Nonprofit Grant Manager Job Description

A nonprofit grant manager job description is the working definition of the role, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not describe grant managers as a separate occupation. Its Occupational Outlook Handbook has no grant-manager or grant-writer profile, and the index runs from "Granite Setter, see: Masonry workers" straight to "Graphic Artist, see: Graphic designers" (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook A-Z Index, 2025-35 edition, read September 2026).

That leaves the employer to decide what the job is, and grant jobs usually mix two kinds of work. Respondents to the Grant Professionals Association's 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey spent a median 40 percent of their time writing grant proposals and 25 percent managing grants (GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report), so a description that lists only one half of the job can draw the wrong applicants.

Quick Answer: What Should a Nonprofit Grant Manager Job Description Include?

A nonprofit grant manager job description should list duties by grant phase (research and proposals, award setup, compliance and reports, closeout), the position it reports to, the required degree and years of grants experience, and a salary range. The Grant Professionals Association's 2025 survey found a $75,173 median salary for Grant Managers (GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report).

Free download: Grant manager job description template (duties by grant phase, qualifications, salary range, pre-posting checklist) as Word document (.docx). No email address required.

Grant Manager Meaning: What the Role Covers

A grant manager is a staff role that finds, wins and administers grants for an organization, from the choice of funders to the last report on each award. Titles vary so much between employers that the duties list, not the title, tells an applicant which job this is.

Federal occupational data file grant job titles under fundraising. The Labor Department's occupational database lists "Contract Grant Writer" and "Grant Coordinator" among the job titles reported for Fundraisers (SOC 13-1131.00), and one of that occupation's tasks is to "Compile or develop materials to submit to granting or other funding organizations" (O*NET OnLine, Fundraisers profile, updated 2026). BLS defines fundraisers as workers who "organize activities to raise money and other kinds of donations for an organization" and says they "work primarily for nonprofit organizations" (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Fundraisers, September 2026).

The funder side of the relationship is a useful mirror. OPM's federal Grants Management Series lists duties such as "monitoring, assessing, and ensuring awardee complies with all terms and conditions of award" and "processing close-outs" (OPM classification flysheet for series 1109, November 2010). A nonprofit grant manager is the person who answers that monitoring: the one who knows what each award requires, when each report is due and where the records are kept.

Grant Lifecycle Manager Duties by Phase

A grant lifecycle manager owns every phase of an award, so write the duties in the order a grant moves. Grants.gov groups the federal grant lifecycle into three phases: "Pre-Award Phase - Funding Opportunities and Application Review," "Award Phase - Award Decisions and Notifications" and "Post Award - Implementation, Reporting, and Closeout" (Grants.gov, Grants 101, September 2026). The same split works for foundation and corporate grants.

Write each duty as an action with an object and a frequency, such as reconciling each award's spending with finance every month. A candidate can picture that work. A line that only says the person manages grants gives them nothing to compare with their current job.

The post-award rows carry most of the compliance weight, so write them in detail. If the grant manager will compare each award's spending with its approved budget, say so, and name the file or system used, such as a budget-and-spending workbook for each award. If your organization passes federal award money to partner agencies, the job also takes on the subrecipient duties of a pass-through entity, and those duties deserve their own line.

State the volume as well: how many applications a year and how many active awards the role will carry. A candidate can then compare the load with the one they carry now. For the full sequence of tasks from discovery to closeout, this guide to grants lifecycle management sets out each stage in order.

Qualifications: Degree, Experience and Supervision

Ask for a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, plus a stated number of years in grants work scaled to whether the role supervises anyone. BLS says fundraisers "typically need a bachelor's degree" and that employers "may prefer to hire candidates who have related experience, such as from working with a nonprofit organization in an internship or as a volunteer" (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Fundraisers, September 2026).

Some universities publish their job standards, which makes them a calibration point even for a community nonprofit.

Source: Boise State University job standard for grants management (April 1, 2022); Emory University job description SA12 and Penn State job catalog PSU0174 (read September 2026).

In these three standards, the years of experience climb with the scope of supervision, and the degree requirement stays the same. Match your requirement to the supervisory line in your own description, not to the title.

Say that volunteer and unpaid grant work counts. Some federal grants management postings already do: one states that "Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations" (USAJOBS announcement 885509200, Institute of Museum and Library Services, read September 2026). A nonprofit can use the same rule and widen its pool.

For roles that handle federal money, add a working knowledge of the Uniform Guidance in 2 CFR 200 as a preferred qualification. Treat a grant credential the same way, as a preference that counts in a candidate's favor, not a gate.

Reporting Lines: Who the Grant Manager Reports To

The reporting line decides which half of the job gets done first, so settle it before you write the duties. Consider three reporting lines, each of which shifts what the description should stress.

BLS lists "Apply for grants" among the typical duties of fundraising managers (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Public Relations and Fundraising Managers, September 2026). Place the grant manager under development and proposals come first, so the description has to say who in finance owns spending reports. Program leaders write as well: "Write proposals for social services funding" is on the BLS list of typical duties for social and community service managers (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Social and Community Service Managers, September 2026). Say who drafts the program sections, or the grant manager will end up writing them alone.

Sample Grant Manager Job Description

This sample fits a full-cycle grant manager at a mid-sized nonprofit who reports to the executive director. Delete the lines your finance or development staff own.

The Word template (.docx) sets out the same four sections with fill-in fields: Position Details, including a salary range field; Position Summary; Responsibilities, split into pre-award duties and award and post-award duties; and Qualifications, split into required and preferred. It adds optional duty lines for a version that reports to a development director (funder relationships and prospect research) and for one that reports to a finance director (financial reports, budget revisions and audit support). It also has a time-allocation table, where you enter the share of the role's time for pre-award, award, post-award and other duties, and a pre-posting checklist.

Position Details

• Title: Grant Manager
• Reports to: Executive Director
• Supervises: Grant Coordinator (optional)
• Schedule: Full-time
• Grant volume: applications a year and active awards the role will carry
• Systems: where the grants calendar and award budgets are kept, and who owns each
• Salary range: a minimum and a maximum, stated in the posting

Position Summary

The Grant Manager leads the organization's grant program from funder research through closeout. The role keeps the grants calendar, writes and submits proposals with program and finance staff, and makes sure every award is spent, documented and reported as the funder requires.

Responsibilities

Pre-award duties:

• Research foundation, corporate and government funders and keep a qualified prospect list.
• Maintain the grants calendar of inquiry letters, applications, renewals and reports.
• Write or coordinate proposals, including narratives, evaluation plans and budgets prepared with finance.
• Submit applications through funder portals and file a complete copy of each submission.

Award and post-award duties:

• Review each award's terms and brief program and finance staff on conditions, restrictions and report dates.
• Set up each award with finance, including budget lines, cost codes and a reporting calendar.
• Compare spending with the approved budget each month and request budget changes in time.
• Prepare progress and financial reports with data supplied by program staff.
• Monitor partner organizations that receive funds from the organization's awards.
• Keep audit-ready records and complete closeout for each award.

Qualifications

• Required: a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, the years of grants experience set for this role, and a record of funded proposals.
• Required: the ability to read award terms and work with budgets alongside finance staff.
• Preferred: experience with federal awards and the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200).
• Preferred: a grant credential such as Grant Professional Certified (GPC) or Certified Grants Management Specialist (CGMS).
• Counts toward experience: paid and unpaid grant work, including volunteer work.

Setting the Salary Range for a Grant Manager

Set the range from survey medians for your title and wage data for the nearest occupations, then adjust for region and budget. Grant Managers reported a median salary of $75,173 in the Grant Professionals Association's 2025 survey, and fundraisers (SOC 13-1131) earned a national median of $72,550 in May 2025 (GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Fundraisers, September 2026).

Source: GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, pages last modified August 27, 2026 (read September 2026).

Read each source for what it measures. An outside research firm sent the GPA survey to 18,365 current and former GPA members and prospects and tabulated it on 2,420 responses (GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report), so its medians describe people connected to that association. BLS does not track grant managers as a separate occupation, so its figures cover the nearest whole occupations, with the SOC code shown for each.

Width matters as much as the midpoint. For fundraisers (SOC 13-1131), the lowest 10 percent earned less than $46,630 and the highest 10 percent more than $115,820 in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Fundraisers, September 2026). Put the range you choose in the posting itself.

Grant Management Software in the Job Description

Name the systems the grant manager will use, and say whether the job includes choosing or rebuilding one, because a new hire inherits whatever tracker the last person kept. One commenter in a Reddit thread reported that "my organization has had about 400 versions of a grant tracker" (Reddit thread 1qx3lpf, read September 2026).

Write the software line so it answers three things: which system holds the grants calendar, who owns it, and whether finance keeps a separate record of award budgets. A candidate who reads that the tracker needs rebuilding knows the first quarter's real job.

If your team keeps its grants calendar in GrantCue, name it in that line. Every GrantCue plan has tasks, comments, reminders, daily and weekly digests, a calendar feed for deadlines and an activity log, with admin, contributor and view-only roles; the Free plan covers 1 user, Essentials 3, Team 8 and Organization 20 (grantcue.com pricing, October 2026). With tasks assigned by person, a new grant manager starts with a record of who owns each deadline, and the task and deadline features describe each tool.

FAQ

What Is the Difference Between a Grant Manager and a Grant Writer?

A grant writer produces proposals, while a grant manager owns the awards those proposals win, from award setup through reports and closeout, and often writes as well. In the Grant Professionals Association's 2025 survey the median salary was $70,000 for Grant Writer and $75,173 for Grant Manager (GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report). At a small nonprofit one person may hold both jobs, so title the post by the larger share of the work.

What Goes in a Foundation Director Job Description?

The title covers two different jobs. At a grantmaking foundation, the director runs the foundation's giving. At a grant-seeking nonprofit, a Director of Grants or director of foundation relations leads the team that asks funders for money. For that second job, start from a grant manager description and add supervision of grant staff, the annual grants revenue plan and board reporting. Director of Grants had a median salary of $94,131 in GPA's 2025 survey (GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report).

Can a Grant Manager's Salary Be Paid From a Grant?

Only where the funder allows it. The Grant Professionals Association's Code of Ethics states that "Compensation should not be written into grants unless allowed by the funder" (GPA Code of Ethics, revised June 10, 2023). For federal awards, proposal costs "normally should be treated as indirect costs and allocated to all current activities of the recipient or subrecipient" (2 CFR 200.460, via Cornell LII, current as of September 2026), so time spent writing federal proposals is normally not charged to a single award.

How Many Grants Can One Grant Manager Handle?

No standard sets a caseload. For a benchmark, respondents to GPA's 2025 survey reported writing a median of 24 grant proposals in the past 12 months, 12 of them funded, and full-time employees reported a mean of 31.4 written and 17.3 funded (GPA 2025 Compensation & Benefits Survey Report). Count your own applications and active awards before posting, and write both numbers into the description.

Should a Grant Manager Job Description Require a Certification?

Usually not. Even federal grants management jobs set no credential rule: OPM states that "There are no Individual Occupational Requirements" for series 1109 (OPM qualification standard for series 1109, read September 2026). The issuer of the Grant Professional Certified (GPC) credential says it "is not considered appropriate for entry-level grant professionals" (GPCI Candidate Guide, last updated September 2026). List a credential as preferred.

Before You Post the Grant Manager Job

Run four checks before the posting goes live. The title should match the larger share of the duties. Every duty should be an action with an object. The reporting line should say who owns financial reports and who owns new proposals. The salary range should be in the posting.

The template's pre-posting checklist covers the same four points and four more: lines another staff member owns are cut, the numbers of applications and active awards are filled in, the systems line names who owns the grants calendar, and the posting says unpaid and volunteer grant work counts. Then test the compliance lines against a post-award compliance checklist so nothing the funder requires is left without an owner.