Case Studies
The Common Grant Application® system can be used by grantmakers that manage from a few to thousands of applications per year. It can be used by those foundations and other organization looking for their first grant management system as well as those looking to replace an existing system. Information in your existing system can be easily moved to the Common Grant Application. For those that have a large investment in an existing system, the Common Grant Application can become a front-end to that system to better manage the online application, evaluation and reporting processes of the existing system. Case studies of some grantmakers using the Common Grant Application follow.
The Lawrence Foundation
The Lawrence Foundation is a private family foundation focused on making grants to support environment, human services and other causes. Grants are awarded twice a year. The Lawrence Foundation was established in 2000.By 2005 the foundation was receiving over 400 paper-based applications per year. It was using a small homegrown Access database and Excel spreadsheets to manage its application process. The foundation decided this was taking too much time and energy and looked at online grant management solutions. It found the solutions offered at that time were generally too complicated and expensive for its needs. The foundation custom designed and developed its own online grant management software in 2005 that allowed applicants to use a Web browser to apply to the foundation. This solution worked well, but had a number of limitations.
The foundation decided to move to the Common Grant Application in 2007. The data from its existing proprietary system was exported into an Excel spreadsheet. This information was then mapped and imported into the Common Grant Application. All previous applicants were provided accounts with access to the applications they had previously submitted. On a going forward basis the foundation used the Common Grant Application to manage all of its grantmaking process.
See how The Lawrence Foundation links back to the Common Grant Application login and statistics.
See a Common Grant Application profile of The Lawrence Foundation.
Testimonials
Mission
Our mission is to simplify the art and science of giving for grantmakers and applicants.
History
The idea of the Common Grant Application® system came out of our experience working in the technology industry, founding and running a family foundation, and having college-aged children.
Jeff Lawrence previously co-founded Trillium Digital Systems, a company that developed and licensed standards based communications software. At the time Trillium was founded most computer and communications systems were proprietary and closed. Equipment manufacturers did this to ensure their customers remained captive to their equipment and could not easily interconnect or move to other manufacturer's equipment. Customers found this problematic and started pressuring the telecommunications industry to open up its products so that equipment from different manufacturers could interconnect and communicate seamlessly. A necessary and prior step to open systems was agreement on the standards and protocols that would be used to communicate between the equipment. These standards and protocols were developed by engineers from industry and government that participated in different international, national and industry standards bodies. Trillium was involved in the specification, development and implementation of these standards and then developed and licensed software to telecommunications equipment manufactuers to realize the vision of open, standards based communications systems.
Jeff founded The Lawrence Foundation after Trillium was acquired by Intel Corporation in 2000. The foundation has received over 10000 applications from applicants and made over 500 grants since its inception. These applications have been received by mail, email, and the Web. Over the years, we spoke to many applicants and grantmakers. This led us to the conclusion that the grantmaking process, for both applicants and grantmakers, was very inefficient, expensive, opaque and time-consuming. It seemed a lot of resources were being used to try and match those seeking money with those that have the money. Our family foundation was being inundated with paper applications as we reached our grant cycle deadlines. In an effort to simplify and streamline the grantmaking process, we started development in 2005 of an online application. We started using the online application in 2006 and it proved to be a very efficient way to receive and manage grant applications. Applicants also reported high levels of satisfaction because of its accessibility, simplicity, and the higher degree of responsiveness from us, the grantmaker.
As one of our children prepared to enter college, we became familiar with the Common Application used by college-bound students to apply to colleges and universities. The Common Application allows a college-bound student to fill out a single application and then submit that single application to multiple colleges. Hundreds of colleges participate in the Common Application and both the students and colleges find it an efficient way to manage the college application process.
The combination of these three parallel paths - technology, the family foundation, and college-aged children – led us to the idea of developing the Common Grant Application.
We took the concepts and work that we developed for the foundation's online application and what we learned from our users to expand the concept and its implementation to develop a hosted grant management system for grantmakers and a common application for applicants. The first beta users (one grantmaker and its applicants) started using the Common Grant Application at the end of 2007.
Investors
The Common Grant Application® system is a project of Oceanpeak, Inc., which is a privately held California corporation incorporated in May of 2007 and located in Santa Monica, California. The Common Grant Application has no outside investors. It is currently funded entirely by its co-founders.
Jeff Lawrence. Jeff is a co-founder and President of the Common Grant Application®; founder, President, and CEO of Clivia Systems; founder and Trustee of The Lawrence Foundation; and former Board Director of Guidance Software.
Clivia Systems provides business and technology advisory services.
The Lawrence Foundation is a family foundation that makes grants to non-profit environmental, education, health, human services, and other causes. The foundation has made grants of over $5.5 million since its inception. Guidance Software (NASDAQ:GUID) provides software to government, corporate, and law enforcement organizations to conduct network-enabled and court-validated computer investigations. Jeff formerly served as Chief Technology Officer of Intel's Network Communications Group and was also the co-founder, President, and CEO of Trillium Digital Systems (which was acquired by Intel in 2000). Trillium developed and licensed communications software to telecommunications equipment manufacturers. Jeff has over 40 years of experience in the development of software, hardware, and systems for wireless, broadband, Internet, and telephone networks and Web applications. Jeff received a BS in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 1979. Jeff was co-recipient of the Greater Los Angeles Entrepreneur of the Year award and the UCLA School of Engineering's Professional Achievement award. Jeff sits on a number of advisory boards and writes and speaks on technology, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, economics, and ethics. Jeff lives in Santa Monica, CA.
Lori Mitchell. Lori is a co-founder and Vice President of the Common Grant Application® and Executive Director of The Lawrence Foundation.
The Lawrence Foundation is a family foundation that makes grants to non-profit environmental, human services and other causes. Lori has managed over 17,000 grant applications and over $5.5 million of grants for the foundation. Prior to The Lawrence Foundation, Lori worked at Trillium Digital Systems where she served in Web development, senior administrative, and marketing roles. Lori received a bachelor's degree in Art History from The University of Colorado at Denver in 1992. Lori lives in Steamboat Springs, CO.
Darren Munk. Darren is the Director, Web Application Development of the Common Grant Application®.
He is focused on web application development, site usability, internet marketing, and systems administration. Darren has been building data-driven websites since 1997 for a wide variety of organizations in a number of industries. Darren has worked for Investor's Business Daily, Metal Toad Media and other companies. Darren received a BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of California, San Diego in 1999, and an MBA from San Diego State University in 2006. Darren lives in Walnut Creek, CA.