10 Grant Tracking Spreadsheet Templates for Nonprofits

Your grant deadlines live in one file, funder contacts in another, requested amounts in an email thread, and expenses somewhere in accounting software. Reporting duties then arrive after the award, when everyone assumes someone else is watching them.

This guide compares 10 grant tracking spreadsheet templates by setup effort, structure, collaboration, and post-award usefulness. You'll find practical options for Excel users, Google Sheets users, small teams, and nonprofits that may eventually need connected fund accounting and donor records.

Quick Answer: Grant Tracking Spreadsheet

A grant tracking spreadsheet works when one file holds funders, deadlines, owners, award terms, expenses, and reports. Choose a template your team will update after the award, then move to connected software when versions and restricted-fund records start drifting.

Start with grant tracking software and fund accounting. For process, see grant management best practices.

1. Airtable Nonprofit Grant Tracker Template

Airtable works well when your team needs a clear application pipeline without giving up flexible views. Its nonprofit Grant Tracker base organizes opportunities, application stages, amounts, due dates, stakeholders, and post-award status in a format that feels more visual than a conventional workbook.

You can move between grid, Kanban, and calendar views, which helps different staff members work from the same information. CSV and Excel imports also make it easier to bring over an existing list instead of retyping every opportunity. The Airtable nonprofit Grant Tracker template also connects funders, contacts, and tasks through linked tables.

Practical rule: A visual pipeline is useful only when every opportunity has an owner and a next action.

Airtable's collaboration and permission controls suit teams where development, finance, and leadership need different levels of access. Its main limitation is financial. You'll need to build your own budget, expense, restricted-fund, and reimbursement fields because Airtable isn't native fund accounting.

For a nonprofit seeking a light CRM rather than a simple grant tracking spreadsheet, Airtable is a polished starting point. It can support post-award tasks, but it won't replace accounting records or produce funder-ready financial statements by itself. If you want grant information connected with broader nonprofit operations, review AlignMint's grants feature.

2. Smartsheet Grant Tracking and Management Templates

Smartsheet suits organizations that want a familiar spreadsheet-style starting point and a future path toward shared dashboards. Its template library includes downloadable grant tracking resources for Excel, Google Sheets, and PDF, along with templates for pipelines, deliverables, expenses, and budget roll-ups.

The downloadable files help a small team start quickly. If you later adopt the full Smartsheet platform, collaboration, reminders, dashboards, and automation can bring more structure to a larger grant portfolio. The Smartsheet grant tracking template library gives you several formats rather than forcing one workflow.

Where Smartsheet earns its place

Smartsheet is strongest when multiple people need a shared view of applications and post-award deliverables. A development director can review pipeline status, a program manager can monitor deliverables, and finance can review budget information without maintaining separate workbooks.

The trade-off is that the more advanced experience requires a Smartsheet license. Dashboards, automation, and portfolio-level reporting also introduce a learning curve for teams that only need a straightforward grant tracking spreadsheet.

Smartsheet acknowledges a real operational need, but it isn't a fund accounting system. You'll still need a reliable way to separate restricted and unrestricted resources, connect expenses to awards, and prepare financial reporting. For teams exploring guided grant workflows, AlignMint's Grant Assistant documentation offers another point of comparison.

3. Instrumentl Grant Tracking Spreadsheet and Import Tools

Instrumentl is a sensible choice when your existing spreadsheet is only the first step toward dedicated grant software. Its downloadable template aligns with the built-in Grant Tracker, so teams can import existing Excel or Google Sheets records without rebuilding every grant manually.

The tracker supports statuses, tasks, deadlines, and reporting fields. Detailed CSV exports can help with analysis, while budget spend-down imports extend the workflow beyond prospecting and applications. Instrumentl's grant tracking spreadsheet and import guidance is particularly useful for teams that want clear instructions before moving data.

Best fit for a growing grants process

Instrumentl's strength is the transition path. You can begin with structured records, then move into a dedicated workspace with prospecting and reporting capabilities when your process demands more than rows and formulas.

That strength can also become unnecessary complexity. If you only need a static list of funders, deadlines, requested amounts, and reporting dates, prospecting tools may exceed your needs. The full feature set lives in Instrumentl's paid software after its trial period, so assess whether your staff will use those capabilities.

Instrumentl can organize the grant lifecycle, but it doesn't provide native nonprofit fund accounting. Your finance team still needs award, expense, restriction, and drawdown records that agree with the general ledger. For a broader comparison, see this guide to grant tracking software.

4. Jotform Tables Grant Tracking Spreadsheet Template

Jotform Tables is especially useful when grant information enters your organization through online forms. Staff can collect submissions through Jotform, then track statuses, contacts, deadlines, and follow-up actions in a spreadsheet-style table.

That connection reduces duplicate entry for teams already using forms. You can also enter or import data manually, apply filters and formulas, and collaborate within Tables. PDF generation and workflow add-ons support organizations that need documents from submitted information, although more advanced automation may require paid tiers.

A free tier can make Jotform Tables approachable for small nonprofits testing a form-connected process. The tool's value comes from data capture, not from complete grant administration. You'll need additional structure for restricted spending, award periods, reimbursement milestones, budget-versus-actual monitoring, and formal closeout.

Jotform Tables makes sense for a grants team that receives many internal requests or community submissions. It's less suitable as the primary financial control system after awards arrive. For that stage, your tracker must show not only whether a grant is active, but also what has been spent, what remains available, and what must be reported next.

5. Grist Grant Tracking Spreadsheet Template

Grist occupies a useful middle ground between a flat spreadsheet and a database. Its free Grant Application Tracker keeps applications, statuses, deadlines, and contacts in relational tables while preserving spreadsheet formulas.

That structure helps when a single sheet starts collecting too many columns. Instead of repeating funder details across every opportunity, you can relate records and create views for different processes or users. CSV and Excel imports also let you begin with an existing workbook.

More structure without abandoning formulas

Grist suits a small team that has outgrown Google Sheets but isn't ready for a large grant management platform. Custom views and filters can separate development work from leadership review without creating multiple versions of the underlying records.

The limitation is familiarity. Airtable and Smartsheet have larger ecosystems and may feel more immediately recognizable to staff who have seen them before. Grist's relational approach also takes some learning, especially when your team has only used rows, columns, and basic formulas.

Grist can improve opportunity and deadline tracking, but post-award accounting still requires careful design. Add award start and end dates, restricted categories, expense references, reporting cadence, reimbursement status, and document links before calling the workbook complete. Those fields turn a pipeline into a working control system.

6. SheetSteps Free Google Sheets Grant Application Tracker

SheetSteps is built for a team that needs a usable tracker today, without a lengthy setup process. The workbook includes example data, clearly marked input fields, predefined columns for status, due dates, outcomes, and amounts, plus a simple dashboard.

The design is approachable for new grant writers because it reduces decisions at the start. Copying the workbook to Google Drive gives your team an immediate working file, while the included privacy guidance reminds users to think carefully about access.

A good first-day workbook

SheetSteps handles the basic application pipeline well. Your team can see which opportunities are pending, submitted, declined, or awarded, then review deadlines and outcomes from one place.

It becomes less useful after awards require detailed financial monitoring. Complex budget-versus-actual tracking, reimbursement schedules, deliverables, and task assignments will require added tabs, formulas, or separate systems. Standard Google Sheets comments can support discussion, but they aren't a complete ownership and activity history.

For a new or very small grants team, that simplicity is a benefit. Don't add fields merely because they might be useful someday. Begin with the information you'll review every week, then add post-award fields when a real reporting or expense requirement demands them.

7. SpreadsheetPoint Free Grant Tracker Spreadsheet

SpreadsheetPoint offers a clean, copyable Google Sheets tracker for very small teams and short pilots. Its core fields include funder, deadlines, requested and awarded amounts, and contact details, with guidance for customizing the file.

You don't need a separate signup beyond a Google account, which keeps the initial decision simple. Google notifications and shared calendars can help staff remember deadlines, although those tools sit beside the spreadsheet rather than inside a complete grant workflow.

A lightweight tracker is valuable when it gets updated consistently, not when it contains every possible field.

The main risk is structural rework. As your portfolio grows, you may need separate tabs for expenses, reporting dates, deliverables, restricted and unrestricted funds, and grant documents. SpreadsheetPoint doesn't include built-in budget drawdown or reporting templates, so finance staff must create those controls.

This option works best as a pilot or a clean starting scaffold. Establish status definitions and an owner before adding records, then review whether the file still supports post-award work. These grant management best practices can help your team define the process around the spreadsheet.

8. 4granted Free Grant Tracking Spreadsheet for Excel

4granted is one of the better fits for nonprofits that want Excel to cover both applications and post-award administration. Its workbook separates applications, expenses, and deadlines, while restricted and unrestricted tagging helps staff distinguish the purpose of each resource.

That matters because a grant tracker shouldn't stop at “awarded.” Your finance team needs to know how approved spending compares with actual expenses, which reports are due, and whether a reimbursement or drawdown remains outstanding. The 4granted Excel grant tracking template is structured around those practical needs.

Where Excel still works well

Excel remains a reasonable choice when one person maintains the workbook and the organization already has clear file practices. Basic formulas can support budget and timeline checks without requiring a new platform.

Collaboration is the pressure point. Real-time multi-user editing requires OneDrive or SharePoint, and a heavily customized workbook can become difficult for another staff member to understand. Make the expense categories, grant codes, reporting dates, and ownership rules clear before several people begin editing.

4granted is a stronger post-award option than a tracker focused only on applications. It still isn't fund accounting, so your ledger must remain the source for financial statements and functional expense reporting. Use the workbook to organize grant administration, not to replace reconciled accounting records.

9. GrantConsole Grant Management Spreadsheet Template

GrantConsole takes a deliberately lean approach to Excel grant tracking. Its downloadable workbook focuses on core pipeline fields, statuses, deliverables, and budget lines, with guidance designed to keep the file understandable as your program mix changes.

That restraint is useful for executive directors who don't want a workbook full of unfamiliar formulas. GrantConsole emphasizes maintainable structure and setup hygiene rather than a large dashboard or complicated automation.

Keep the workbook readable

A practical tracker should make the next decision obvious. GrantConsole's design works when your team needs to identify the grant stage, confirm the next deliverable, review budget lines, and assign follow-up without navigating a maze of tabs.

The drawback is that reporting and collaboration remain limited out of the box. If the file sits on a local computer, staff may create competing versions. Hosting it in Microsoft 365 or a similar environment can support shared access, but governance still depends on your organization's permissions and backup habits.

GrantConsole is a solid choice for an Excel-first team that values clarity over extensive features. Add fields for funder type, geography eligibility, match requirements, internal review dates, award dates, reporting cadence, and document links if your grants require them. The workbook should reflect your actual obligations, not merely the application pipeline.

10. Documentero Grant Funding Tracker Excel Template

Documentero provides a lightweight Excel scaffold for listing funders, award amounts, dates, deliverables, obligations, and notes. Its neutral design makes it useful when you want to build around an existing CRM or create your own internal process.

The template is downloadable, editable, and free of macros. That simplicity lowers the technical barrier for staff who are comfortable with Excel and want to adjust columns without learning a new platform.

A baseline, not a finished compliance system

Documentero works best when you need a starting framework rather than a specialized nonprofit workbook. Add fields for restricted status, grant start and end dates, budget lines, actual expenses, reimbursement milestones, reporting dates, internal review dates, responsible staff, and document locations.

The template includes minimal instructions and no built-in analytics. You'll need to decide how staff define statuses, how finance codes expenses, and how leadership reviews overdue work. Without those decisions, a spreadsheet becomes a memory aid instead of a control system.

Use the Documentero grant funding tracker when neutrality matters. Pair it with a clear budget structure, such as AlignMint's grant budget template, if you need a stronger connection between award terms and spending plans.

Top 10 Grant Tracker Comparison

Make the Tracker Serve the Mission

The right grant tracking spreadsheet is the one your team can keep current after the award arrives. If you only need a simple application pipeline, start with SpreadsheetPoint or SheetSteps. Both keep the setup approachable and help a small team centralize funders, deadlines, statuses, requested amounts, and outcomes.

Choose 4granted or GrantConsole when Excel is already part of your finance routine and post-award work matters. 4granted gives more direct attention to expenses, restricted and unrestricted tagging, and reporting deadlines. GrantConsole favors a lean workbook that staff can understand and maintain without building a large reporting environment.

Airtable, Grist, or Smartsheet make more sense when several people need shared views and clearer workflow structure. Airtable offers flexible linked records and visual views, Grist adds relational structure while retaining formulas, and Smartsheet offers a path toward dashboards and reminders. Each has strengths, but none should be mistaken for true fund accounting.

Decide whether the spreadsheet still fits

A spreadsheet usually stops being good enough when staff can't agree which version is current, multiple people overwrite updates, ownership is unclear, or post-award deadlines keep slipping. The issue isn't the number of grants. Complexity matters more, especially when one award has separate interim reports, final reports, financial reviews, reimbursement milestones, deliverables, and closeout requirements.

Grant tracking also has accounting consequences. Nonprofits must separate restricted and unrestricted resources until restrictions are satisfied, then record the release into unrestricted net assets. Form 990 reporting classifies expenses by natural and functional categories, so a tracker with only income and expense totals won't provide the full picture. Nonprofit fund accounting guidance explains why the restriction status belongs in your operating records.

Your statement of functional expenses also groups spending into program services, management and general, and fundraising. Shared costs such as rent, utilities, and salaries need a reasonable, consistent allocation method, which affects Form 990 Part IX and funder-facing transparency, as explained in this nonprofit bookkeeping guide.

Put simple governance around the file

Before importing another opportunity, agree on the fields and rules that make the tracker reliable.

• Define every field: Record funder, opportunity, award amount, restriction status, grant period, owner, next action, deadline with time zone, reporting dates, expenses, reimbursement milestones, and document links.
• Use fixed statuses: Decide what “prospect,” “draft,” “submitted,” “awarded,” “active,” “reporting,” and “closed” mean, then don't let each staff member invent another label.
• Assign weekly ownership: One person should review upcoming deadlines, overdue reports, missing documents, and unassigned next actions.
• Protect the records: Store the file in a controlled location, limit permissions, preserve backups, and avoid sending sensitive donor or grant information through casual email attachments.
• Plan for reporting: Separate budget, expense, and reporting-calendar data so staff can compare planned spending, actual spending, remaining balances, and submission status.

Fiscal sponsors need even stronger separation. Each sponsored project should have its own fund tracking, chart-of-accounts handling, expense allocation, and donor restrictions while still rolling up into the sponsor's annual Form 990. This fiscal sponsor compliance checklist covers the governance issues a basic pipeline sheet often misses.

AlignMint is another option when grant visibility must connect with the rest of nonprofit operations. Its platform combines true fund accounting, donor management, volunteer records, events, marketing, online giving pages, team communication, and Minty AI, with plan-based access and no per-seat fees. Nonprofits raising under $100K per year can use its free tier, while organizations with more complex requirements can keep grant-related financial information closer to the accounting records.

A spreadsheet can be the right beginning. It shouldn't become the place where your organization hides gaps in ownership, restricted-fund discipline, or reporting control.

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AlignMint connects grant-related financial visibility with accounting, CRM, volunteers, events, and marketing, so your team can work from shared records instead of disconnected files. Visit AlignMint to see how its true fund accounting, Minty AI assistant, free tier for nonprofits under $100K per year, and plan-based access without per-seat fees could fit your organization.