How to Find And Evaluate Grant Management Software Solutions
Grant management software solutions help Grantmakers tame their workflows, optimize their interactions with applicants and grant recipients for the length of their grant life cycle, and manage all of the administrative tasks involved in grant making. Software can automate many of the administrative duties involved in grantmaking, freeing up staff to focus on strategy, opportunities, and relationships otherwise lost within an unorganized grantmaking environment. A well-designed and user-friendly grant management system allows administrators to quickly identify potential solutions, expedite decision processes, and make informed decisions. By combining traditional technical support and online resources, an effective grant management system facilitates decision analysis, project management, and access to available funding.
Grant Dashboards
To help Grantmakers streamline their business processes, a variety of useful and compelling dashboard solutions are available. Managed by industry experts, these dashboards enable Grantmakers to view project status, applicant data, budget overview, and other vital information relevant to their grant making activities. With these customizable grant dashboard applications, Grantmakers can eliminate many of the repetitive, inefficiencies, and time-consuming tasks typical of many business processes. Maybe you like Teach online.
Grants Lifecycle Overview
In order to ensure that the most effective grants management system is properly implemented and maintained, a thorough lifecycle overview must be performed on a regular basis. This process begins with identifying the current needs of the Grantmaker and the appropriate grant funding levels. From this information, a more accurate assessment can be made regarding each individual grant, as well as the overall effectiveness of their current grant approval strategies. A detailed, day-by-day, over-all grant lifecycle review provides vital insight into the most effective grants management system investments.
The most thorough grants management software systems include detailed reports on the success or failure of each grant application. Success rates can range from less than 20% to more than ninety percent, with a high percentage of applications not approved. Further, the more successful an application is, the more likely its funding will be substantial. A comprehensive grants management system should also provide detailed information on the types of acceptable grant opportunities. For instance, a more effective grants management system will allow users to search specifically for competitive funding, new business opportunities, minority business grants, and so on.
Comprehensive and User-Friendly Grant Software Solutions
Effective grants management software must provide the user with easy access to grant opportunities and detailed application instructions. In addition, the software should provide streamlined, simple upload/download capabilities, support for multiple formats (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, PDF, HTML), and attractive design elements. In addition to being easy to use, user-friendly software solutions must also be technologically feasible, requiring minimal technical assistance, and easily downloadable or upload to a web server.
Flexible Reporting and Evaluations
Complex grants applications may require more than one grant program to apply for the funding it needs. Therefore, it makes sense for such applications to have a centralized location where they can all be evaluated and tracked. In addition, the central location should also allow the tracking and evaluation of different sub-applications, with detailed reports for each. Additionally, good grants programs should have both flexible and centralized reporting functionalities.