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Non Profit Organizations

Grant Agreement

Drafting grant agreements manually requires hours of research across multiple legal resources, careful attention to compliance requirements, and precise formatting of funding terms and reporting obligations. Corporate counsel and nonprofit advisors spend valuable time searching for standard clauses, verifying best practices, and ensuring all regulatory requirements are met while managing multiple grant relationships simultaneously.

Automation ROI

Time savings at a glance

Manual workflow6.5 hoursAverage time your team spends by hand
With CaseMark12 minutesDelivery time with CaseMark automation
EfficiencySave 22.5x time with CaseMark

The Problem

Drafting grant agreements manually requires extensive legal expertise to balance donor protection with grantee flexibility, ensure tax compliance, and create enforceable accountability frameworks. Attorneys spend hours researching requirements, customizing templates, and coordinating between grantor policies and grantee needs, often delaying critical funding.

The CaseMark Solution

CaseMark automatically generates comprehensive, legally sound grant agreements tailored to your specific grantor-grantee relationship. Simply upload grant applications, organizational documents, and correspondence, and receive a complete agreement addressing tax compliance, reporting requirements, permitted uses, and termination rights in minutes.

Key benefits

How CaseMark automations transform your workflow

Generate complete grant agreements in 12 minutes vs. 4.5 hours manually

Automatically incorporate compliance requirements and reporting clauses from verified legal sources

Ensure consistency across multiple grant agreements with standardized terms and formatting

Extract party details and project information directly from uploaded documents using AI

Access web-verified best practices from LegalZoom, bar associations, and nonprofit legal resources

What you'll receive

Parties
Recitals
Grant Amount and Purpose
Conditions and Obligations
Reporting Requirements
Termination and Repayment
Governing Law and Signatures

Document requirements

Required

  • Grant Application or Proposal
  • Grantor Information

Optional

  • Grantee Tax Documentation
  • Prior Grant Agreements
  • Board Resolutions
  • Project Budget
  • Correspondence

Perfect for

Private foundation program officers and legal counsel
Corporate social responsibility managers and in-house counsel
Nonprofit executive directors and development officers
Community foundation administrators
Government grant-making agencies
Fiscal sponsors managing grant relationships
Corporate attorneys specializing in philanthropic transactions

Also useful for

This workflow is applicable across multiple practice areas and use cases

Corporate General80% relevant

Corporate legal departments managing corporate philanthropy programs need standardized grant agreements for charitable giving initiatives and corporate foundation distributions.

Corporate attorneys handling philanthropic transactions and CSR programs regularly draft grant agreements as part of corporate giving strategies, making this workflow directly applicable to general corporate practice.

Corporate governance attorneys managing foundation board resolutions and charitable giving policies need compliant grant agreements that align with corporate governance requirements.

Grant agreements involve governance considerations including board approvals, fiduciary duties, and compliance with corporate charitable giving policies, making them relevant to corporate governance practice.

Transactional attorneys drafting charitable gift agreements and philanthropic arrangements need efficient tools for creating grant agreements with appropriate terms and conditions.

Grant agreements are fundamentally transactional documents involving transfer of funds with conditions, making them relevant to general transactional practice beyond specialized nonprofit work.

Government grant-making agencies need standardized grant agreements with compliance requirements, reporting obligations, and expenditure responsibility provisions for distributing public funds.

Government agencies issuing grants require legally compliant agreements with strict reporting and accountability measures, similar to government contracting requirements.

Frequently asked questions

Q

What's the difference between a grant agreement and a contract for services?

A

A grant agreement is a gratuitous transfer of funds for charitable, educational, or research purposes without expectation of commercial return, while a contract for services involves payment in exchange for specific deliverables or services that benefit the payer. This distinction has critical tax implications, particularly for 501(c)(3) organizations. CaseMark ensures your agreement clearly establishes the grant relationship and includes appropriate language to protect both parties' tax-exempt status.

Q

Does this tool handle expenditure responsibility requirements for private foundations?

A

Yes, CaseMark automatically incorporates expenditure responsibility provisions required under IRC Section 4945 when a private foundation makes grants to non-public charities or individuals. The agreement includes pre-grant inquiry documentation, detailed reporting requirements, grantor oversight mechanisms, and provisions ensuring funds are used for charitable purposes. This protects the foundation from excise taxes while providing compliant accountability frameworks.

Q

Can I customize reporting requirements based on grant size and complexity?

A

Absolutely. CaseMark tailors reporting obligations to match your grant amount, project complexity, and organizational preferences. You can specify quarterly, semi-annual, or annual reporting cycles, determine the level of financial detail required, establish programmatic metrics and evaluation criteria, and set audit thresholds. The tool balances grantor accountability needs with reasonable compliance burdens on grantees.

Q

How does the agreement handle international grants or foreign grantees?

A

CaseMark addresses cross-border grant considerations including equivalency determinations for foreign organizations, enhanced expenditure responsibility provisions, compliance with international anti-terrorism financing laws, currency specifications, and applicable withholding requirements. The agreement can incorporate FATCA compliance, foreign corrupt practices act provisions, and jurisdiction-specific legal requirements based on where the grantee operates and where funded activities occur.

Q

What happens to intellectual property created with grant funds?

A

The agreement clearly specifies ownership of copyrights, patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property created during the grant period. CaseMark allows you to choose whether IP belongs to the grantee, grantor, or enters the public domain, and includes appropriate licensing provisions, publication rights, and attribution requirements. This prevents future disputes while ensuring research findings, creative works, or innovations are properly protected and disseminated according to your grant's objectives.