Grant management to ease the burden on your whole organization

Understanding the true value of a new software service that will serve the right roles in your organization is important. The last thing you need in a new software investment is for it to be a great benefit to some but cause more work for others.  

We, at Foundant, know a thing or two about grant management software. Whether you’re a client, become one in the future, or not – we'd like to help you with your search and share a little bit about some new functionality you might be excited about! 

Some things to think about for each member of your team as you search for grants management software: 

Across your organization 

Questions to ask: What kind of support will I receive during the evaluation, onboarding, and usage stages of my customer journey? Will the support I need cost me extra? Do they have references I can speak to that will share their experiences with me?  

Every company offering grant management software will offer you a different level of support throughout your experience. It’s important to find out before you commit to a product if the level of assistance their team will provide you with is enough for your organization’s needs. Keep in mind some companies offer extra expert assistance hours that you can purchase if you need more help than you initially expected.  

User Roles  

Questions to ask: Can users be assigned role permissions relative to job functions within our organization? Can we customize user roles to fit our organization’s structure?  

Different users need varying levels of access to sensitive grant information. Each user in your organization should have a different level of system access dependent on their responsibilities. User roles allow administrators to control who can view, edit, or approve various types of documents and data based on their role with your organization. 

Filters 

Questions to ask: Can users easily filter results from each request to hone-in on the information that is pertinent to your role?  

Not all users need to see everything in your system. Your grant management solution should allow your team to filter based on specific data or status information most relevant to their role in the organization. Asking about what kind of filters, whether they can be customized, and how they can be applied in different ways are all good details to learn more about as you’re evaluating software.  

NEW to Foundant!! Single Sign On (SSO) coming September 2024

Questions to ask: What are the security measures in place for SSO authentication? Is there an additional cost for SSO?  

Retyping passwords every time you need to log in can be a huge frustration. SSO allows you to easily log in to your software to maintain security while ensuring accessibility. Often this SSO will be built to let you use your external system to log in. 

Foundant feature highlight: Organization admins using an advanced license are now able to log into Grant Lifecycle Manager (GLM) via SSO from their external system such as Azure Active Directory/Microsoft Entra.  

Candid Integration  

Questions to ask: Does the software help with the grant due diligence process? 

Candid is an online database where nonprofits can store core data about their organization in one place. A Candid integration allows users to see profile and demographic information within your grants management system, saving time and resources for all users. Ask if this information can also be automatically utilized within your grant application process to create greater efficiency for your applicants.

Grant Manager  

Applications & Letter of Inquiry (LOI) 

Questions to ask: Can we customize our applications to fit the information we need to report on? How can we request LOIs or preapplication information? 

Creating online applications configured to your needs is important because it’s how you will be able to gather and report on the right information. Understanding how this will happen in the setup is an important place to start for your grants manager. Additionally, if your organization requires pre-approval before an applicant can submit a grant or before funding new grantees, find out if you can tailor your process to include an LOI or other pre-application forms. 

Post Award Follow Ups 

Questions to ask: How are post award requirements handled? Can I run everything through the system? 

Post-award requirements like online grant agreements, progress reports, or expense reimbursements are an essential piece of a grant manager’s job that can easily become cumbersome without the right systems or tools in place. A grant management system should allow you to sign and send these documents directly to grantees with automated email and past due reminders.  

Candid Charity Check 

Questions to ask: How will the system help me with due diligence? How easy is it to see information about prospective grantees? 

Before deciding to fund a particular organization via a grant during the application evaluation process, to perform due diligence a grants manager might perform a 'Candid Charity Check’ to confirm the organization’s 501(c)(3) status or review their financial statements. When there is a Candid Integration available, this step in the due grants due diligence becomes easier and more seamlessly integrated into their process. 

Leadership (CEO, ED) 

Configurable Reporting & Exports 

Questions to ask: What kind of reporting tools can I expect from this system? Can I report on the information we need, or am I limited to out-of-the-box reports? 

Flexible data analytics tools help you measure the information that’s important to your organization. Having a tool to help you group, sort, analyze, and visualize collected data allows you to tell a better story, backed by results. The easier the tool is to use, the quicker anyone on your team can learn to create reports. If the system allows you to export into CSV or Excel, your team can distribute the right report to the right team members.  

Batch Document Creation/Batch Function 

Questions to ask: What functionality will save me time? 

Some systems allow users to export information collected on forms in batch into a PDF, streamlining your organization’s review and data management process. For example, award letters, application packets, and follow up forms. Likewise, users can also complete system functions in batch like approving requests, closing evaluations, and assigning follow-ups.  

Finance 

NEW to Foundant!! QuickBooks Online Integration coming September 2024

Questions to ask: Can I integrate this grants management system with my financial software? 

Depending on your organization, you may benefit from having your grants management solution integrated with an external solution, such as QuickBooks. An integration means your payment installment information will sync from the grants management system into your accounting system, eliminating tedious manual data entry and allowing your team to have real-time visibility into grant-related data. 

Foundant feature highlight: GLM is newly integrated with QuickBooks Online so users can easily sync payment installment information directly from GLM into QuickBooks without missing a beat.  

Installment Tracking 

Questions to ask: Can I track grant installments and maintain accurate records without a bunch of manual data entry? 

To ensure accurate records, some grants management solutions allow users to add installment forms to an approved request directly in the system tracking information such as amount, number of installments, and due date of grant payments.  

Programs 

Internal Follow Ups 

Questions to ask: Can I assign follow-up steps to my team in the system? 

Grant management systems that allow post-award follow-up documents to be assigned to internal users means you can easily empower program staff and board members to help track site visits, activity reports, and evaluation of outcomes and results.  

Email Templates 

Questions to ask: Does the system handle emails?  

Building email templates for your most common constituent communications such as application submission confirmation and upcoming deadline reminders can save you and your team a lot of time. Be sure to find out if you have an option to send manually or automatically in response to a specific event in the system. In addition, find out if the system has email templates that utilize merge fields from the database for a more personalized communication feel and whether you can personalize them with logos or pictures. Easily add logos or pictures to the email for deeper customization. 

Board Member/Trustee 

Review & Review Stages 

Questions to ask: Is it easy for our board members and other reviewers to access the system and complete application reviews? 

Ask your vendor how easy it is to assign applications to reviewers throughout the organization. Are there options for accessible inline scoring and comments? You should also be able to set up multiple review stages to suit your organization’s specific funding evaluation process.  

When cost is a major factor in your decision-making process, it is counterintuitive to try and make a solution be a one-size-fits-all when it’s not meant to be. Rememberr to ask for references so you can hear what the experience with both the software and the company has been like from other users. 

Take intentional steps to understand the true value of every role in the organization. This allows you to go into your decision and onboarding phase with the confidence that each person who will interact with the solution will benefit from it. This will help you down the road when renewals come around and give you the security of knowing you made a valuable purchase. 

Reach out to our team to learn more about how we make the entire grants management process easier for everyone involved.