Post-Award Financial Strategy for Institutions Managing Federal Funding
Guiding institutions to build the infrastructure needed to manage funding with clarity, compliance, and structure.
Post-award failure is rarely a talent problem. It's a structure problem.
The solution isn’t more activity, it’s structural clarity.
Our Primary Engagements
WHAT WE DO
Three practice areas. Each built to address a specific point of institutional failure around federal funding and compliance.
Advisory
Strategic infrastructure design and financial systems for institutions managing funding.
Frameworks
Proprietary models that identify risk, gaps, and inefficiencies early.
Speaking & Workshops
Sessions on institutional capacity, compliance, and structural risk.
WHO WE SERVE
Our advisory engagements are built for…
Institutions and professionals navigating the complexity of federal funding, compliance obligations, and institutional leadership.
✓ Research Institutions
Federal Grant Recipients
Managing multi-year awards, indirect cost rates, and reporting obligations.
✓ Universities & HBCUs
Mission-Driven Institutions
Building infrastructure to sustain grant funding and board-level accountability.
✓ Sponsored Program Leaders
Compliance Teams
Aligning post-award practices with federal expectations to reduce audit risk.
✓ CFOs & Controllers
Financial Leadership
Rebuilding systems, controls, and sustainable reporting infrastructure.
PROPRIETARY METHODOLOGY
The Frameworks Driving This Work
Three models built from real institutional failure patterns. Not generic consulting templates.
FRAMEWORK 01
Starling Post-Award Infrastructure Model™
Used to redesign your post-award structure. Clarifying ownership, strengthening controls, and aligning systems so your institution can manage funding without operational breakdown.
FRAMEWORK 02
Starling Post-Award Time Map™
Used to align your operations to high-risk periods so reporting, monitoring, and closeout are handled proactively instead of under pressure.
FRAMEWORK 03
Human Infrastructure Framework™
Used to identify where people are compensating for weak systems and shift that burden back into structure where it belongs.
OWNER & FOUNDER
Jai Starling, MBA, MDS
Data Science · Federal Compliance · Financial Strategy
Jacquese “Jai” Starling, MBA, M.S. Data Science, is a Navy veteran and founder of J.Starling Strategy & Financial Consulting, LLC. With national recognition and a dual foundation in operational finance and data ethics.
Jai is a builder of systems that prioritize truth, structure, and sustainability.
Her expertise spans federal compliance, grant infrastructure, institutional leadership, and AI-driven financial reform.
Perspectives on Funding, Compliance, and Institutional Structure
INSIGHTS & STRATEGY
OP-ED
The sector that appears stable on the surface while critical functions underneath strain, crack and eventually give way.
FINANCE
This is the institutional contradiction: Public declarations of excellence built atop systems running on guesswork. That is no longer sustainable.
OP-ED
The question is not if higher education finance will evolve—it’s whether your institution will lead the way.
If your institution is carrying more funding than its infrastructure can support, let's talk.
LET’S BUILD THE INFRASTRUCTURE
Schedule an advisory engagement call.
Let’s clarify where your systems stand and what it would take to strengthen them.
