Comparison

What types of tools and systems are available to manage grants and scholarships?

There are many tools and systems available to manage grant and scholarships. They break down into the following types...

• Traditional and labor-intensive approaches using application templates, Email, Word, document storage, spreadsheets.
• Systems that are general purpose forms and/or application building systems that can be purposed for grant applications and management with some administrative capabilities.
• Systems that are general purpose form building systems for surveys, quizzes, etc. that can be purposed as grant applications with minimal administrative capabilities.
• Submission systems that are more general purpose but can be used as grant application and management systems.
• Systems that are primarily oriented toward nonprofit management systems, although they can potentially be used as a grant management system.
• Purpose-built grant management systems for small to large grantmakers with simple to complicated needs.
• Purpose-built grant management systems for large grantmakers with complicated needs.

Most of these are not purpose built and are unlikely to provide the ease and efficiency you want, and truly do the things you need.

How do we compare with our competitors' businesses and pricing?

Our competitors offer a combination of general purpose and purpose built systems.

All product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

Our industry, driven by private equity, is consolidating and many competitors are buying or merging with each other. There is less choice becoming available and as private equity looks for a return on their investment and future liquidity our competitors will likely feel pressure to reduce expenses and raise prices.

How do we compare with our competitors' features and performance?

There are many different ways to compare grant management software. We use the following high level framework to inform our thinking and plan future product development efforts.

We don't try to be everything to everyone. We have deliberately decided not to provide some features, specifically donation management, volunteer management, event management, financial management, budget management, scenario analysis, accounting management, bookkeeping management, risk management, and investment management. There are excellent dedicated tools for each of those already, and we don't feel it is in our user's interests to reinvent the wheel. We're focused on keeping things simple. Keeping things simple means faster implementation, lower cost, less to learn, and less likely obsolescence.

What makes us different?

We're very experienced at grantmaking and understand how it is done. Our other life has been running a family foundation for 25 years. During that time we've come into contact with hundreds of grantmakers and thousands of applicants. Their stories have informed our approach of what we are trying to do at the Common Grant Application. We're considered reliable and trustworthy by everybody that deals with us.

We don't try to be everything to everyone. Our system provides the basics but some more complicated functionality we leave to external applications (e.g. accounting, business intelligence, etc.). We provide an easy way to get the information out of our system (so that it can be used in more full-featured and supported external applications) or to use an AI assistant. This helps keep the complexity of our system down, and in turn helps keep the prices down.

Even with this philosophy we believe we offer a complete system, with great support, at a good price, which is another way of saying we offer great value. We don't try to lock you in, if you don't like what we do, you can leave easily and quickly although that has never happened. Occasionally we've had grantmakers leave our system, but that has generally been because of the evolution of their business, and the need to do some more complicated things that we can't do or won't do to maintain to remain true to our mission.

What's our value?

Our system is simple and easy to use. Our system will do all of the things you typically need to do for grant and scholarship management, more quickly, at a good price, with less to learn and allow you to focus on the many other things you must do for your organization. If you have a question, contact us by email or phone, and we'll get back to you quickly. We have a great reputation for the support we provide. Everything you need is in one place, and available from anywhere, anytime. Your applicants will thank you for making their life easier.

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