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Registering by clicking the Register tab above is the first step. After registering, login by clicking on the Login tab above. After logging in you'll able to provide further information and and manage your account.

This Web site is generally intended to be used by non-profit organizations that are either seeking or giving away money. Non-profit organizations are those organizations that have been granted non-profit/tax-exempt status by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Non-profit organizations are generally organizations, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, schools, or libraries that have received, or are waiting to receive, a tax exempt status determination letter from the U.S. IRS. In general, grants or funding cannot be provided directly to individuals except under special circumstances.

The types of funding that you can seek will depend entirely on the interests of the grantmakers that register with this Web site. Some types of grants that grantmakers may be interested in making include: operating grants, program grants, direct grants, program related investments, etc. Some of the causes that grant makers may be interested in supporting include: Arts, culture, humanities; Disaster relief; Education; Environment, animals; Health; Human services; International affairs, foreign affairs; Public benefit, society benefit; Religion; Science, technology; Social science, public policy; etc. More specific information about the types of funding and causes registered grantmakers may support is available by clicking the Grantseekers tab above.

Grantseekers and grantmakers will be able to specify what information is available to the general public and what information is available to either all or specified registered users of this Web site.

Yes, we believe there are a number of competitive or similar services. There are a number of commercial software programs available for grant application and grant management. These programs tend to be designed for use by a single grantseeking or grantmaking organization. There also appear to be a number of Web based services available for grant application and grant management. Again, these programs appear to be focused primarily on a single grant making organization or a group of grant making organizations with a narrow focus. The only other Web site directly associated with our solution is www.commongrantapplication.org. We have reserved that site for future use. Other sites with similar sounding names are not associated with us.

Groups of grantmakers such as associations of grantmakers, interest groups, coalitions, alliances, etc. can register and use this Web site in a manner similar to separate grantmaking organizations. Receipt, review and management of grant applications can be moderated or unmoderated.

The Lawrence Foundation has received over 2500 grant applications or letters of inquiry since its inception. All of these applications and inquiries are in its database. If you have ever submitted any grant application or letter of inquiry to the The Lawrence Foundation as a grantseeker, your application(s) and associated information will be moved here and you will be provided a user name and password before this Web site goes live. You do not need to register as a user. This will be done for you. All information moved here will be maintained as private between your organization and The Lawrence Foundation unless you choose to make it available to the public or other grant making organizations.

Waivers are issued by a grantmaker as a credit that may be used by the grantseeker to pay for a single grant application (i.e. the grantseeker will not be charged for the grant application). Introductory waivers may be provided to the grantmaker as part of their initial registration and opening their account with the Common Grant Application. These introductory waivers then may be issued by the grantmaker to any grantseeker. The grantmaker will pay nothing, or a reduced fee for each introductory waiver that is used. General waivers may be issued by the grantmaker so that any grantseeker applying to the grantmaker will not be charged an application fee. The grantmaker will pay a fee for each use of the general waiver by a grantseeker. Specific waivers may be issued by the grantmaker to a specific grantseeker. Only the specific grantseeker may use this waiver. The grantmaker will pay a fee for each specific waiver that is used. If a grantmaker has one or more types of these waivers available for use, they will generally be used in the following order: introductory, specific and general.

In general, grantmaker and grantseeker fees are only charged to the user account for applications or waivers, upon successful submission of an application from a grantseeker to a grantmaker. The Common Grant Application provides a service that facilitates the grantseeking and grantmaking process. It does not have any responsibility or control over the information provided by, or the decision making process of grantseekers or grantmakers. It has no responsibility or control over whether an application is accepted or rejected by a grantmaker or withdrawn by a grantseeker. Application and waiver fees are not refundable other than for a verifiable technical problem. Grantmaker monthly subscription fees are charged in advance for upcoming month of service and are not refundable or prorated if a grantmaker decides to discontinue use of the service. To avoid being charged the subscription fee for an upcoming month, the grantmaker must request closing of the account no later than the end of the month.

There are a number of steps used to determine the fees that are charged to the grantseeker or grantmaker upon successful submission of a grant application from a grantseeker to a grantmaker. Each grantseeker and grantmaker is assigned a pricing plan upon their registration and initial login. Your pricing plan was automatically set to an agreed upon plan at the time your account migrated from another service provider, or to the pricing plan in effect the first time you logged into your account. Nothing is charged to the grantseeker or grantmaker if the grant application is not successfully submitted to the grantmaker. The charges to the grantseeker and grantmaker are determined in the following order: First, check if there are any grantseeker introductory applications available. If so, use one and charge the grantseeker the introductory application rate (which is typically $0) and charge the grantmaker nothing. If there are no introductory applications available, check if there are any grantmaker introductory waivers available. If so, use one and charge the grantseeker nothing and charge the grantmaker the introductory waiver rate (which is typically $0). If there are no introductory waivers available, check if there are any grantmaker specific waivers issued to the grantseeker. If so, use one and charge the grantseeker nothing and charge the grantmaker the waiver rate. If there are no specific waivers available, check if a grantmaker general waiver has been issued to all grantseekers. If so, use one and charge the grantseeker nothing and charge the grantmaker the waiver rate. Finally, if none of the preceding is true, charge the grantseeker the application rate and charge the grantmaker nothing.

Introductory applications may be used as a credit by the grantseeker to pay for a single grant application (i.e. the grantseeker will pay nothing or a reduced fee for the grant application). Introductory applications may be provided to the grantseeker as part of their initial registration and opening their account with the Common Grant Application. The grantseeker will pay nothing, or a reduced fee for each introductory application that is used.

Grantmakers will pay a monthly asset-based subscription fee. The monthly subscription fee will start being charged when the grantmaker starts accepting grant applications for consideration. Grantmaker subscription fees are charged in advance for the upcoming month of service. Each billing cycle runs from the 1st of the month to the end of the month (either the 28th, 29th, 30th or 31st depending on the month). If the grantmaker starts accepting applications for consideration on the 1st of the month, the first charge will consist of one full month. Otherwise the first charge will consist of one full month, plus the pro-rated amount of the month the grantmaker joined. Subsequent charges will be made one full month at a time. The pro-rated month’s charged is calculated by dividing the subscription fee monthly rate by the number of days in the month, and then multiplying this by the number of days left in the month. For example, if the monthly subscription fee is $60 and the grantmaker starts accepting applications on the 10th of a month that is 30 days long the pro-rated subscription charge will be $60 divided by 30 and then multiplied by 20 days which equals $40.

To ask questions about specific grantmakers or grantseekers, their organizations, programs, or processes; or the status of any application or grant; please contact the grantmaker or grantseeker directly.

To ask questions or offer comments about the Common Grant Application Web site and its general usage or operation there are many ways to contact us. If the Web site isn't working properly (problem report), you've got a suggestion for an new feature or improvement (feature or documentation request) or you have a question and you've browsed the Web pages, looked at the FAQs and other resources under the Help tab and can't find an answer to your question (inquiry) you may send us an email, use our online support request system, or call us. Emails may be sent using our contact us form. The online support system is available only if you've logged in and may be reached by clicking on the Help -> Support Request tab. We may be reached by phone at: (310) 490-1277.

Our user agreement and privacy policies are posted on the Web site. The links to the policies may be found in the footer of any Web site page. Both policies must be accepted as part of the registration and login process to use the Select and Complete services. The user agreement and privacy policy also apply to the Basic services.

If you don't have all of the information you need at the time you are working on a page, you can save what you have and come back later to complete things. We will save your information. Any information that has been entered and saved or any documents that have been uploaded will always be available for future use or grant applications.

All successfully submitted applications and the real-time status of those applications is always visible to the grantseeker for review.

We support a number of ways to describe and maintain programs. Each program is described by a set of background, staff and budget information along with a set of uploaded documents specific to the program. The grantseeker can describe and maintain information for a single program, different versions of the same program or multiple, different programs. Programs may be copied to new programs, or to new versions of the same programs. Each of these new programs or versions may be edited and maintained separately from all other programs. This flexibility allows the grantseeker to reuse the same information for different grantmakers or use different information for different grantmakers.

The grantseeker creates an application by selecting a program, and a grantmaker that the selected program will be submitted to as an application. This process is repeated for each application. The grantseeker may easily reuse the same organization and program information to submit the same application to different grantmakers.

Yes. The Common Grant Application provides mechanisms for both grantseekers and grantmakers to upload and manage documents. Grantseekers may upload documents describing their organization and/or the various programs for which they are seeking funding. Grantmakers may upload documents describing their organization and/or the various funding and programmatic interests they support. These documents may be used for general informational purposes, to support grant applications or to support grant reporting and evaluation. Some document types that are can be uploaded include: general information, annual report, budget, staff, letters of support and commitment. Some document formats that are supported include: Word, Acrobat, Excel, and JPEG. Once uploaded, and depending on security and privacy settings, the documents may be opened and reviewed online by the general public, grantseekers and/or grantmakers.

The Common Grant Application provides an integrated and extensive set of real-time viewable reports and summaries. These reports and summaries are viewable online and include general, status and statistical information for grantseekers, grantmakers and grant applications. Depending on security and privacy settings, various types of reports and summaries with various levels of detail are viewable by the general public, grantseekers and/or grantmakers. Some types of reports and summaries include: summary of grantmaker organization and funding interests, statistical summary of grant applications received and approved by grantmaker, list of all grants made by grantmaker, summary of grantseeker organization and programs, grant applications with real-time status, grant management status and pending actions and many others. Additional reports may be easily added to the CGA services. All grantmaker and grantseeker application information may be exported in Excel, mySQL or Access formats for use by other commercial and custom software applications or business information systems.

The Common Grant Application (CGA) software was custom developed by the Common Grant Application. The CGA software may also be licensed for use by grantmakers that wish to host and manage the service themselves (although there may be less value to grantseekers that wish to research and apply to multiple grantmakers using the service). The CGA software uses Linux, Apache, mySQL, PHP (LAMP) technologies and it does not use any other commercial or custom developed software packages. The CGA software is hosted on a Linux server. The client does not require any special software. All that is required is a Web browser. The CGA software is tested against the Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari Web browsers.

The Common Grant Application (CGA) does not require any software other than a Web browser. It is accessible from the Internet and always available (other than during software, hardware and database maintenance periods). The service consists of the CGA software running on a Linux server connected to the Internet, online documentation describing how to use the service and access to customer support by Web-based forms, email, fax and telephone. It should also be noted that although it is an on-line application, the CGA service provides mechanisms for grantmakers that may receive paper based applications to enter those applications and supporting documents into the same database and workflow process as the online applications. Grantseekers can maintain information about multiple programs, and submit that information to one or more grantmakers as a grant application. The information does not need to be re-entered for each application. Grantmakers can specify a range of criteria about the type of applications they will consider, including: whether they accept solicited and/or unsolicited grant applications, funding interests by cause (e.g. environment, human services, etc.), type (operating, program, capital, etc.) and geography. Grant applications submitted by a grantseeker that do not meet the grantmaker specified criteria will not be presented to the grantmaker. The grantmaker can move the grant applications forward through a series of simple sequential steps (which may include rejection, approval, funding and/or evaluation) until completion. Changes in the status of the grant application are reported automatically to the grantseeker.

Yes. The Common Grant Application supports the entire grant making life cycle of: research, discovery and identification; solicitation, proposal or application; program or project; and reporting and evaluation for both grantseekers and grantmakers.

Some of the issues you should think about in comparing different grant application and management services are: features, performance, reliability and availability, security and privacy, ease of use, scale, flexibility and adaptability, pricing, support and ease of migration and integration.

First, click on the Register tab to create an account. After you've created the account click on the Login tab to login, setup your account and start entering information about your organization and programs. Detailed instructions about how to setup your account and enter information will be available after you log in.

These indicate that Common Grant Application is using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security mechanism to ensure the security and privacy of your communications with our server. Encryption mechanisms are used to guard against others intercepting your data, data integrity mechanisms are used to ensure your information has not been tampered with and authentication mechanisms using digital certificates are used to ensure that you are really communicating with whom you believe to be communicating with (i.e. us). The SSL security mechanism is not required to use the Basic services since there is no personally identifiable or private information gathered, maintained or transmitted for the Basic services. The SSL security mechanism is used for the Select services, Complete services and all billing and payment transactions. All billing and credit card payment transactions additionally meet the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards. These standards have been designed by the credit card industry to ensure the security and privacy of your credit card information.

Grant cycle dates start and end at 12:00am (midnight) Central Time. For example, if an application deadline for a grant cycle is May 1 the latest the grant application could be submitted for consideration for that grant cycle would be April 30 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.

Although this Web site and service are known as the "Common Grant Application" your credit card bill may show either the name "Common Grant Application" or "Oceanpeak, Inc". Common Grant Application is a brand name and Oceanpeak is the corporate entity that has developed and runs the Common Grant Application. The name you will see, depends on the particular credit card company.

"Cookies" are small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your web browser. Cookies are not used for this Web site's Basic services. The Basic services are all of the things you can view and do without logging in. Cookies are required to login to the Web site for the Select or Complete services. We use cookies for the Select and Complete services to ensure security and allow our software to manage your visit.

We use two types of cookies when you login. One is a session cookie, which lasts from the time you click on the Login tab until the time you click on the Logout tab (or 90 minutes from your last activity on the site, whichever comes first). If you exit your browser without clicking on the Logout tab, and you return to the website within 90 minutes from your last activity, we will remember you and you will not have to login again. If 90 minutes have passed since your last activity, you will have to login again.

The other type of cookie is a persistent cookie. This type of cookie is only used if you check the "Remember Me" box on the Login tab. This cookie will either last for 14 days or until you click the Logout tab. If you exit your browser without clicking on the Logout tab, and you return to the website within 14 days, we will remember you and you will not have to login again. If 14 days have passed since your last login, or you clicked the Logout tab, you will have to login again.

Note: If you are using a public or shared computer, please make sure to click the Logout tab when you're done working with our site. This will ensure the privacy of your organization's account and data. For similar reasons, we do not recommend checking the "Remember me for 2 weeks" box if you are using a public or shared computer.

Cookies for our website may not work if they are not properly enabled on your Web browser.

Performing a search from the public side of the Web site (i.e. before logging in) will only search the information on the public side of the Web site. It will not show any information that is available after logging in as a grantmaker or grantseeker. Performing a search from a private side of the Web site (i.e. after logging in) will currently only search the information on the public side of the Web site. In the future it will also search the information on the private side of the Web site to which you are logged in (i.e. if you are logged in as a grantseeker it will search the public and grantseeker sides of the Web site and if you are logged in as a grantmaker it will search the public and grantmaker sides of the Web site).

The maximum length of a search string may be 75 characters. Some common searchable words (e.g. “login”, “privacy”) may return many results. This is because those words may be in the header, navigation bar, footer or other parts of many pages. The most relevant results will be towards the top of the search results. If you’d like to narrow the search, use longer, more specific strings of words for your query.

We take the security of your credit card information very seriously. To that end, we have implemented a number of safeguards to protect this information. We use a variety of administrative, technical and physical measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.

Your credit card information is only shared with our banking service provider and the credit card processor or bank that you have chosen in order to complete on-line payment of applicable fees. It is not shared with other users or third-parties. We do not store any sensitive information on our own servers - it is stored with our credit card processor service provider. We pass your credit card information to our credit card processor service provider the first time you submit it using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security mechanism. At no time are any Common Grant Application personnel able to view a customer's complete credit card information. We store only a minimal amount of information (last 4 digits, type of card, and expiration date) about each transaction on our servers so that we may serve you if you contact us with questions about a transaction.

The Common Grant Application is a hosted service. The server is not hosted by the grantmaker or grantseeker. The Web site URL is www.commongrantapplication.com. There is no hardware or software to install, support or maintain. The CGA is hosted by a third party service provider at a data center in Dallas that hosts 20,000+ server blades with a wide range of backup, privacy, security, monitoring and performance options. Our backups are performed daily and transferred over a Virtual Private Network to an electronic vault in Seattle. Our solution provides a high degree of security, availability and reliability.

Secure password protected access is supported for every user account in the system. The user specifies their own user name and password when they register an account. The user may change their user name or password at their discretion. Grantseekers cannot access other grantseeker or grantmaker user accounts and grantmakers cannot access other grantmaker or grantseeker user accounts.

If a user forgets their password they may request an automatic resending of the password from the login page. The password will be sent to the email address associated with the user account.

When an application is submitted to a grantmaker, the information for the application and documents associated with the application are copied to the grantmakers account. The grantseeker can edit and change their information or supporting documents after an application has been submitted to a grantmaker, but their changes will not appear in the grantmakers version of the application or supporting documents. This is to ensure the integrity of the application (i.e. that it cannot be changed by the grantseeker without the grantmakers knowledge). The grantmaker can, at their discretion, edit and update all fields of a submitted application. Grantmakers that receive paper-based applications may also enter those paper-based applications and upload their supporting documents directly into the system, and make them part of the same database and workflow processes as the applications received from the Web.

The grantmaker can specify whether they have continuous or discrete grant cycles. If the grantmaker uses discrete grant cycles, they can specify one or more cycles and the following dates associated with each cycle: open date, close date, notification date and funding date. Cycles do not have to be equal in length and they can cross year end boundaries.

The system examines a number of filtering criteria specified by the grantmaker to determine if an application submitted by a grantseeker will be presented to a grantmaker for consideration. An application will be presented to the grantmaker if: the grantmaker accepts unsolicited applications or the grantmaker accepts solicited applications and the grantseeker has a valid invitation from the grantmaker and the application date falls between the open and close dates of the grantmakers grant cycle and the application meets the grantmaker’s funding interests by cause (e.g. environment, human services, etc.) and the application meets the grantmaker’s funding interest by type (operating, program, capital, etc.) and the application meets the grantmaker’s funding interest by geography (e.g. international, national, regional, etc.) and all required standard organization and program questions are answered and all required supplemental organization and program questions are answered. If the application does not meet any of the specified criteria, it will not be presented to the grantmaker. Criteria specified by one grantmaker, are completely independent of criteria specified by another grantmaker.

The Common Grant Application offers two types of questions. Standard questions and supplemental questions. The standard questions are fixed and cannot be changed by the grantmaker. The standard questions were selected after extensive review of dozens of applications used by regional associations of grantmakers and individual grantmakers. We believe the standard questions are the most common questions asked by grantmakers. Certain blocks of standard questions can be specified by the grantmaker as required, optional or not required. Required questions must be answered, optional questions may be answered and if they are answered the answers will be passed on to the grantmaker. The supplemental questions can be specified by the grantmaker. The system currently allows supplemental questions to be asked about the grantseeker’s organization, and supplemental questions to be asked about the grantseeker’s program(s). The purpose of these questions is to allow the grantmaker to ask questions that may not be asked in the standard questions. The grantmaker can specify whether an answer to each question is required, optional or not required and the maximum allowable length of an answer to each question. Supplemental questions asked by one grantmaker, are independent of supplemental questions asked by another grantmaker.

We use the agile software development model. We deploy new features, enhancements and fixes on an ongoing basis as they become available and after they have been thoroughly tested. Our software is developed on a local, Windows based environment that runs the Linux, Apache, mySQL and PHP (LAMP) operating environment. After development and testing on the local operating environment, the software is checked in to a configuration management system on our server. The software is then checked out and deployed on our development Web site. The development Web site is not for general usage but operates in exactly the same manner as our production Web site. We then continue testing on our development Web site using the same operating environment as our production Web site. After the completion of testing on the development Web site, the software is then deployed to the production Web site. Deployment of new upgrades and updates is done without affecting the service availability of the production system. It is at this point that new features, enhancements and fixes become available to our users. Additional testing occurs as a result of the day-to-day usage of our system by users. If a user needs support, we make it easy for them to communicate with us. We may be contacted by phone, email, fax and also by a Web-based form.

Service availability is a combination of the user’s network availability, our hosting provider’s network availability, hosting provider’s hardware availability and our software availability. We haven’t formally measured our service availability, but we have not had any unscheduled or reported down time from any users.

Our hosting provider automatically monitors the availability of our Web site, and automatically notifies us if the server is not operating correctly. Our hosting provider also maintains an inventory of cold standby server blades, which in conjunction with our online offsite backups, can be used to restore service quickly if there is a catastrophic server failure. We currently have the following Service Level Agreement with our hosting provider:

Public Network: Our hosting provider guarantees 99.9% uptime on all Public Network services to Customers located in their data centers. All Public Network services include redundant carrier grade internet backbone connections, advanced intrusion detection systems, denial of service mitigation, traffic analysis, and detailed bandwidth graphs.

Private Network: Our hosting provider guarantees 99.9% uptime on the service network services to Customers located in their data centers. All Private Network services include access to the secure VPN connection, unlimited bandwidth between servers, unlimited uploads/downloads to servers, access to contracted services, traffic analysis, and detailed bandwidth graphs.

Redundant Infrastructure: Our hosting provider guarantees 99.9% uptime on the power and HVAC services to Customers located in their data centers. All computer equipment and related services are served by redundant UPS power units with backup onsite diesel generators.

Hardware: Our hosting provider guarantees the replacement of failed hardware and hardware components located within their data centers. Our hosting provider guarantees a failed hardware component will be replaced within four hours of Customer notification in the trouble ticketing system. Replacement of failed hardware does not include time required to reload the operating system or applications.

Our hosting provider’s SLA offers coverage for their network availability and hardware availability. They cannot offer an SLA for our user’s network availability or our software availability. Again, we have had no unscheduled or reported down time from our users. Software and database updates are typically performed during runtime, so it is rare that we have to shutdown system access for maintenance. When we shutdown system access, it is usually for a short period on a weekend late in the evening during minimal usage periods.

Support is offered during normal business hours (Monday through Friday between 8:00 – 5:00 PST). If a user needs support, we make it easy for them to communicate with us. We may be contacted by phone, email, fax and also by a Web-based form. We monitor email and the Web-based form outside of normal business hours. As described above, we have found there is a minimal need for technical support. There is no hardware or software to install or maintain, and the site is designed for easy navigation and use.

There are no setup, installation, training or maintenance fees for the Common Grant Application.

A design goal of the Common Grant Application has been to ensure the navigation and user interface are very simple and can be used successfully by people with a wide range of computer and Web skills. The Common Grant Application currently has thousands of user accounts, and to date, we have had very few support requests. Most users have opened and used their account by simply reading the instructions on the site. The site is designed for easy navigation and use. The page layout and contents are designed to have a consistent look and feel. Each page provides detailed instructions on usage. There is a Quick Start page which provides a simple and short summary of the steps necessary to setup and start using an account. The Quick Start page also contains a checklist the user may use to monitor their progress. The grantmaker portion of the site also provides a narrated video tutorial that shows grantmakers how to setup and use their account. If a user needs support, we make it easy for them to communicate with us. We may be contacted by phone, email, fax and also by a Web-based form. We do not charge any training fees.

The Common Grant Application is a hosted solution. The grantmaker and grantseeker do not need to install, support or maintain any hardware or software. The only requirement to use the system is that a user has access to a Web browser. The Common Grant Application will maintain and support the hardware and software on its server(s) as needed. The Common Grant Application is constantly improving and adding new features and capabilities. Software and database upgrades are generally performed without any disruption to our Web site’s availability (i.e. the systems architecture allows us to update the software and database on a running system). Backup operations are also performed without any need to disrupt the sites availability. We do not charge any maintenance or support fees.

Each grantmaker or grantseeker account may have one or more users. There is no limit on the number of users for each grantseeker or grantmaker account. Each user may have different permissions within the account. We do not charge any per user fees.

The system uses a non-linear workflow model for the grantseeker. The grantseeker may register on the Web site and then enter their organizational and program information in any order and over any time frame they wish. Any information that has been entered and saved or any documents that have been uploaded will always be available for future use or applications. The grantseeker may also research and review grantmakers, funding interests, guidelines and deadlines at their own discretion. Once a grantmaker has been identified, the grantseeker may submit an application through a few simple sequential steps. Applications will not be submitted by the system to grantmakers unless they contain the grantmaker’s required information and pass the grantmaker’s funding interests and other filtering criteria. Changes in the status of the application are reported automatically to the grantseeker by email and updated on the Web site in real-time.

The system uses a combined non-linear and linear workflow model for the grantmaker. The grantmaker may register on the Web site and then enter their organization, interests, funding focus and other information in any order and over any time frame they wish. Any information that has been entered and saved or any documents that have been uploaded will always be available for future use.

The grantmaker may enter the following individual and organization contact information: name, mailing address, phone, fax, email, Web address, etc. The grantmaker may enter the following organization information: mission, history, names and titles of key staff, tax identification number, non-profit status, year established, Web listings, detailed staffing information for 1 to 5 years, general budget and grantmaking information for 1 to 5 years and other information. The grantmaker may enter the following information about their areas of program and activity interest: focus area of funding (e.g. environment, human services, etc.), types of funding (operating, program, capital, etc.), geographic location and scope of funding (e.g. international, national, regional, etc.). The focus areas of funding, types of funding and geographic areas of funding may be specified on a scale of interest (high, medium, low or yes, maybe, no). Multiple areas of program and activity interest may be specified with different levels of interest. The grantmaker may also enter narrative information about application guidelines, evaluation and reporting guidelines and other advisories that are visible to the grantseeker. The grantmaker may also upload documents for the organization.

Grantseekers may review the grantmakers organization, interests, funding focus information. If visible, the grantseekers may also look at the grantmakers aggregate application statistics and the summarized form of the general application status information. Most of this above information is sortable and filterable by the grantseeker, and can be used by the grantseeker to research and identify grantmakers that have interests that are aligned with the interests of the grantseeker. This process greatly improves the discovery and research process of the grantseeker.

Grantmakers will not be able to receive applications until a certain minimal amount of information is completed. Applications are moved forward through a few simple sequential steps (which may include rejection, approval, funding and/or evaluation) until completion. Changes in the status of the application are reported automatically to the grantseeker by email and updated on the Web site in real-time.

Grantseekers can maintain information about their organization as well as information about one or more of their organization’s programs. This information can then be submitted to one or more grantmakers as an application. The information may be reused and does not need to be re-entered for each application.

The grantseeker may enter the following individual and organization contact information: name, mailing address, phone, fax, email, Web address, etc. The grantseeker can also provide similar information for their fiscal agent (if any). The grantseeker may enter the following organization information: mission, history, names and titles of key staff, tax identification number, non-profit status, year established, Web listings, detailed staffing information for 1 to 5 years, detailed budget information (income and expense and balance sheets) for 1 to 5 years and other information. The grantseeker may enter the following program information: name or title of the program or project, focus area, Web address, amount and type of funding requested, requested grant cycle, geographic location and scope, short description, general description, goals and objectives, why it is important, activities that will be performed, outcomes, detailed staffing information for 1 to 5 years, detailed budget information (income and expense sheets) for 1 to 5 years and other information. The grantseeker may also upload documents for the organization as well as for each separate program.

Grantmakers cannot access other grantmaker or grantseeker user accounts. They cannot edit or change any information other than their own. However, they can edit or change any information on applications they have received.

We support a number of ways to describe and maintain programs. Each program is described by a set of background, staff and budget information along with a set of uploaded documents specific to the program. The grantseeker can describe and maintain information for a single program, different versions of the same program or multiple, different programs. Programs may be copied to new programs, or to new versions of the same programs. Each of these new programs or versions may edited and maintained separately from all other programs. This flexibility allows the grantseeker to reuse the same information for different grantmakers or use different information for different grantmakers.

We provide eligibility quiz functionality, without a separate and explicit eligibility quiz. The system examines a number of filtering criteria specified by the grantmaker to determine if an application submitted by a grantseeker will be presented to a grantmaker for consideration. If the application does not meet any of the specified criteria, it will not be presented to the grantmaker. The list of criteria is visible to the grantseeker.

Grantseekers can maintain information about their organization as well as information about one or more of their organization’s programs. Grantseekers may enter their organizational and program information in any order and over any time frame they wish. The information may be reused and does not need to be re-entered for each application. A grantseeker creates an application by selecting a program, and a grantmaker that the selected program will be submitted to as an application. The system automatically binds together the organization and program information to construct an application when it is successfully submitted to the grantmaker. This method allows maximum flexibility and re-use of the information.

All standard questions are visible to the grantseeker at all times. Supplemental questions are viewable as needed. To view supplemental questions for a particular grantmaker, the grantseeker selects the grantmaker, and that grantmaker’s supplemental questions then become visible. All questions may be viewed before any information is entered. Grantseekers may enter their organizational and program information in any order and over any time frame they wish. Any information that has been entered and saved or any documents that have been uploaded will always be available for future use or applications.

Grantmakers that receive paper-based applications may enter those paper-based applications and upload their supporting documents directly into the system, and make them part of the same database and workflow processes as the applications received from the Web. We do not charge any fees for paper-based applications entered by grantmakers.

Applications can be printed directly by using the Web browser print function. Applications may also be printed by opening an application, exporting the application to a PDF file and then printing the PDF file. Applications contain identifying information; grantseeker and grantmaker contact information; grantseeker organization background, budget, staff and supplemental questions information; grantseeker organization documents; grantseeker program background, budget, staff information and supplemental information; grantseeker program documents; status and evaluation information; and payment information.

The system generates a number of automatic emails, depending on the settings of both the grantseeker and the grantmaker. Emails are automatically generated to the grantseeker acknowledging that an application has been successfully submitted to a grantmaker, whenever the status of an application changes (i.e. it has been approved, rejected, deferred, etc.) and every time a charge has been made to their account. Emails are automatically generated to the grantmaker whenever an application has been received from a grantseeker and every time a charge has been made to their account. All emails point back to the Web site for more detailed information.

The more detailed information is available after a user logs in. It is updated in real-time. The information has fixed and customizable fields. If an application is rejected or deferred, the grantmaker can specify the reason for the rejection or deferral. A short text reason as well as longer narrative text reason is configurable by the grantmaker. The system supplied reasons are usable by all grantmakers. The grantmaker may review, but not edit, the system supplied reasons. The grantmaker may also add and edit reasons that are only visible to the specific grantmaker. The system supplied and grantmaker supplied reasons are available for use by the grantmaker every time they reject or defer an application.

Grantmakers can change and manage the status of an application by receiving, accepting, rejecting and deferring an application. Additional status information related to non-profit status check, OFAC check and grant reports check can also be changed and managed. Emails are automatically generated to the grantseeker acknowledging that an application has been successfully submitted to a grantmaker and whenever the status of an application changes (i.e. it has been approved, rejected, deferred, etc.).

Grantmakers can enter funding decisions by accepting an application and indicating the amount approved, payment schedule and whether a grant report is required or not. Approval of an application will automatically generate an email to the grantseeker indicating the status of their application has changed (i.e. it has been approved).

The Common Grant Application does not support application forms per se. Grantseekers can maintain information about their organization as well as information about one or more of their organization’s programs. A grantseeker creates an application by selecting a program, and a grantmaker that the selected program will be submitted to as an application. The system automatically binds together the organization and program information to construct an application when it is successfully submitted to the grantmaker. There is no limit on the number of programs a grantseeker can specify.

There is no limit on the number of applications that may be submitted to a grantmaker.

Each document uploaded by the grantseeker and submitted as part of an application is viewable by the grantmaker directly from their Web browser. Each viewable document is hyperlinked, and may be viewed by simply clicking on that hyperlink. The document may then either be opened for viewing or saved to the local environment of the grantmaker.

Single applications can be converted in PDF document and then saved locally.

The grantmaker may export all or portions of the application information into Excel files. These Excel files then may be opened for viewing or saved to the local environment of the grantmaker. The grantmaker manages the export of application information by selecting either a standard or custom view of the application listings. These views determine the fields of the application that are displayed on the application listings. The standard view provides a pre-defined list of fields that are viewable. The custom view allows the grantmaker to select which fields they would like to see in the application listing. Each listing then may be filtered by additional criteria. The resulting listing of one or more applications may then be exported into Excel.

There is no annual fee or commitment. Grantmakers are only charged a monthly subscription fee after they choose to start receiving applications from grantseekers. Grantmakers pay on a month by month basis, for the upcoming month of service. They may close their account at any time.

Grantseekers are only charged on a per application basis. They may close their account at any time.

There is no charge to add or close/delete grantmaker or grantseeker accounts.

Grantmakers can register, login, explore and setup their account and profile for free. The grantmaker will only be charged their monthly subscription fee when they choose to start receiving applications from grantseekers.

Grantseekers can register, login, explore and setup their account and profile for free. The grantseeker will only be charged their per application fee if an application has been successfully submitted to the grantmaker.

We are constantly updating and upgrading the capabilities of our system. We use the agile software development model. We deploy new features, enhancements and fixes on an ongoing basis as they become available and after they have been thoroughly tested. Generally speaking, deployment of new upgrades and updates is done without affecting the service availability of the Web site.

Many of the Common Grant Application pages are information rich. If you would like to increase or decrease the font size on the pages to make viewing easier follow the instructions below for your browser.

• Mozilla Firefox:
• Select "View" on the top menu bar.
• Select "Text Size" on the dropdown menu.
• Select "Increase" or "Decrease" as needed.
• Internet Explorer:
• Select "Page" on the control bar.
• Select "Zoom" on the dropdown menu.
• Select a percentage or "Zoom In" or "Zoom Out" as needed.

Please note, for some pages increasing the font size will make the page wider than the browser window. In that case a scroll bar will appear at the bottom of your browser. That bar can be used to move left and right across the page.

To turn on or enable cookies, follow the instructions at: Login -> Cookies.

The server is hosted in the Central time zone, so time stamps are using Central time. Time zones, from west to east, are Hawaii, Hawaii-Aleutian, Alaska, Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern.

Grantmakers that receive paper-based applications may enter those paper-based applications and upload their supporting documents directly into the system, and make them part of the same database and workflow processes as the applications received from the Web. Grantmakers will not be charged any fees to enter or maintain paper-based applications.

The system offers RSS feeds for the Grantseekers->List Grantseekers and Grantmakers->List Grantmakers pages. Any browser that supports RSS will have an icon that appears or lights up when it is on either of the preceding pages. Clicking on the icon will take you to the RSS feed. The RSS feed will have settings that you can configure to allow you to subscribe to the feed, pull updates periodically, etc.

The system currently offers three mechanisms for evaluating applications. The mechanism that is used may be configured. There are two rating mechanisms and one ranking mechanism. In all cases it is also possible for notes and comments to be entered for each application. One or more account users may be allowed / required to provide application evaluations. The evaluations may be visible to all other application evaluators, or only by the account owner.

Grantmakers can register, login, explore and setup their account and profile for free. They can do this for any period of time (e.g. hours, days, months) and they will only be charged their monthly subscription fee when they choose to start receiving applications from grantseekers. Even after they choose to start receiving applications, their first month's subscription is free.

Grantseekers can register, login, explore and setup their account and profile for free. They can do this for any period of time (e.g. hours, days, months) and they will only be charged their per application fee if it an application has been successfully submitted to the grantmaker.

Grantseeker application charges, if any, will be made to the grantseeker's credit card at the time an application is successfully submitted to the grantmaker.

Grantmaker subscription charges, if any, will be made to the grantmaker's credit card on the 1st of each month. Grantmaker waiver charges, if any, will be accumulated at the time an application is successfully submitted to the grantmaker until the 1st of the following month. Any accumulated waiver charges from the preceding month will be made to the grantmaker's credit card on the 1st of the month, at the same time the subscription charges are made to their credit card.

At the time a grantmaker approves an application they may specify if a grant report is required at the completion of the grant. The grantseeker may upload one or more grant reports (e.g. interim, end of year, final). The reports are associated with a specific application. The grantmaker may be informed as these reports are received. These reports are then available like all other uploaded documents for online review by the grantmaker.

The standard questions have various length limits for their answers. These limits may range from 100's of characters to 1000's of characters. These limits are not configurable by the grantmaker. The supplemental questions are specified by the grantmaker. The grantmaker may configure the length limits for the answers to the supplemental questions.

The system architecture and database are very flexible. We would be happy to discuss the development of connectors between our system and other grant management systems. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.

The grantseeker and grantmaker are not charged anything for the submission of a LOI.