Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act creating opportunity — and demand — for grant management solutions across federal, state and local government

With $1.2 trillion authorized through the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) for transportation and infrastructure spending — with $550 billion of that going towards new investments and programs — state and local governments are preparing for how they can put this critical federal funding toward energy and power infrastructure, access to broadband internet, water infrastructure, and more. Local programs will play a critical role in how communities will benefit. 

Effective grant management at the federal, state, and local levels will be a key driving force behind the success of the IIJA. Federal agencies, including the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Interior, and others have already seen explosive growth in the number of projects they oversee, managing hundreds of proposals from and awards to state and local governments. 

But legacy solutions are proving inadequate for the job. Manual systems don’t scale and can’t easily provide the enterprise roll-up data needed to track project performance — baseline requirements for the magnitude of the IIJA. The effort calls for a scalable process with tools built for modern work management.

Fortunately, Smartsheet can help you to streamline the grant process for government leaders, program directors, analysts, grant managers, grant coordinators, and grant writers. Federal, state, and local stakeholders can manage the full award lifecycle while collaborating across teams, automating work processes, and making better decisions, faster. With Smartsheet, government leaders can empower their staff to consistently deliver results faster, securely and at scale.

Work is easier and faster for federal grantmakers

Federal grantmakers can use Smartsheet to track grant lifecycles, progress, burndown rates, and reporting requirements. They can also process and sort the massive intake of proposals, organize recipients, and get accurate updates and performance metrics. Forms and automations can help process and respond to proposals while capturing required information, eliminating bottlenecks so the critical work of the IIJA can move forward. And easy-to-navigate sheets can organize recipients, including key contact information, mission statements, amounts awarded, interactions, and grant history. 

It’s easier to track grants and stay in compliance for state and local grant recipients 

State and local grant recipients can identify and track prospects and active grants with Smartsheet, keep tabs on requirements, monitor deadlines, and coordinate personnel and responsibilities. They can use sheets and reports to track requirements of grant funds and associated expenses, so implementation goes smoothly. Staying in compliance with terms and following through on deliverables never becomes an issue for recipients; they can continue to get the funding their communities need. 

Better collaboration, real-time visibility

Grant managers at all levels of government can leverage Smartsheet to better collaborate with each other across agencies through shared calendars, including automated reminders about upcoming deliverables and the ability to communicate clear expectations for deadlines. They can assign projects and track roles, responsibilities, and reporting so they can respond quickly to any problem areas with accurate, timely reports. And customized dashboards provide real-time visibility as well as an easily understandable, aesthetically pleasing way to report results and measure impact.  

The IIJA is the largest-ever investment in broadband, rail and transit, clean energy, and water infrastructure. Funding is being channeled to over 350 distinct programs across more than a dozen federal departments and agencies, including programs like the Home Energy Rebates and Grid Resilience State/Tribal Formula Grant programs through the Department of Energy, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure and Bridge Investment programs through the Department of Transportation, and the Safety of Dams, Water Sanitation, and Other Facilities program through the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. State and local governments have a historic opportunity to bring high-speed internet to rural and marginalized communities, replace lead service lines to bring clean water to people’s homes, repair thousands of roads and bridges, and create millions of jobs. With Smartsheet, grant managers at the federal, state, and local level have enterprise-grade solutions that can manage and scale at the capacity this moment demands. 

Contact our team to talk about how Smartsheet can help you make the most of the IIJA and your modern work management needs. Visit our website to learn about how Smartsheet meets the needs and challenges of federal agencies with Smartsheet Gov, the first FedRAMP- and DISA IL4-authorized modern work platform. And for best practices on modern work management for the government grant lifecycle, register for our webinar.