Best Grant Management Software
Grant management software helps grantmakers and grantseekers manage the grant proposal and awarding process from different perspectives. Though predominantly utilized within the nonprofit sector by grantmaking foundations, these tools also have applications for government agencies and scientific research organizations. Certain tools are better designed to manage the complexities of public funding, including government regulations and compliance, as opposed to private funding. Grant management software streamlines the call for submissions by providing form creation, task automation, and review support. Funders utilize these tools to track their award budgets, monitor progress of all grantees, and measure success over time to determine if funding priorities need to shift. From a project management perspective, this type of software helps users monitor the necessary activities that occur at different stages of each grant application, from pre-award to post-award.
On the other hand, grant management software designed for grantseekers allows organizations to search open grant opportunities based on selected criteria, and provide tools to assist with proposal preparation and submission. These tools support document attachment, store commonly used files and responses, and help grantmakers and grantseekers communicate more effectively. Grantees can measure their progress against proposed metrics over time and correct course as needed, and can pull reports to track larger data sets related to funding or programmatic success.
Some fundraising software and donor management software support basic grant management functions, allowing important deadlines and action items, relationship information, and proposals and reports to be managed. Additionally, most grant management tools integrate with accounting software to manage fund accounting and ensure grant expenditures align with the contracted budget.
To qualify for inclusion in the Grant Management category, a product must:
Best Grant Management Software At A Glance
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Submittable powers you with tools to launch, manage, measure and grow your grant, giving and volunteering programs, locally and globally. From grants and CSR to awards and scholarship programs, we pa
Submit.com is the all‑in‑one platform to collect, manage, and evaluate submissions with ease whether it’s for grants, scholarships, awards, or government programs. From start to finish, Submit.com str
669 Twitter followers
Bloomerang CRM helps you raise more by turning donor data into deeper relationships and smarter strategies. With a complete 360º view of every supporter, this intuitive solution makes it easy to ident
Bloomerang is a software that provides customer support, training sessions, webinars, and resources for schools to integrate their SIS via an open API. Reviewers like the user-friendly interface, the ease of creating forms and using them online, the option for donors to pay for the processing fee, and the quick and helpful customer support. Users reported that the platform lacks customization options, some features could be more intuitive, and it can take a while to learn all of the features.
7,688 Twitter followers
Blackbaud Grantmaking is a grant management software solution designed to assist organizations within the social good sector in optimizing their grant processes. This platform enables users to manage
32,610 Twitter followers
Good Grants is an internationalised grantmaking platform that helps small to medium sized grantmakers around the world affordably accept, manage and fund good grant applications, their way. Designe
1,494 Twitter followers
Instrumentl is the only all-in-one grant solution that turns your entire grant lifecycle into a strategic advantage. Discover best-fit opportunities, craft winning proposals faster, streamline your gr
719 Twitter followers
Grant Lifecycle Manager (GLM) is designed to manage your entire grantmaking process in one secure, easy-to-use solution so you can free up time to pursue your mission. Unlimited users, including appli
1) At Salesforce.org, we believe technology when used for good can change the world. It is the most powerful equalizer of our time, providing access to data, knowledge, and above all, connections. Sal
580,855 Twitter followers
SmarterSelect makes managing scholarships, grants, and awards a breeze. Our easy-to-use online platform helps you create applications, review submissions, and pick recipients – all in one place. Wheth
36 Twitter followers
Select your best candidates faster, for grants, scholarships, awards, and other programs. SurveyMonkey Apply simplifies applications and automates workflows so that you can focus on what truly matters
42,974 Twitter followers
SylogistMission ERP is a purpose-built Enterprise Resource Planning solution tailored for nonprofits, NGOs, dioceses, and faith-based organizations. Headquartered in Canada, Sylogist has a long histor
138 Twitter followers
Benevity is the leading corporate purpose platform, trusted by many of the world’s most iconic brands to help them build stronger cultures, deepen stakeholder trust, and create measurable social and b
Join the world’s most respected organizations and make the most of your corporate philanthropy. Bonterra CyberGrants removes grantmaking complexities for better alignment with your mission. Streamline
916 Twitter followers
Evalato is the next-gen awards management software that helps you collect applications with ease, empower evaluation and pick the worthiest winners for your programs. It’s the go-to solution for award
2,148 Twitter followers
Keela is a specialized customer relationship management (CRM) solution tailored for nonprofit organizations, designed to enhance their operational efficiency and fundraising capabilities. This platfor
Keela is a platform that integrates with other software, streamlining internal processes and tracking interactions with constituents in real time. Users frequently mention the platform's intuitive nature, its ability to automate workflows, manage interactions in one place, and its excellent customer support. Reviewers mentioned difficulties with data management, such as keeping data clean and dealing with duplicate records, and limitations in the email marketing content preview feature.
Learn More About Grant Management Software
What is Grant Management Software?
Nonprofit organizations use grant management solutions to manage the entire grant application process. Solutions in this category find available grant opportunities that match an organization’s filters, automate grant writing processes, and ensure compliance through the entirety of the grant process (pre- and post-application). Grant management applications contain grant reviewing and submission features as well. Nonprofits rely on grants as a vital source of income, so ensuring that the process is streamlined, efficient, and well-run is of the utmost importance. Improved grant management could lead to more successful grant applications, increasing organizational income. Some grant management solutions provide functionality for organizations that are applying for grants and organizations that are creating grants. Certain solutions may do both, but the majority specialize on one side or the other.
Key Benefits of Grant Management Software
- Increase the ease of grant discovery
- Consolidate all grant-related information
- Streamline the grant application process
- Manage application response and automate grant management activities
Why Use Grant Management Software?
Grant Application Pipeline — The grant application process can be arduous and time consuming with no guaranteed payoff. Just choosing which grants to apply for can be difficult, as there are so many to sort through and vet. Grant management software can automate at least some of this process, providing potential grant applicants with a strong pipeline of opportunities for which the organization will be qualified for. Of course, this is no guarantee of success, but ensuring that every application is not written off as soon as it crosses the desk of the decision maker on the other side is a start.
Grant Application Automation — Automating steps in the grant application process is key to ensuring that you can apply for as wide a range of grants as possible if you are a grant seeker. Federal grant applications take between 80–200 hours to write, so cutting that time down is a boon to getting as many grant applications completed as possible.
Improve Communication — Improving communication channels between grant applicants and grantmakers is an important aspect of grant management software. These applications are designed to make the process as easy as possible on both sides. Any ambiguities in the application process can be addressed through the communication channels that grant management software offers.
Who Uses Grant Management Software?
Nonprofit Organizations — Nonprofit organizations are the largest users of grant management software, particularly organizations operating in areas like the arts, which rely heavily on grants for funding. These organizations are typically grantseekers and use the software to streamline their application process. Document repositories, reporting tools, collaboration features, and more contribute to make the application process as easy as possible.
Governments — Government organizations have funds to give away in the form of grants. Grant management software for grantmakers allows them to maintain application portals, a reviewer hub, and reporting tools.
Private Foundations — Private foundations, or non-governmental organizations with available funds for grantseekers, also use grant management software. They use the same functionality as any other grantmaker though operate with less oversight, as they are private institutions. Private foundations will use the applicant portal, reviewer portal, and reporting tools to ensure that they are giving their funds to the most qualified applicants.
Kinds of Grant Management Software
Grant-Seeking — This type of grant management software is designed to manage the collection of and application to suitable grant opportunities. These solutions focus on putting together personalized grant applications and strengthening the grant application process. Fund seekers are looking to secure as much grant funding as possible, so the more applications to suitable opportunities you can put together the better. Because of this, grant management solutions for grant seekers automate as much of the process as possible. This can take the form of robust document repositories from past applications and tools to automate the discovery process.
Grantmaking — Grant management software for grant creators takes care of the other side of the industry. These grant management solutions manage the creation of the grants themselves, the collection of applications, the review of applications, and the dissemination of the results of the process.
Grant Management Software Features
Grant management software often includes, but is not limited to, the following features:
Application Portal — This is a centralized portal through which applicants can submit their grant applications.
Centralized Applicant Management — A dashboard which grantmakers can use to manage all of the applications that are submitted through the application portal. Grant management software provides tools to sort through applications quickly and easily.
Reviewer Tools — Gives application reviewers full visibility into the review process, including what steps need to be taken when.
Integrations — Imports data from multiple sources and integrates with necessary third-party applications.
Data Visualization — Creates charts and graphs from data housed in the application.
Reporting — Produces prebuilt or customizable reports from the available data in the system. These reports often include data visualizations.
Document Generation — Provides users with tools to generate grant related documents.
Push Notifications — These notifications are created and sent out every time a certain triggering event takes place, be it a deadline, document revision, or something else.
Document Repository — This feature is for both grantmakers and seekers, but is more important for grant seekers. Applications allow users to store grant application-related documents in the software to be used over and over again.
Audit Trails — This feature tracks all changes and revisions made to an application, profile, or specific grant so that you can go back and audit the process later on.
Other features of grant management software: Ad Hoc Reporting, Data Analytics, Eligibility Screening, Fund Accounting, and Program Evaluation.
