Grant Management Solutions Toolkit: Choosing a Partner

Organizations often have difficulty tying grant activities to performance metrics, which can result in performing poorly in the single audit or provide an unclear picture of the outcomes your grant programming has been able to achieve.With the increasing emphasis on performance reporting in the compliance guidance, implementing grant management software (GMS) can be an effective way to streamline your organization’s processes and automate reporting requirements for compliance. Many organizations are now receiving multiple funding streams to achieve their missions, yet they may not have processes in place to manage them; this is where a GMS comes into play.

There are some specific ways that grant management software can help your organization make the most of your funding:

Automate Processes

Grants are typically managed by several stakeholders, each with their own methods and tools to accomplish their goals. This can sometimes result in disjointed communication and can put a damper on your efforts to increase accountability. With grant management software, you can simplify existing complex business processes with configurable workflows that replicate steps between disparate systems, standardize procedures, and eliminate repetitive tasks.

Save Time

Federally funded organizations report spending on average 40% of their time on general administrative tasks. By using purpose-built grant software designed for managing both grant maker and grant seeker processes, organizations can reallocate time to more pressing tasks for your projects that make an impact in your community.

Centralize to Expand Capacity

Grant management software can bring more departments, contacts, and recipients together into a secure place to manage all grant activity. Grant management software can help you increase internal transparency as well, allowing your organization to see where improvements could be made to your processes. By doing so, technology can help you to mitigate risk and eliminate information silos, which means you won’t have to duplicate efforts, or spend so much time on administrative tasks.

Increase Funding

Grant dollars are out there, and easier to find when they are consolidated into one searchable database from directly within your software. For example, AmpliFund’s  Research Module is the widest-reaching source of grant opportunities representing billions in funding from roughly  over 240,000 funding sources  and 10,000 active grants.  AmpliFund  offers the most comprehensive database of current funding opportunities that you can easily apply for right in the system itself.

Choose the Right Partner

When assessing grant management software, you need to think long-term.

You need a grant management software vendor that continues helping you and your organization long after you have the software up and running.

There are some questions you can ask during your search that will help you determine if you’re just investing in technology or gaining a partner that will help your organization in a holistic way.

• Is the software designed to adapt to changing Federal regulations and reporting requirements?
• Does the vendor offer their clients actionable tips, compliance  requirements information  and updates,  process improvement  resources, and even pieces that  forecast what may be on the horizon  to help you improve your organization’s management practices even outside of the technology?
• Does the vendor actively participate in conversations and partnerships with industry associations and groups regarding current and upcoming legislation? Are they in-the-know?
• Is the vendor committed to adapting and evolving the software to meet the needs of its customers as well as the growing demands from legislation on reporting requirements?
• Are maintenance, customer support and hosting included in the cost of the solution or are they added expenses?
• Does the vendor ask for your feedback, or really listen to what your organization’s pain points are and offer solutions that aren’t just tailored to their software’s capabilities?
• Does the vendor have a track record of success managing grant processes at organizations similar in size and needs to yours?

When you partner with  AmpliFund, you are gaining an actual partner in grants management who will be there to help you when you need it long after implementation is complete.  If you think that grant management software may be helpful for your organization, we are happy to answer any questions you may have, and look forward to helping you find a solution that can make the most of your funding.

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