Spark by Benevity is workplace and corporate charity software that allows business users to manage open-choice online giving, gift matching and volunteering. Benevity was founded in 2008 and is based in Calgary, Canada.
N/A
Submittable
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Submittable offers tools to launch, measure, and grow social impact programs, locally and globally. From grants and scholarships to awards and CSR programs, Submittable partners with users to make a difference. The vendor states Submittable has supported over 95,000 social impact programs, receiving nearly 20 million applications, and that teams save an average of 12 hours per week and launch in an average of 14 days.
Benevity Spark delivers particularly well for companies with a modern volunteer rewards plus donation matching program. The platform is designed to maximize employee-directed rewards and matching for community impact. Companies without volunteer rewards or donation matching may find limited employee engagement benefits from the Spark experience.
Submittable is great for grant management, grantmaking, and scholarship awards. It's a very useful tool also when there are multiple reviewers and committees involved in the assessment of the application. The table feature is helpful, but to download the information in a usable report is a pain. Overall a very useful tool for funding.
Benevity Spark offers a clean and intuitive user experience designed to promote employee engagement in the community. Employees experience a modern user interface and easy access to the programs and tools behind the application.
Benevity Spark empowers program administrators with detailed customization options to fit every company program. From smart user entitlements/permissions to robust customizable management reports, Spark allows global program administrators to efficiently manage large programs.
The Benevity Spark user interface uses responsive web design, rendering a beautiful user experience on mobile, tablet, or laptop screens. Benevity Spark allows for ample opportunity for alignment to company branding and visual elements.
Benevity Spark is in the process of building a global network for nonprofit organization vetting. While that process has made significant progress, the global landscape made up of millions of nonprofit orgs across scores of countries remains a great challenge. The Benevity cause vetting and onboarding teams are making progress, but there is a lot of ground yet to cover.
It used to be easier to download submission files from the submissions screen; now, you have to run a report and request a download.
Giving access to reviewers could be easier. It would be nice if we could create the email account and password and then give that to the reviewer. Right now, the invites are often junk, spam, or quarantine.
Submittable is easy to use for our applicants, streamlines the grantmaking process and provides structures for a range of reviewers on our panels. i like that you continue to come up with new tools, although I wish many didn't come with additional costs.
Submittable is very user-friendly. As both a application builder and an applicant myself I find the system intuitive and easy. Many pre-populated questions allow a grant administrator to build an application quickly. The start-up time we first joined as a Submittable client was fast, too. Submittable does not take much time for a first-time user to understand.
We have thankfully never experienced an outage nor been affected by a technology issue on Submittable's side that has delayed our grant process. We have instead been able to distribute over $6M in donated dollars to AAPI small business owners because Submittable is trustworthy and available
We've had a quick and efficient submittable experience that has always been easy to use. When we need a report it downloads within seconds, even the larger reports are 30 seconds or less to download. Pages are quick to load and reports complete in a more than reasonable time frame
I think that they are good at answering our questions and solving our problems. We occasionally get reports from applicants about problems the Submittable team has not solved, but I do not know what the applicant has done to get the problem solved.
We have been using this for many years but my memory is that we had a human walk us through how to use basic features. We also used the resource library to learn about specific topics or issues as they came up.
10/10 because we were able to meet virtually and still get all of our questions answered! Online was effective too because we could easily record the sessions and review them later. Since we had to onboard our reviewers virtually, it was actually convenient that this was the same method we learned how to use the entire program virtually too.
I would say, provide Submittable as much detailed information on your planned use of the platform and your desires with the platform as possible, and the implementation will be tailored to accommodate your organization with minimal lag time and issues/problems.
When we decided on Submittable: a) Most cost-effective: solution would cost under USD3,000 per year with no setup fee. b) We needed key features of this solution that were available out-of-the-box, e.g., Online Application Form -- including answers to approximately 20-30 questions, completing a financial income/expense summary spreadsheet, and submitting supporting docs in Word, PDF, or other common file formats. Also, applicants would get instant feedback if they do not qualify, so they won't even bother completing their submission. Backend workflow allows up to 8+ committee members/reviewers to review application submissions, submit and share comments/questions, approve/reject, grant amount recommendations, etc. Basic reporting will include lists of applicants and key data by submission year (e.g., contact details, funding requested, key metrics, etc.). Email alerts to reviewers as applications are submitted. Summary of completed application emailed to applicant upon submission so they have a copy for their records—the ability to centrally track any email exchanges with applicants.
We have been easily able to grow. Not only are we able to process different applications, but Submittable makes it easy to add applications onto our plan. Additionally, their eligibility form before the application does a good job of screening applicants so we do not pay for extra applications.
Benevity Spark helped complete the employee-community engagement experience at the company. Together with careful program design, internal marketing, and a robust employee training program; Benevity Spark helps to drive employee engagement in the community.
We were able to launch our first-ever community grants program on time, and received over 300 applications (we were anticipating ~50 in our first year out.)
This has substantially improved our application and tracking capabilities for our employee relief fund grants, and ensured we are following IRS guidelines.
