Grant Reporting Requirements

The Fry Foundation requires two reports on all of its grants: a narrative report and a financial report.

Recently, the Fry Foundation transitioned to a new online grants system, SmartSimple.

View our reference guide for more details.

 Grantees are highly encouraged to submit their narrative report and a financial report through the online system with the following steps:

1. Account Log In Portal — Use this link to log in to the system.

   1. For first-time users of the SmartSimple System, who have submitted an application to the Fry Foundation before, click “Forgot Password” to check if an account has been enabled.

   2. Enter the email address used for the prior application and click “Submit”. Wait 10 minutes to check for an email with a Subject Line “Lloyd A. Fry Foundation Password Reset Request”.

2. To access either your interim or final report, click “Requires Attention” to open the report activity and begin to complete the report by uploading the Narrative Report and Financial Report through the system.

Narrative Reports
The final narrative report should describe specifically the progress made toward reaching the goals of the project. General activity reports or summaries contained in the annual report do not fulfill this requirement. The narrative report should include, but not be limited to, a description of the project, how staff was involved in carrying out the project activities, and the impact it had on project participants. Any changes in the project's implementation as described in the original applications should be fully discussed, offering insight as to why and how the project was adapted. For information on reporting project outcomes and impact, see the Outcomes and Assessments page of our website.

The Employment Program has recently revised its requirements for the narrative report. Please view the Employment Program's Reporting Requirements (PDF file) for more information.

Financial Reports
The financial report should follow a standard, three-column format. The first column should outline the project budget as it was estimated in the application. It should contain specific line items for relevant expenses.

The second column should outline the actual project expenditures and should maintain the same format and line item breakdowns as the projected budget column. Together, these columns provide a point of comparison between estimated and actual costs, as well as a context for project activities as described in the narrative report.

The third column should provide details on how the Fry Foundation grant was allocated. Line item breakdowns should be provided. The chart below offers an example of this format. (The fourth column is not always needed and is explained below in further detail.) A narrative discussion explaining any major variances to the budget should be included in the financial report.

Reporting Deadlines and Renewed Requests
Final narrative and financial reports must be received and approved by the Foundation before any subsequent applications will be reviewed. For agencies submitting an application to be reviewed one year from their last grant, the final reports will cover a ten-month period rather than a full twelve months in order to meet the application deadline. In such cases, the narrative report should discuss all activities that have occurred in the grant period to date, with a description of the projected activities for the remaining months covered by the grant. Financial reports should include, when necessary, a fourth column describing how and when the remaining funds will be expended. The sample financial report below uses an example of this optional fourth column.

Sample Financial Report

Inquiries and reports should be directed to:
Ms. Unmi Song, President
120 S. LaSalle Street, Suite 1950
Chicago, IL 60603-3419

or by email at reports(at)fryfoundation.org