GRANT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN LOCAL NGOs: THE CASE OF FAMILY GUIDANCE ASSOCIATION OF ETHIOPIA (FGAE)

Abstract

Grants as the backbone and lifeblood of many nonprofit organizations are nonrepayable amount of money and/or commodity provided for the fulfillment of a particular objective by the grantor. Grant management system is related to the compliance with the regulations and directives of the government and adherence to the policies and guidelines of the organization to protect the granted assets from harm. Past studies related to grant management were very rare. The few research papers undertaken locally as part of graduate studies were limited in scope and most of them studied the 70/30 proportion challenges emanating from the ChSA directives, on financial management, on program effectiveness and internal control issues separately. The present study’s main objective was to assess the grant management system in local NGOs taking the case of FGAE consisting of four comprehensive specific objectives. The study used descriptive research method of a case study involving all the 147 participants and the response rate was 90.5%. The tools used to collect the primary data were questionnaire consisting of 61 items and interview consisting of ten purposefully selected key informants, whereas the secondary data were collected from the regulations and directives of the government and from the policies, manuals, guidelines, reports of the Association. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. The questioner tool showed a reliability index of 0.98 Cronbach’s alpha. The findings of the study revealed the noncompliance with the 70/30 proportion; the unutilization granted budgets; the long vacancy of the grant’s unit; the weak leadership; poor integration and coordination among departments, the inconsistency of cash flows with action plans and lack of adherence to meeting the due date of reports. Thus, the study recommended that the management need to enhance their grant management capacity and leadership skills; the vacant positions be filled on time, the reporting due date be meet as per donors’ agreements and the Association needs to undertake an indepth study .to identify the overall system issues.