Contents

• Overview
• What is Direct Awarding?
• Step-by-Step Instructions
• Step 1: Enable Direct Awarding
• Step 2: Import Applicant Profiles (if needed)
• Step 3: Select Awardees
• Step 4: Assign Award Agreements
• Step 5: Notify Awardees
• Step 6: Awardee Submits Progress Reports

Overview 

This step-by-step guide shows Program Admins how to enable and use Direct Awarding in Next. 
 

What is Direct Awarding? 

Direct Awarding is a feature that allows program admins to import existing grantees/awardees into the system for continued progress reporting without requiring them to apply. This feature bypasses the traditional pre-award process, creating a streamlined workflow that focuses entirely on post-award management. 

This is ideal for renewal grants where previous awardees are continuing their projects, or when awards have been predetermined through external processes and you simply need to manage the post-award phase in Next.
 

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Enable Direct Awarding

1. In the Cycle Settings, click Workflow in the top menu, then select Workflow Options from the left menu. 
   
   
    

2. On the Workflow Options screen, toggle Direct Awarding to Enabled. 
   
   

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   ⚠️IMPORTANT: Once you click "Save Changes" the system will lock the Direct Awarding toggle (it cannot be turned off) and make several important changes:

   • These Cycle Settings tabs are hidden: Review and Workflow, including all the sub-tabs within them.
   • These Intake sub-tabs are hidden: Eligibility, Intake Forms, and Request Forms. 
   • These rounds are hidden on the in the cycle: Intake and Review. 
   • The cycle status changes to "Awarding in Progress" on the All Award Cycles page.
   • The "Import Awardees" button appears under the Actions on dropdown on the Awarding > Award Recipients page. For more information about the Awarding page, see ➡️Awarding Page Overview.
      

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   3. Click Save Changes in the upper-right corner. 
   
   

• After saving and exiting the Workflow Options screen, the new Cycle Settings view will look like this (several tabs removed from view): 
  
  
   
• When you open the cycle, it will look like this (no intake and review rounds):
  
  

Step 2: Import Applicant Profiles (if needed)

⚠️IMPORTANT: This step is only necessary if you don't already have all your awardees in the system. For instance, if this is a regrant of all grantees from last year, they will already be in the system and you can skip to Step 3.

1. Before you can assign awardees, you need to get their profiles into the system. Navigate to the Participant Network and use the import functionality to add your existing grantees/awardees to Next. For step-by-step instructions, see ➡️How to Import Applicant Profiles.

Step 3: Select Awardees

1. Once your applicant profiles are in the system, return to the main program page and click Awarding in the left-hand menu. On the Awarding page, select Actions > Import Awardees. 
   
   
    
2. In the pop-up, select the checkbox next to the awardees you want to add to the current cycle. 
   
   

📌Note: This step technically assigns awardees rather than importing new data since the profiles from Step 2 already exist in the system.

Step 4: Assign Award Agreements

For each awardee, you'll need to assign their award and award agreement. Before proceeding, ensure you have created an Award and an Award Agreement Template, including any post-award reporting requirements, as needed.

1. For each awardee, do the following, select an Award and Award Agreement. ➡️ For step-by-step instructions, see Designating Award Offers and Agreements.
   
   

Step 5: Notify Awardees

1. After you saved the award offers for each awardee, select the checkboxes next to the awardees you want to notify. 
2. Click "Accept and Notify Recipient" in the upper-right corner of the screen to send awardees an email notification about their award status and next steps.
   
   

Step 6: Awardee Submits Progress Reports

Once notified, awardees can log into Next, navigate to the Your Awards tab in the top menu, and follow the standard post-award workflow to submit their progress reports.

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