Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation Training: Performance Area 2

JEANNINE BULBULIA: Let's start with, “What is performance management?” Performance management is a process by which programs regularly collect data on their grant activities to determine whether they're implementing activities as intended and achieving their desired goals and objectives. Using performance measures that capture ongoing data to understand how a program changes over time enables pre- and post-comparisons that can be used to assess change. Reviewing the data to identify trends, patterns, and insights can inform program decisions and improvements. Program data can be shared with funders to demonstrate the success of grant activities and compliance to regulations. You can find additional information and several resources on the Office of Justice Programs Grant Performance Measurement and Progress Reporting Information portal at the BJA performance website listed on this slide. 

Performance measures have many purposes for BJA. BJA uses performance measures to understand how funds are being distributed and used. BJA regularly tracks progress towards goals and develops various reports using annual key performance indicators. Results inform budget, strategic plan, and future funding. BJA also tracks grant activity and progress towards program goals. Performance measures enable BJA to respond to external requests. For example, congressional inquiries and media data—and media requests, sorry. BJA uses performance measures to identify areas of success and potential areas of improvement. Performance measures identify needs for TTA or revisions to program design implementation. Finally, BJA performance measures—uses performance measures to comply with the law and complete BJA reporting. 

The tracking of progress through performance management is required by [the] Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014, and the Grant Reporting Efficiency and Agreement Transparency Act of 2019. Some data is also required to be reported to various government agencies and Congress, or to respond to the FOIA requests. 

Not only does BJA benefit from performance measurement, there are many benefits to you and your program as well. You should be systematically monitoring performance measures as well as your own data to help identify what's working well and what might need some changes. This helps you make data-driven decisions to manage and improve your program. Additionally, the data you provide allows BJA to provide targeted training and technical assistance resources to grantees that need it most. Performance measurement data can also be used as evidence that you are meeting your goals. This can help you with —this can help you with program sustainability and help you advocate for additional resources for your program. 

Now let's talk about the what, where, when, and how of reporting requirements. We'll review each of these next. 

The performance measures for CTAS Purpose Area Two can be found at the link on the screen. In January 2025, CTAS fiscal year 2020 grantees and later will report using new performance measures. We encourage you to become familiar with the new performance measures before the next reporting period. Additionally, you can use the questionnaire as a guide to track relevant data in your files in time intervals that is easiest for you. When it comes time to report, you can add those figures to get your reporting period totals. 

There are two required sources of data that you will use to report: performance measures and narrative questions. The performance measure questions for your program are a series of questions that measure outcome of grant activities and demonstrate the accomplishments of goals [and] objectives of BJA programs. Narrative questions are also provided to grantees to be used for data reporting. These questions are a series of questions related to grantees specific goals, objectives, barriers, and successes. 

BJA has two online tools to facilitate performance measurement reporting. The performance measurement tool, PMT, and JustGrants. BJA is in the progress—in is in the process of transitioning grantees’ reporting to the JustGrants system. Eventually, all programs will report performance measures in JustGrants. The CTAS program grantees from fiscal year 2020 and later will begin reporting data in JustGrants during the next reporting period in January 2025. The great news is you already have access to JustGrants because this is the same system that you were logging into to upload your performance reports. We have PMT and JustGrants resources here on this slide to help you with your transition. 

If you have specific questions related to your program's performance measures or reporting requirements, please reach out to the PMT help desk. If you have JustGrants system related questions, please contact the JustGrants support team. We will provide the contact information again at the end of the presentation. Depending on the year of your grant, you will have a different reporting process. I'll explain the different processes in the next few slides. 

So, for fiscal year 2019 and earlier grantees, there will be no change. Grantees with FY 2019 and earlier grants will continue reporting performance measures directly in the PMT on a quarterly basis until the end of their grant. In January and July, grantees will need to upload their performance reports to JustGrants, just like you've been doing throughout the life of your grant currently. Again, for clarity, fiscal year 2019 and earlier grantees, there will be no change. 

For fiscal year 2020 and later grantees, there will be transitioning to reporting in JustGrants in January 2025, reporting using the new performance measures. Grantees will be reporting measures directly into JustGrants on a semi-annual basis in January and in July. Grantees will have to report data collected from July 1 to December 31 by the January 30 deadline. No reporting will occur in the PMT for grantees fiscal year 2020 and later. 

We understand that there will be some double reporting since there is some crossover assistance, and grantees have already submitted performance reporting for July 1 through September 30. That is okay, we want you to report your data in the correct reporting period as we make this transition. The help desk is available to assist grantees at any time when reporting if you have any questions on what or where you should be reporting. 

So, I know that was a lot of information, so we have created a visual for you to better understand where and when you should be reporting. On this slide, if your organization has an FY 2019 or earlier grant that will be active and collecting data, you will fall into the category of grantees on the left. For the January 30 deadline, you will submit performance measures in the PMT for the October 1 to December 31 reporting period. You will continue reporting in the PMT until the end of your grant. This means you will not be using the new performance measures we will be going over today. 

If your organization has an FY 2020 or later grant that will be active and collecting data using FY 2020 or later funding, you will submit performance measures using the new performance measures in January. Performance measures will be reported in JustGrants and will be reported on a semi-annual basis. So grantees will be submitting performance measures twice a year. Grantees will need to submit performance measures using data they collected during July 1 and December through December 31 and not just the October 1 to December 31 reporting period. Please keep in mind if your organization has multiple active grants, which fall within both the left and right side on this slide, you will have to submit performance reports in both systems for the respective fiscal year of the grant. 

I would like to now turn the presentation over to Eulana from the JustGrants team to provide you with an overview of JustGrants.

EULANA WILLIAMS: Alright, well good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Eulana Williams and I'm from the JustGrants training team, and I am here to show you how to submit your performance measures in JustGrants rather than using the performance management tool that you've been using. 

Now, today's presentation is going to cover an overview of performance reports. We're also going to highlight the process of question sets and the steps to complete and submit your reports. Lastly, we'll also provide you with some helpful resources to help you through these processes. 

Alright, so we're going to begin with just a few key reminders about performance reports. Now, all required performance reporting will now be completed directly within the JustGrants system. Now what does that mean? Well, rather than uploading external files, you will fill out a structured performance measure question set inside each performance report. Now this change should streamline reporting by guiding you through specific questions, ensuring all relevant details are captured. Now, delinquent reports—these are some things that I want to remind you of—that delinquent reports may result in a suspension of funds. All right, so once the delinquent report is submitted, then that suspension will be lifted within a 24-hour period. 

Now the reporting cadence, and that is determined by the solicitation, and it is based on the program and funder. Reports are going to either be regular or final and the grant award administrator can make or mark that report as the final performance report, signifying that all grant activities are complete, that the funds have been obligated, and/or if the award is ending early, but final reports are due no later than 120 days after the end of the award. And performance reports are actually generated based on a frequency and the due date is determined by the program's award. Performance reports generated for an award's last reporting period will automatically be final reports. All others are going to be regular performance reports. So those are just a few reminders we wanted to touch on before we go into how to submit performance measures data in JustGrants using question sets. 

Now, after logging into JustGrants as the grant award administrator, you're going to select the appropriate performance report from my work list. You can see that listed here over on the left side. Now, if you're not familiar with using the filters, alright, filters can be very helpful in helping you find things easier. Now, there's also an upside-down triangle on each of the column headers that you can open to help open up those filters for you. 

Now, the report type should always be regular, unless this is the very last performance report for the award. Now, if it is the final report, then JustGrants will automatically change it. Now, under the program description, you're going to find the list of question sets to complete. You're going to select the link to open the question set to enter your performance measures. 

Now in the upper right corner, right over here, you're going to select the Begin link. I tried to make that a little bit bigger for you. This is going to allow you to edit the performance measure questions. I do want to note though, that the Begin option is only going to appear for users that can take action. The performance report will display in read-only mode, but you can only print the questions by selecting the actions menu. All right, so if you can see here, there's the actions menu here. You can select the print option if you would like, but if you need to make any changes and things like that, those changes cannot be made to the question set while it is in read-only mode. 

Now, when you're ready to begin responding to the question, you can respond here on this question page, and then once you've finished answering your questions, you can move to the next page by selecting the Continue button. Alright, that'll take you to the next page, and that's over here, let me click on that so it'll highlight it for you. It's a little bit, there we go. It's over in the lower right-hand corner, so there's a Continue button over here. But if you're not ready to continue to the next page and you want to save and come back to it, you can certainly select the Save button and come back when you're ready. But just remember that the questions, they're going to vary among awards. They're not going to all be the same, but if you see any that have a red asterisk, just know that those must be answered. You won't be able to submit the report if the required questions are not answered. 

Now, on the last page of the question set, the Continue button is now going to be replaced with the Finish button. Alright, so—oh, moved a little bit fast, but you can select the Finish button once you've completed all of the question sets and you've selected all of your answers, but you can still save, and you don't have to finish all of it all at once. You can press the Save button and come back to it later if you like. 

Alright, so once you’ve selected the Finish button, you will return to the performance report and the question set status is now Resolved-Completed. Now you will notice that the performance report is still in a draft status, although your question set has been completed. Now, to edit the question set, you can select Reopen, then click Begin to edit the question set. Now you'll need to select the Finish button again to return the status to Resolved-Completed. Now the questions that must be in this Resolved-Completed status in order to submit it, in order to submit that performance report. Now, if the Resolved-Completed status is not displayed, all you have to do is just go to the Actions menu that's up here in this upper-right corner and then select the Refresh button. 

Now in the performance report, you can add any relevant comments like you did when you were uploading your PMT reports. There's also the attachment section, and here you can upload or attach any additional documents that are required. This is also where you used to upload your PMT report, so hopefully this looks a little familiar, but now all of your data that is collected in those question sets. So, if you would like to still upload additional documentation, you can certainly do that. 

Now, you can select Submit to complete the performance report, or you can select Save to save and return to it later on. But once you've submitted the performance report, it's going to be routed to your grant manager for review. Now, just remember that you will not be able to submit if the status of the question set is not in that Resolved-Completed status like we just talked about. Now, if the report type is final, the confirmation page will appear after selecting Submit. Then you're going to select Confirm, and then as a reminder, the report should only be final if this is the last report of the award, but selecting Cancel, okay? You do have that option to cancel it if you don't want to confirm it, but selecting Cancel is going to return the performance report to the grant award administrator, allowing them to be able to make any additional changes that are needed before submitting the performance report. 

All right, so now you can review the displayed status. That's up here in the top and we see that's pending. That's here in purple. You can see it here. All right, now the status should be pending repository upload, but just notice that it also reads, “Thank You. The next step in this case has been routed appropriately.” All right, you want to see that. So, the grant award administrator is also going to be receiving an email confirming that the performance report was submitted, so you want to be on the lookout for that. 

Now, here's the audit page, and this audit page displays an up-to-date, historical description of all of the actions that were taken in the performance report. Just notice that the audit indicates that the performance report is going to—was sent to the grant manager for approval or rejection. Now, that's a little small, but it's this last entry here in the history basically is telling you that it has been sent to the grant manager for review or rejection, for approval for rejection. 

All right, now, before I conclude today, I want to go over a few additional resources that we have available for you. So, the JustGrants website has a ton of information, including topic-specific training resources. There's user support information, news, and updates. So please utilize this if you are, you know, if you run into trouble, but also don't feel like you're alone. We have our email up here, [email protected]. You can certainly send us an email and we will certainly be monitoring, Erica and I, we monitor that email address, so please reach out to us if you have any questions. 

Now, also too, we have upcoming sessions, and these sessions are to just provide you some additional support. Okay? We offer these training webinars to further assist you with the various processes to be completed in JustGrants. Now, we have our award management sessions. Those are held on the first and third Monday of each month. Then we have, on Tuesdays, the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, we hold our entity management sessions. On Wednesdays, we have our application submission. That's on the second Wednesday of the month, and then on Thursdays of every week we have our grant award acceptance, and all of the times that you see listed here are all Eastern Standard Time. 

Now, the information that we discussed in here is not repeated or it's not different information, but it's all repeated. So if you've attended one in the past, it's the same information, but sometimes you might need a refresher or just another opportunity to ask question. So Erica and I, we do attend these and we monitor the questions, and so you have a support system there. All right, I will now turn it back over to Jeannine. Thank you. 

JEANNINE BULBULIA: Thank you Eulana. Now that you've seen JustGrants, let's talk about the new performance measures that the FY 2020 and later grantees will be reporting in January. CTAS Purpose Area 2 consists of four sections, the general award administration, planning activities, strategic plan development, and narrative questions. The planning activity section consists of subsections: personnel, planning team, and community engagement. In this section, grantees will respond to questions related to their personnel, active planning, and community engagement activities. Since these are new performance measures, please be aware that some questions are asking grantees to report on activities during the reporting period, while other questions ask grantees to report activities since the beginning of the grant program. So please read each question clearly. 

The strategic plan development section asks grantees what stage of the strategic planning process the grant is in and has three open-ended questions. Please ensure your responses are thorough and concise. Lastly, the performance measures end with narrative questions. The narrative questions at the end of the performance measures are also new, so please review them within the PDF when completing your performance measures. Since grantees will be reporting semi-annually now in JustGrants, narrative questions will be required during each reporting period in January and in July. 

We want to make sure that you're answering the narrative questions correctly. When responding to your narrative questions, grantees should include a description of their program goals when responding to the accomplishments and challenges question. We have provided an example on this slide. For the first narrative question, which reads, “What were your accomplishments, including any progress made towards achieving your grant funded program goals during the reporting period?” The grantee's response states that their goal—that their program goal followed the—the grantee's response states their program goal, followed by the accomplishment of their particular goal. 

For the second narrative question, which reads, “What challenges did you encounter, if any, within the reporting period that prevented you from reaching your goals or milestones?” Grantees should restate their goal and then state the challenge. If grantees have more than one goal, each goal should be listed with the correspondent accomplishment and/or challenge. Please feel free to number the goals and their corresponding accomplishment and challenges. 

Finally, we would like to share some tips to improve data quality that your program can do from the very beginning. It is recommended that a designated staff person coordinate all performance measure data collection and entry to ensure consistency. If this is the first time you will report data, make sure you're familiar with the data that you need to collect and report. Do this by reviewing the PDF version of the questionnaire. Ensure a backup person is aware of the data collection and reporting process so they can fill in if a designated person's staff leaves or is unavailable. Consider available data collection methods including case management systems or other databases, spreadsheets, tracking intake form, or other methods. If partner organizations are included in your program design, be sure to engage them from the start of the planning process. Determine if formalized agreements are needed to ensure that the necessary data is collected. Lastly, ensure that all your data is received from contracted service providers and is reviewed and validated before completing any data entry. 

It is important to know which help desk to contact so that your issues or questions can be resolved quickly. You can contact the PMT help desk if you have questions on the following: questions on performance measures, schedule a TTA session for staff on data collection, PMT reporting or understanding performance measures, PMT questions and account creation, unlock previously submitted reports, creating annual PMT reports. Here is the BJA PMT help desk contact information on the slide on the left. You can contact the JustGrants help desk with the following questions: on account creation and JustGrants, navigating JustGrants to find progress reports, unlock an account or help with passwords, rules and permissions, error messages, uploading and attaching documents. JustGrants help desk information is on there. On this slide are a few websites that are worth bookmarking so you can go back and reference them. Specifically, I want to highlight the BJA Performance measures website, as that has a lot of resources to help you report, as well as your performance.