Ever wonder what the difference is between a Gantt and a Grant? Probably not. But if you work for a nonprofit organization, you probably know that both are necessary to successfully complete projects to support your mission. What’s clear is that a Gantt chart will help you manage the project, while a grant helps you fund the project. What may not be as clear is which software you need to manage either or both. Serenic just released a new whitepaper – “A Grant Manager’s Guide to Selecting the Right Software” – that clearly defines the differences between project management and grant management. Below is an excerpt from the whitepaper, which can be downloaded at http://www.serenic.com/forms/resource.aspx?rsc=8.

The Problem

Abraham Maslow said, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” Apparently, many software companies are easily tempted.

No one would dream of using the same shovel to clear land on a construction site and serve up meals at a soup kitchen. Rather, they would use one piece of equipment for the construction project and different equipment to accomplish their charitable objectives. So why is it that project managers and grant managers have historically been expected to share the same software to meet the needs of their very different stakeholders?

The answer might lie in the fact that projects and grants share two unique operational requirements.

First, both projects and grants require the creation of separate fiefdoms within their respective organizations. In the case of projects, separately identifiable buckets allow the project manager to associate the costs of completing a project with the price of the job. Information gleaned from a single project is used to determine profitability but is also used to determine the bid price of the next job. For grant managers, separate buckets by grant allow the manager to monitor the funds expended in fulfillment of grant objectives. Information gleaned from individual grant expenditures is shared with the grantor organization and others who have strict requirements for how those funds can be used. Associating costs with a discrete set of activities is a common headache shared by both project and grant managers.