Grant Management Miniseries Part IV

• May 22, 2023
• Kathy Jastrzebski

As a grant-making organization, where can technology make the biggest impact?

1. Streamline the Application Process – Streamlining the application process allows you to expand your applicant pool and as a byproduct your organization’s potential impact.
2. Standardize Internal Grant Application Review – Standardizing the grant review process ensures all checklist items are being completed thereby reducing risk.
3. Add Efficiency and Transparency – Adding efficiency and transparency allows you to focus on mission-critical objectives (less on mundane but necessary tasks).

In this blog we’ll walk through how using technology, like Salesforce’s Outbound Funds Module or other software, can accomplish the above.

Streamline the application process

Grant seekers should be able to easily search and apply for open grants. Using Salesforce as an example, Sites, a core feature, allows your organization to present open grants to grant seekers and accept applications. Once an applicant submits a form, the application can then automatically create a funding request record and initiate the second step: grant review.

Below is an example of a simple application site for a fictitious company called, Last Chance, that helps ugly pets (if you can believe such a thing even exists) by giving grants to organizations that support their mission:

Standardize internal grant review

Once a grant request is created the review process can begin. Grant-making software should allow you to identify a standard checklist that is automatically created along with each funding request. The reviewers should be required to complete each step before a grant can be awarded. This ensures the process is standardized and no steps are accidentally skipped.

Below is an example of a standardized checklist that is automatically created when an application is received in Salesforce. This specific checklist includes an initial application review for completeness, a programmatic review that scores the application on various factors (also leveraging automation to rank applicants), and post-award requirements like requests for quarterly financials.

Add efficiency and transparency

A grant management software, like Salesforce, can also offer the following in terms of efficiency and transparency:

• Reports/dashboards providing visibility into the process
• Automated reminders for upcoming requirements
• An automated and standardized application scoring system that allows a reviewer to enter scores for specific qualifications and ranks the applicants based on overall scores
• Automatic creation of a payment schedule and the ability to forecast upcoming disbursements

Sample grant dashboard:

List of funding requests and their average review scores:

Disbursement schedule:

Next steps

From the very first step of accepting applications to the review process and final award notification, technology can make the grant award process streamlined, standardized, and more transparent, thus supporting the ultimate impact: broader organization reach and time to focus on mission-critical objectives. For questions or more information, please reach out to us!

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