We designed this report as a reference to help you determine which grants management solutions might best fit your needs. It is available in two formats: as a downloadable and printable PDF, and as a companion online edition with a tool that allows you to filter systems by feature and select systems to compare.
The guide itself is broken into several sections. “Selecting a Grants Management System” highlights the features and functionality you can expect to see in this type of software as well as considerations for selecting and implementing a new system or transitioning from one system to another.
“The State of the Grants Management System Marketplace” takes a deeper dive into the foundation and grantmaking trends that have shifted the marketplace over the last five years and how some software is evolving to meet these new demands.
“Comparing Grants Management Systems” takes a closer look at the specific systems we reviewed. Each has its own strengths and trade-offs, and there is wide variety among them. We grouped them into eight categories, or use cases, based on what we saw as primary differentiators. If you already know that your organization’s needs match one of these use cases, this section can help you start defining a short list of solutions. For each, we’ve provided descriptions highlighting the pros and cons, particular audiences or applications, and pricing estimates to help you get an idea of how it fits into the overall marketplace.
We’ve also included a detailed comparison chart that provides an at-a-glance summary of how the systems in this report meet the functionality identified in our evaluation rubric. The online edition of this guide provides additional tools to help you narrow your search, allowing you to filter the comparison chart by the functionality most relevant to your needs.
Once you’ve identified a shortlist of systems you think might meet your foundation’s needs, you can view their full reviews in “Reviews of the Grants Management Systems.” Each begins with a summary that highlights key differentiators in the marketplace, followed by general system costs, more detailed descriptions of the system’s ability in each of the eight core functionality areas, and some key metrics from our customer experience survey.
It’s worth noting that these criteria are not intended to be a list of what every system should be expected to provide. Different products approach the needs of foundations in different ways, and vendors have different philosophies about how to approach these needs. Some systems were developed for niches in the sector while others focus on specific strengths and are designed to be used in tandem with separate, third-party solutions. With any technology purchase, the solution you select is more than the sum of its functions. The provider of your platform is an important partner, too—selecting a vendor that aligns to your needs during implementation, adoption, maintenance, and ongoing enhancements is also an important consideration.
Final Thoughts
The impetus for the inaugural edition of the guide, published in 2008, was to address the growing complexity of grantmaking and need for more sophisticated systems. That continues to be our driving motivation as we proudly share this sixth edition. We have continued to work to identify the factors driving the evolution in the marketplace and to integrate the changing requirements into our evaluations.
It is no longer acceptable to do business as usual; we have to do better by our grantees, by our own teams, by our tech choices. To that end, it is imperative that we ask more of our GMS to enable us to do better. You’ll notice that some of the evaluation factors in the rubric are not yet common practice, and that’s OK—these provide a clear area for improvement where we can strive as a sector to do better. As the bench of experts charged with evaluating the current GMS landscape, we owe and own our due diligence to staying on top of emerging trends and tough questions. While our rubric creation was expertise-informed, the evaluation of each of these systems is neutral and based on feedback from their users.
The fifth edition of this guide was developed in consultation with a distinguished collective of subject matter experts who provided their generous insights not only into the changes in functionality in today’s systems but into the systemic changes that are transforming grantmaking itself. This new edition builds on that, and is the result of extensive research, time, and effort dedicated by our valued partners and system vendors. We hope that it can help you gain a deeper understanding of the options available to you and ultimately make the right choice for your organization’s needs.