What Exactly is Grant Management Software?
Grant management software is a must for any organization whose funding revolves around grants and donations. This cloud-based organizational tool allows non-profit organizations to manage the series of grants they may receive in a variety of ways.
These software programs have become paramount during this period where timely funding could mean the difference between economic recovery and continued financial struggle. This situation can go from worrisome to critical with the rise of Covid causing many organizations to go to work remotely. For non-profits still using manual forms and paperwork, the pipeline for grant distribution, tracking, and identification of possible new grants can be arduous at best and a work-wide panic at worst in a remote work setting. Not to mention the whiplash the recent Omicron variant of Covid has caused to the organizations who had just returned back to the office.
Most importantly, institutions and grant beneficiaries utilize grant management software to generate reports that can enable the discovery of trends and determine the best way to use and manage their resources. With an unexpected turn of events due to COVID-19, most elements of the grantmaking cycle that were done through mires of paperwork can now be done conveniently.
Though we talked about how Grant Management software can benefit an organization, we haven’t exactly gone into the specifics. We can use Planstreet’s own Grant Management Software to get a better picture of this.
Benefits of Grant Management Software
One of the main issues non-profits can run into is effectively distributing and using the entirety of their grants, grant management software allows organizations to Easily disperse money from any specific grant to programs and activity down to a micro-level in order to keep tight control of an organization’s budget. This also makes sure none of the revenue grants or private donations go to waste. This is a grander accomplishment when you consider that using up the entirety of the grant is a huge boost in retaining said grants.
Most Grant Management Software allows for easy reporting, Planstreet’s is no different in that regard. With one click, users can see the entire history of any singular grant. From how many times that grant has been tapped into, which program and activity the grant was disbursed to when it was disbursed, and more. This ease of reporting makes it easy for organizations to see if there are any leaks along their financial pipelines along with any other opportunities for improvement in budgeting.
Speaking of budgeting and spending, have you ever got a series of gift cards for Christmas? Do you know you got a $25 gift card for Taco Bell, a $50 gift card for Macy’s, a $100 gift card for the expensive Brazilian Steakhouse downtown? That’s often the situation that non-profits are put in, they receive all these grants that they plan on using as the weeks go by, not sure which ones are still good and which ones are completely used up. So arduously they have to sit down and call the number on the back of each one, dial in the 16 digit number, and write down the amount left on a brick-yellow post-it note. Pray they didn’t lose it or they would have to do the process all over again. This is a very similar set of circumstances that non-profits find themselves in.
Though Grant Donor Management software addresses once a grant has been used completely, it will no longer show up in grant disbursement boxes allowing for more efficient distribution of funds. keep up to date on the status of prospective foster parents.
What to Look for in a Quality Grant Management Software System?
Beyond the features we talked about above there are two things that are paramount for looking into a quality system, ease of use and flexibility.
Ease of use: No one wants to use a system that makes them jump through a set of hoops and hurdles just to do the basics, at least not someone who’s sane of mind. When looking for good software, see if you can ask someone at the company for a demo. Demos allow you to get first-hand experience.
Flexibility: every organization has its own specific set of needs, one glove doesn’t fit all. You can ask program managers and ask just how many different ways the software can be used.
Not to brag or anything, but if you want to know a software company that provides both just scroll to the top of the page and looks to the top left.