How to Build a Corporate Grants Management System

Grants given by non-government entities used to be almost exclusively the property of large foundations, which have traditionally been run by corporations and uber-wealthy families.

However, a lot of things in the CSR (corporate social responsibility) universe have changed over the past few decades. Many companies now routinely use strategic corporate grants as critical parts of their broader CSR strategies. 

Because corporate grants come with extensive recordkeeping obligations, having an effective grants management system to support such programs is critical. We’ll share a few tips for building a corporate grants management operation and highlight features you should look for when choosing a CSR platform.

Table of Contents:

• What Is a Grants Management System?
• What Should Your Grants Management Software Support?
• Grants Management Hurdles Your Software Should Neutralize
• Are Corporate Grants Programs Worth It?
• Start Your Corporate Grants Journey with Groundswell

What Is a Grants Management System?

A grants management system refers to the software and other digital tools a grantmaking entity uses to carry out every stage of the grants process. Even corporate grants that seem quite simple on the surface end up having countless moving parts that make management difficult without a centralized platform.

If you’re reading this blog and your employer has already awarded grants to one or more nonprofits, you’ve likely been using shared online spreadsheets or other free systems for grants management. Manually logging every action can work for some businesses, but grants’ complexity can scale extremely quickly.

What Should Your Grants Management Software Support?

Every company has unique goals for their corporate grants and broader CSR strategies. Therefore, your employer probably has varied pain points and technological needs that may not be satisfied by some of the CSR platforms on the market.

When it comes to building a grant management software or system, you shouldn’t have to construct anything from scratch. Most effective CSR platforms work quite well out of the box; they also offer robust customizations while remaining intuitive. In other words, let someone else handle app construction and programming—the “building” part—so your team can focus on high-level strategy.

As you weigh your platform options, make sure the contenders support each of the following phases of the grant management process.

Application

The first stage of the corporate grants lifecycle is the grant application. During this phase, your team must set the award criteria, build customized applications, and spread the word to nonprofit channels and networks.

Any halfway decent CSR platform should let grantmaking entities (in this case, companies) customize already-robust application templates. You and your team should set non-negotiable requirements that automatically filter out applicants who lack them, saving time and cognitive energy.

It’s also crucial to have a centralized, easy-to-access repository for applications and supporting documents. Manually pulling email attachments into applicants’ files can get tedious, time-consuming, and prone to human error.

Selection

The second phase of the grantmaking lifecycle is the selection or award phase, which is made easier by automated application scoring. You’ll notify the winner and send empathetic letters of regret to those who didn’t make the cut.

Communication tools come in handy during this phase, and your corporate grants management system should offer an automated notification system for all involved parties. Just as importantly, your system must keep collaborations and sensitive information secure with strict user permissions.

Fund Disbursement

After evaluating applications and selecting the grantee, the two parties must agree on the underlying contract. This agreement informs every action both sides will take until the grant officially closes out. Your employer will probably send a fraction of the total grant amount at first and continue at regular intervals. 

Reporting and Compliance

Those gaps between funding rounds give the grantee opportunities to submit requested documentation, keeping the overall agreement on track. The post-award phase is all about ensuring both parties keep their end of the bargain. A successful corporate grant process is mutually beneficial and produces real results for constituents.

Grants Management Hurdles Your Software Should Neutralize

At its core, any good grant management system solves operational problems. You and your CSR (or HR) team must set the high-level strategy, but everything else shouldn't come with too many headaches.

If you encounter any roadblocks, it might be one of these:

Large Number of Applications

A sizable percentage of nonprofits and foundations lack reliable funding sources these days, so you should expect a flood of applications after you publicize your employer’s grant opportunity. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can put a lot of work on your team’s plate if your management system doesn’t have automated application scoring and filtering.

Manual Vetting of Nonprofits

If you haven’t had much exposure to the CSR or nonprofit world, most nonprofits are probably unfamiliar to you. Institutional knowledge will come with time and experience, but in the interim, it helps to have a proven system for vetting nonprofits and other applicants.

Groundswell’s grants management software integrates with Candid’s GuideStar navigation, which vets IRS-recognized organizations and compiles supporting documents.

Unclear Fund Distribution Timelines

When the grantmaking team tries to track milestones via emails and Slack messages, some events are certain to slip through the cracks. A digital paper trail that notes every action by either party means you don’t have to spend hours combing through inboxes wondering who sent what, and when.

Spare or Non-Existent Impact Reporting

Investors and executives want proof that companies’ grants create tangible impacts for both fund recipients and businesses themselves. They need robust data that confirms real results from CSR programs, which is hard to achieve without a grants management platform with built-in reporting.

Are Corporate Grants Programs Worth It?

If grants management sounds like more trouble than it’s worth, you’d certainly be forgiven. You and your coworkers probably don’t have much spare time as it stands. 

But countless studies confirm that CSR programs have become essential for survival in today's business landscape.

• Having a strong corporate purpose is vital for cultivating a resilient brand, according to studies from Porter Novelli.
• A large meta-analysis of 158 discrete studies shows that publicly visible CSR programs strongly correlate with improved financial performance.
• Three-quarters of employees today expect their employers to participate in community-based corporate philanthropy.

If nothing else, a strategic corporate grants program will create lasting impressions in your community and, hopefully, change at least one person’s life.

Start Your Corporate Grants Journey with Groundswell

A good grants management system takes care of mundane tasks and administrative paperwork while you get to focus on higher-level CSR objectives. Although your team needs a platform that allows sufficient customization, learning the system shouldn’t take weeks.

Groundswell offers a corporate grants management system that works out of the box, with a minimal learning curve. All your documents and communications are in one place, so you don’t have to waste time tracking them down. 

In addition to corporate grants, Groundswell’s all-in-one CSR software supports:

• Employee volunteering
• Employee-matching gifts
• Corporate philanthropy
• Employee resource groups (ERGs)
• Employee assistance funds (EAFs)
• Donor-advised funds (DAFs)

Ready to see how it works? Your personalized demo is waiting!