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Lately, it has become clear that online tools can bring a lot more to your daily life: whether it is to help you get information on what's going on in the world, stay in touch with your close ones or make sure to be more productive and efficient at work, there are millions of online platforms that have proved their importance.
When dealing with grant projects, you have a lot of things to deal with. From building the main lines of your grant, to publicly announcing it, making sure that candidates can apply easily and via a dedicated platform, it's one thing. The "Before" tasks. But then, there is also everything that needs to be taken care of, the "after": collecting the applications, sorting them, making sure that you keep the most relevant ones, getting in touch with all applicants to provide a clear follow-up, making sure that the whole process runs smoothly, from giving the grant per se, to checking your reports and sharing them with the relevant people in your organization.
Do all these things feel familiar? We thought so.
The old manual tools
Surprisingly enough, a lot of grant managers are still using manual tools and obsolete softwares to build their grant process and manage it on a daily basis. The problem is that a project evolves and with this evolution come new requirements, expectations and ambitions. A manual tool reaches quickly its limitations and you might end up facing some complex situations:
- Data loss from using too many different sheets,
- Frustration with all the different non-updated version of a document,
- Lack of communication between all the people involved in your team,
- Lack of communication with the applicants, still waiting for a clear follow-up,
- Complex user-experience with a homemade form inefficient and blurry to us,
- etc.
We're not making them up: these situations have been part of the daily lives of some of our customers. And while some can be seen as less important, others can be a real problem. For instance, losing important confidential and precious data would be a nightmare. Data privacy and safety are trending topics that have been regulated and your audience does expect you to show respect towards the data their share with you. Break that implicit promise and it might be very difficult to build a new relationship with them.
The benefits of a grant management software
We know it's always a bit scary to jump into something new. It may seem complex at first, but when done right, it can also pleasant and easy to use and make your life easier. If you're doubting, we decided to gather our best reasons why you should turn to a grant management software.
#1 A software for A to Z grantmaking
A great thing that happens when you implement a new software is that usually, most of them offer you functionality for every step of your project's life. From building a form to collecting data to sorting them and reporting on them. At least, the software you choose should offer you the possibility to manage everything so you just have to turn to this one tool and not to several different ones with different layouts.
#2 A growth for your workflow
Your workflow will affect how your foundation run so if your aim is to grow your organisation then workflow is something that you must be working on. Using the right software will help you filter exactly what you need. Since your foundation has a budget and if you receive an application that runs over your budget, the software will automatically decline the application.
A software will save you time by declining applications that are requesting over your budget limit or have not met the criteria.
#3 A focus on strategies VS action
Every organization has a goals, to meet your goals, you have to focus on the strategies that will help your organisation in a long run. What do you have to do in order to meet your goals. When choosing a software to run your foundation, choose a software with high KPI options to help you focus on your strategies rather than having to worry about things like writing report, or assessing each application individually.
#4 A nice expansion on your grantmaking
You are able to use your time more efficiently. Rather than spending time trying to organise and figure out results, you will be focusing on strategies that matter to grow your foundation. This will help your foundation grow faster as the technology will be helping you collect that the data without you having to do it manually.
#5 A personalized experience
At Optimy, we value personalization. We think your projects are different from your neighbors, your goals are your own and your team is very specific. So we make sure to offer a tool that fits your needs, your reality and your ambitions. The platform is personalized, the form you built is too, and with the modular approach that makes us who we are, you can choose the features that suits you best given your current situation in grant management. If these evolve in a few months, you can turn to your dedicated Account Executive to add new more powerful ones to your customized platform. That way, the software evolves with you.
That's fine if you still have cold feet. One article might not be enough to convince you. We value exchange, conversations, in real-time discussions. By knowing more about you, your projects and goals, we might provide you the answers you need to reach the next level with your grant projects. What do you say? Shall we meet?
