What Do Systems Cost?

What do These Systems Cost? 

Prices for grants management systems vary widely, but costs can generally be categorized into the following buckets:  

  • Yearly Fees: Most systems charge an annual fee that is often scaled to usage. It’s likely to be based on some combination of the total number of system users, how many grants applications you accept, how many documents you store, and how many programs with separate system processes you run. A few systems define this yearly fee based on the amount of assets you are administrating within the system rather than your actual system use. 
  • Add-Ons: Many systems offer an à la carte menu of optional modules that can substantially affect the license cost. 
  • Setup and Configuration Costs: Most vendors charge setup and configuration fees for your initial system implementation. Some vendors’ pricing structures are simple, charging specific fees for analyzing and documenting your system requirements, customization, online application building, report creation, and data migration. 
  • Maintenance and Support Packages: While most implementations include some level of introductory training for staff and basic support, some systems also add on an annual “maintenance” fee to cover enhanced support.  
  • Training Packages: Similar to the enhanced support packages, some vendors offer extended training packages that can help orient new staff to the system after the initial implementation and teach “super users” how to make the most of their system. These trainings are delivered in a multitude of ways, from on-site sessions to online video libraries to webinars.

Whether you pay the vendor, hire a consultant, or choose to tackle setup or installation yourself, there’s often a lot of work to do. Data migration in particular is a time-consuming and often underestimated task.   

The comparison charts in the next section include vendor-provided price estimates for yearly subscription fees for each system, roughly broken down into small, medium, and large foundations. Individual system profiles also provide details about vendor pricing models for yearly subscription fees as well as some information about how implementation costs are calculated by each vendor.