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Confidently Navigate the Rough Terrain Ahead

Stafford Act

Simple Grant Management with Tempest-GEMS

30 April 2020 by Christina Moore


grant management best practices using grant management software, using grant management software, simple grant management, getting disaster assistance from FEMA, Stafford Act, 2 CFR 200, FEMA grants, how to manage disaster relief grants

Every expense documented. Every dollar you deserve. Every risk mitigated. Easily and accurately manage your grant documentation, maximize reimbursement and minimize grant management burden with one simple tool. That tool is Tempest-GEMS. This post discusses grant management best practices using grant management software.

We are providing these materials to you hoping that you can help your community, your organization survive this disaster and wisely execute the mission before you. If you appreciate this presentation, please share it.

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An Overview of Tempest-GEMS

2 CFR 200, FEMA grants, how to manage disaster relief grants

Simple grant management is an awesome goal but when getting disaster assistance from FEMA under the Stafford Act, you’ll find that you must work within federal policies and practices as directed by 2CFR200. We built Tempest-GEMS to simplify the process as much as possible. Using grant management software should guide you through the lifecycle, help with labor calculations, and coordinate actions with the state grants administration team.

Here is a quick overview of Tempest-GEMS. Each key feature of the grant management software will be covered in separate brief episodes. We will link the operation of the software to grant management process, and we’ll reference back to our FEMA Quest Game, the Hazards and Challenges.

Tempest-GEMS turbos your way through a grant: dollars, documents, and data. We have guideposts to help navigate through the terrain. We use scorecards to give feedback. It is more than just efficient data entry and a centralized place to store documents.

DHS OIG

grant management best practices using grant management software

According to analysis done on DHS OIG data, 75% of applicants experience failure with the FEMA PA program. This series has endeavored to illustrate the hazards and challenges along your Quest. To review, they are failure to execute or document procurement well; failure to provide supporting documentation for expenses; mistakes with math and duplicate costs.

Guidepost

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What do you want out of a system? 

You want a system that expertly guides you through the rough terrain and the risks that are in front of you and your team. It does require work. We strive to eliminate keystrokes and clicks. We cannot eliminate the process of doing data entry on financial information and you must upload scanned PDF documents. Thankfully, there is funding for this process. States get funding from FEMA for this process. So do grant applicants. Rules from the recent years permit 4% of the grant funds for grant management costs. And FEMA kicks in another 1% for management costs when the grant is closed out. These funds pay for labor, materials, and software (oh, like ours).

During the recent years, we have been paving the path, put up guideposts, enhance our scorecards, and graphics to help you navigate the process with confidence.

Tempest-GEMS Dashboard

getting disaster assistance from FEMA, Stafford Act,

The dashboard immediately informs you of the program name, grant type and critical dates.

What are the two most important questions:

  1. How much have we spent?
  2. How much have we been reimbursed?

Here it is: DR-4022-VT Hurricane Irene. This is a FEMA public assistance grant from 2011. And yes, this is real data in here. There have been $2.6 million in expenses and $2.2 million in reimbursements or revenue. The unreimbursed value is $386,000 which represents about 85%.

This grant program, for this disaster involves six grants. 

Graphs

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You want your red (expenses) and green (revenue) to be as equal as possible – depending on the disaster and state rules this may vary from 75% to over 90%.

2 CFR 200, FEMA grants, how to manage disaster relief grants

As we roll down the page, we see a bit more detail. I’ll pause here as we roll through a few illustrations slowly. Cash flow – you want your blue line as close to zero as possible.

 

Grant Summary

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Let’s zoom into the grant summary. The grant you have selected is highlight in green, it has a checkmark, and it is in the light-blue band at the top. You’ll always know where you are.

Grants Menu

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We organized the menu on the left to show you the basic flow of daily work. You’ll be coming in, selecting a grant, checking your Score Card, uploading documents and entering financial transactions. When working with contracts, you’ll upload contract documents and assess your Contract status with the Contract Score Card.

This post is not a deep dive onto any one topic but provide enough of an overview to show how we’ve built software to support you.

Grants Score Card

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Let’s take a look at the grant score card. Green checks are good. Red Exes are bad, and so are the Yellow triangles, too, they are just less-bad. On day one, you may see a page of Red Exes. As the process matures and time passes, your Score Card ought to start looking good.

The Virtual Binder

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Grant Administrators, don’t miss the next episode! I’ll show you how to ensure visibility of your grant recipients’ progress and reduce your administrative burden using one simple, inexpensive tool. And grant managers, if you’re struggling with the efficacy of your administrators’ processes, check this out and give them some solutions! 

Documents are just about the most important product of the grant lifecycle. Documents provide proof that you done did the stuff you were supposed to have done. In Tempest-GEMS, we proudly say the first document you upload is your first step to close out! When you have a document such as standards, fringe calculations or overtime policy, you upload that just once. It will appear on every grant!

Grant Documents

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The system lets you download documents, shows you who has historically reviewed documents, and if a document is locked. Why locked? Locked indicates the State has seen, reviewed and approved of the document.

We use documents in the Virtual Binder to keep score of your progress. We have a master list of all documents expected and required. As you upload, you get to measure progress. It’s like a game. Each document up is a point scored.

Tempest-GEMS also includes detailed financial tracking. It looks like an accounting system, but it isn’t. We don’t close quarters or years. We close grants.

We designed like a bankbook. Money in, money out; how much, when; to whom, date paid, AND we keep track of the invoices and proof-of-payments. You’ll see a “docs” column. One and more is good. Zero tends to be less-good. Each expense needs those too little PDFs – invoice and proof-of-payment.

Editing Expense Transactions

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When you open a transaction to edit it, by clicking on the little pencil, the insides look just like popular accounting systems. But what do we do differently?

Let’s roll down.

We link or attach the supporting document directly to the transaction. Like glue, stuck and stuck good. This is a reviewer’s dream. The State Grant Administration team can see this on their side of the system. You’ll get a passing mark if all ties together. Well done!

Contract Scorecard

In our other posts, we’ve really driven home the importance of procurement compliance. We provide you a pathway to success. We are showing the contract scorecard. This not only shows the eleven steps needed for the competitive bid process, it also shows you the underlying federal law, and informs you how many documents have been uploaded for each element. If you have an advertisement, scan it, post it, get the point. 

This example doesn’t do so well with all of those zeroes. Upload is your job. Guidance is ours.

We’ll button up this overview episode with a quick look at Requests. Requests are your means of interacting with the state grant administrators. It is here you press the button to say: I want a reimbursement. Each request walks you through a wizard of a few steps. When done, you click submit. No more emailing. No more losing documents. No shipping docs to the state.

The state team see what your documents through the same tools. When they review your financial transactions and your documents, they get locked. You can track their progress and approvals through this same feature. This is how the call-and-response between applicants and states is handled.

Yes, of course Tempest-GEMS email notifications to the various parties. And on the State side, they have queues. And reports that tell them was is out there, how long it has been there and the disposition of each.

Closeout on Tempest-GEMS

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We’ve taken a few quick looks at Tempest-GEMS. It is a web-based application, often called SAAS or Software-as-a-service. There is nothing to download to make it work. It runs right from any modern browser via the internet. The connections are secured end-to-end.

 

We want to help you understand how to manage disaster relief grants. You have very specific challenges and hazards. Tempest-GEMS uses menus, score cards, and dashboards to keep you on track. We’ve streamlined the data entry and document upload process.

Please share this material with colleagues. Post about us and our efforts on your favorite social media platform. And don’t forget to grab Tempest-GEMS overview guide to help you get started with your FEMA Quest.

Tempest-GEMS Overview Guide

Filed Under: FEMA Public Assistance, Tempest-GEMS Tagged With: 2 CFR 200, FEMA grants, Getting disaster assistance from FEMA, grant management best practices using grant management software, simple grant management, Stafford Act, using grant management software

FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program Lifecycle: How To Manage Disaster Relief Grants

15 April 2020 by Christina Moore

Managing Disaster Relief Grants

We want to help you and your team use FEMA disaster assistance wisely. We are using a series of videos, podcasts, and blog posts to help you understand the FEMA public assistance grant program. This episode helps with navigating public assistance following a disaster. During this presentation we will discuss the FEMA PAPPG (Public Assistance Program Policy Guide) and the Stafford Act. 

We are providing these materials to you hoping that you can help your community, your organization survive this disaster and wisely execute the mission before you. If you appreciate this presentation, please share it.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Introduction to the Application Process & FEMA Grants Portal

In this episode, we will reference the FEMA Quest game that we invented to illustrate the FEMA Public Assistance grant lifecycle. This time, we’ll take a bit more a buttoned-up, collared shirt approach. We will step through the FEMA process using FEMA terms and applying more standard government-like language. We intend to bridge between our casual and fun way to looking at the process and the FEMA-lingo.

We will introduce you to the application process and FEMA Grants Portal. We’ll discuss terms such as obligation and grant award. We’ll drive home the importance of the scope-of-work.

We will again touch on the difference between large and small grants.

As we step through the lifecycle, we’ll identify the differences in each phase. Here FEMA seems in charge. Here your state. Here you do your thing quietly. And the tools available to you as you work through this.

We’ll define reimbursement and advances. We’ll touch on other Requests that you may make to your state.

The lifecycle concludes with Closeout and the final reimbursements.

The next Episode is about the FEMA Public Assistance Category “B” grant used for Emergency Protective Measures. 

FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program

There are elements of the FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program that are more hidden to the normal applicant, and I am going to ignore those elements. This process that I care the most about begin when we know that a disaster has been declared, or it is likely one that will be declared. You and I can do little about the process before declaration. That’s between the governor and the president and FEMA.

For coastal community, we know that when a hurricane impacts us, our declaration may include several days before the impact. That’s interesting and it is relevant to COVID-19 because most declarations I have seen so far (April 2020) set the date of disaster to 20JAN which is almost 45 to 60 days ago. You have costs that may be eligible for weeks prior to the declaration.

My audience are people who are responsible for executing projects funded by FEMA grant dollars. Therefore, our starting point is the Disaster Declaration and more precisely the Performance Start Date. There is no grant before this moment.

The experienced amongst us may start collecting data and logs beforehand in anticipation of funding. Good for you. Well done.

The Grant Application process with FEMA is squishy and flexible. Of course, the day you are informed about it, then it is precise!

Follow the rules of the day! Why is it squishy and flexible? Because the process changes one disaster to another. They (whoever they are) won’t admit this. Some years, you must be physically present in a room and sign a roster and fill out a piece of paper to declare your intent. Not likely with COVID-19.

Sometimes, you’ll be instructed to go to the FEMA Grants Portal to initiate your process. Through 2019, that was either absolutely mandatory or unknown. FEMA and state directors figured that out along the way. There is a rumor here in April 2020 that the COVID-19 grant application process may go to the Grants Portal for some and others will be helped in other ways.

I can’t help. There is a grant application process. It is either in FEMA Grants Portal or Not. And at the end of the process you will have zero, one, or more grant awards with federal funds obligated to it.

What do you need for the grant application?

Number 1 is a means of estimating the cost of the disaster. The declarations I have seen involve Category B – Emergency Protective Measures. Any action that your governmental entity undertook to prevent death, improve public health, and protect improved property from the impacts of this disaster may be eligible for reimbursement. If you run a municipality or municipal agency, you are a likely candidate.  If your organization provides essential government-like services, you are a likely candidate. In our Eligibility post we discuss this topic. This includes non-profit ambulance services, non-profit water districts, non-profit libraries and non-profit hospitals/nursing facilities.

You’ll need to estimate your labor costs. Go listen to the first episode in this series for help on that or read it here. You’ll need to estimate material costs, incidental costs, and contracted costs. 

If you contracted services and purchased materials, know that the federal procurement rules apply. We talk a lot about this in this series. That’s your biggest trap right there.

The grant application involves cost estimates and the scope-of-work you provided or may provide in the future.

PAPPG, FEMA PAPPG
The best help we can provide is give you the rule book for this game. It’s called the Papa-G, the public assistance program and policy guide (PAPPG).

PAPP Guide

FEMA Grants Lifecycle

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1. Grant Application

The grant application for FEMA involves the following elements

  • Cost Estimates for labor, equipment, material for activities that have been completed
  • Cost Estimates for labor, equipment, and material for activities that are planned.

The activities must be within the proposed scope of the grant and fit within the confines of the FEMA Public Assistance Grant Program. This means between date X and date Y (the start of performance and end of performance dates).

For COVID-19, this also means that the activities directly supported Emergency Protective Measures (preservation of life, public health, and at-risk improved property).

If you request funding for labor, equipment, and material costs,  you MUST provide the documents that provides proof for your labor costs. These include labor contracts, union contracts, payroll records, work logs that tie the activities to eligible work. For equipment, you’ll need to provide equipment logs and costing based on the FEMA equipment schedule.

 

For non-labor based costs, you’ll need to execute procurement within the guidelines of your procurement policy, your state’s procurement policy, AND the federal procurement policy – which ever is the most strict. This tends to require more documentation than standard small government/non-profit process and open bidding processes.

Supporting Proof for Grant Application

Supporting documents for grant application:

  • Applicant documents such as:
    • Union Contracts
    • Labor Agreements
    • Fringe Rate Calculations
  • Labor Cost Support
    • Work Logs
    • Payroll Records
  • Expenses Support
    • Contracting Documents
    • Invoice
    • Proof of Payment

And estimates for work yet to be completed.

2. Grant Award (Obligation of Funds)

The grant lifecycle really starts at Award or Obligation. The process of making the award is typically FEMA led, or if State-led, then FEMA has a heavy hand behind the scenes. And let me define state. In 2CFR200.90, the US Government defined state to include the territories and the District of Columbia. Within the body of laws related to federal grants, we have 58 states.

3. Grant Management

After grant award, and financial obligation by FEMA, you’ll be responsible for tracking actual costs, executing procurement in accordance to federal law, and collecting documents proving you did each action that is required of you.

You may make requests of the state to extend the timeline, ask for more money, ask for reimbursement. In time, you’ll be ready to close out your grant.

Common tasks in this extended phase (typically the longest phase) include:

  1. Requests for Advanced Funding
  2. Requests for Reimbursement
  3. Quarterly Progress Reports
  4. Requests for: scope/budget change, appeals, etc

99. Grant Close Out (Your End Goal)

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Your ultimate objective is to recover funds from FEMA and your state within the legal bounds. The grant lifecycle really starts with the grant application phase. You’ll provide cost estimates and describe your
mission. . You’ll collate all of your documents in a neat orderly fashion then submit to your state. Note that this maybe seem like a duplicate process. You gave them this or that. Doesn’t matter. Your close-out book is the story from Bang to Closeout inclusive. 

Filed Under: FEMA Public Assistance, FEMA Quest Tagged With: FEMA PAPPG, FEMA public assistance grant program, FEMA public assistance grant program lifecycle, FEMA public assistance grant program overview, how to manage disaster relief grants, how to manage FEMA grants, PAPPG, Stafford Act, using FEMA disaster assistance wisely

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