.
  4. Ask finance to add the budget lines (or add them from the grant page).

How to

Track an opportunity to a decision

  1. Choose New → Opportunity: the donor, amount requested, submission deadline and who leads it.
  2. Move it along the pipeline as the work progresses; its chance of success rises with each stage (you can set your own).
  3. When the donor answers, open it and choose The donor said yes (enter the amount, dates and agreement reference) or Not funded (record the donor's reasons for next time).

Set the donor rules on a grant

  1. On the grant, open Donor rules → Add a rule.
  2. Choose the rule: an ineligible cost category, donor approval needed above an amount, budget line flexibility (%), an indirect cost cap (%), or another condition to remember.
  3. From now on every expense and purchase request charged to the grant is checked against it.

A request above a donor's approval threshold can still go ahead: the requester enters the donor's approval reference on the request.

Record money received from a donor

Finance

  1. On the grant's payment schedule, choose Record receipt next to the tranche (or New → Money received in Finance).
  2. Check the amount the bank credited, any bank charges, and the original currency amount if the donor paid in another currency.
  3. Save: the receipt posts to the ledger and the tranche shows as received on the grant.

Organisations not keeping their books in Civora can use Mark received on the tranche instead.

Prepare and submit a donor report

  1. Open the Reporting calendar and choose Prepare next to the report.
  2. The report pack shows the award, budget against actual by line and project, results against targets with variance explanations, delivery and evidence for the period.
  3. Print it or export the transactions; when it has gone to the donor, mark the deadline submitted on the grant. The pack is frozen exactly as sent.

Agree an extension or top-up

  1. On the grant, open Amendments → Prepare an amendment: the kind, the new end date or the change to the award, and why.
  2. Record it as sent to the donor; it appears under Amendments and on the overview until the donor answers.
  3. When the donor approves, choose Donor approved: the grant's end date or award changes, and the previous values stay on record.

Keep the donor relationship warm

  1. On the donor's page, choose Log a contact: the meeting, call or visit, and the next step with a date and who does it.
  2. Next steps due within a week appear on the overview and on Donors; mark them done when finished.

Close a grant

  1. From 90 days before the end date, the grant shows a Close-out checklist: final reports, audit, assets, unspent balance, open orders and advances, staff, records.
  2. Tick each item as it is done and set how long records must be kept.
  3. When everything is done and no report is outstanding, choose Close the grant. Nothing more can be charged to it.

Rules Civora enforces

Controls built into the system, so good practice does not depend on memory.

  • Nothing can be charged to an opportunity that has not been awarded, or to a closed grant.
  • Spending after the grant's end date is refused; record an approved no-cost extension first.
  • Ineligible costs and spending above the donor's approval threshold without a donor approval reference are stopped when the request is submitted.
  • Overspending a budget line beyond the donor's flexibility, or overheads above the indirect cap, is shown to every approver of the request.
  • A grant cannot be closed while its checklist is incomplete or a report is still due.
  • Reversing a grant receipt in Finance reopens the tranche.

How it connects

Finance & AccountingReceipts settle tranches; the ledger is where spending against each grant is counted.Everyday work for everyoneEvery expense request is checked against the grant's donor rules.ProgrammesProjects are funded by grants; their activities and evidence feed the report pack.Monitoring, Evaluation & LearningResults against targets, with variance explanations, go into the donor report pack.PresentationsA donor review deck is prepared from the grant page.

Questions

Our grant is in euros. How are totals added up?
Each grant has a budget exchange rate (your currency per unit of the grant currency). The funding outlook and totals use it; receipts record the actual amount the bank credited.
Why does the overview say "No target"?
Set your fundraising targets under Funding settings.

Last checked against Civora on 30 Oct 2026.