Foundant Grant Lifecycle Manager Reviews and Ratings
Rating: 6 out of 10
Score
6 out of 10
Community insights
TrustRadius Insights for Foundant Grant Lifecycle Manager are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Simple Navigation: Users consistently praise the system for its simple and intuitive navigation. This makes it easy for administrators, applicants, and evaluators to access the software seamlessly across all platforms and devices.
Smooth System Updates: Reviewers appreciate that thoughtful system updates are implemented without causing any disruption to their experience. These updates ensure the smooth operation of the software while keeping users up-to-date with new features and improvements.
Efficient Information Retrieval: Many users highly value the ability to easily search for and retrieve information about grants or requests from previous years. This feature saves them valuable time and effort by eliminating the need to manually sift through old records.
We use Grant Lifecycle Manager to track grant applications and reports. It is being used by the Program side of our organization. We use this system as our online application portal for applicants to submit grant requests. [W]e track all of [the] grant activity in the system. [For example, we track] [...] check numbers and any reports received from the grantees.
Pros
Affordable solution to make [electronic] [processes].
Very helpful staff and support team.
Easy-to-use interface.
Continuous improvement efforts.
Cons
The system lacks a CRM to manage contacts and associated emails.
The continuous improvement efforts can lead you to feel out of touch with functionality if you don't have the time to attend very frequent webinars about the changes.
There are limited question types or views.
It would be helpful to have data dashboards within a click or two, without having to download reports to Excel and then manipulate the data.
Likelihood to Recommend
This product is great and well-suited for smaller organizations who are interested in doing an online grantmaking system for the first time or upgrading from a simple survey-type application. You would love this product for basic applications and reports; [...] [its also great] if you want to do some light reporting. This is not a product that is robust enough to handle complex budgets, contact or email management, or complex outcomes metrics. It also will not work if you are trying to track your conversations with potential grantees before they apply.
It is being used for our scholarship program. I create the scholarship applications online and students apply through the portal. Reviewers then also review the applications through the Grant Lifecycle Manager and we use it to merge the winners to another Foundant product - Csuite.
Pros
Easy to review applications
Easy merge for winners
Organizes applications well
Cons
Slow product when many applications open
Students need to reupload several documents
Likelihood to Recommend
Great for grantmakers and grantseekers, easy to use for applications for scholarships and grants
We currently utilize Foundant GLM to manage all of our grantmaking across the foundation. We are a small staff of 5 so I am the only staff who utilizes GLM for grants however we also have GLM for scholarships that is used by our scholarship/program officer.
GLM has simplified and streamlined our grantmaking process across the board. We were looking for a solution to address the mounds of wasted paper we used along with helping both our grantees and reviewers with a more efficient and user-friendly process - Foundant GLM provided that solution.
Pros
Single Point of Entry for Grantees looking for grant opportunities
Multiple Users allowed to use the system
History, Tracking and Reporting Tools
Cloud Based Storage
Support from GLM
Cons
Allowing duplicate email addresses for both grantee and reviewers
Grants for Individuals - allowing us to manipulate the create profile template so it's not just based on nonprofits.
Likelihood to Recommend
GLM is well suited for community foundations of any size - especially when you have one program officer managing multiple grant cycles.
We primarily use Foundant to track and manage our external organizational granting with the Grants department. We have used it a bit more widely across the organization for other projects: internal grants and collecting/organizing nominations for awards/recognition lists
Pros
Customer Service: Foundant is always super helpful and speedy in their responses to my questions, whether it's an email or call.
Connections to other users: There's a great online community that's willing to share what works for their organizations.
Company Response/Development: Foundant is continually updating (where it needs to) to make their product the best it can be, and is willing (and does) take comments and suggestions from clients for how the software could be improved.
Training: A variety of training options- ranging from in person conferences to web-based tutorials. Very helpful, and updated as the product is.
Cons
I'd love to have the option to have multiple evaluations at an LOI stage, but this is a very nit picky detail. The software is great, and does what we need it to.
Likelihood to Recommend
I have recommended GLM to colleagues and would do it again. It provides all of the features you need to manage a grants program, and incredible customer service. We're not a typical foundation, and the program works for our management, but I've seen it also work great for foundations large and small, that give standard grants or scholarships. We've used it in different ways to gather materials too, and it's worked for that as well.
It's being used across our entire organization as the platform for our grant-making needs. Phases are encompassed in the GLM are: Letters of Interest/Application/Feedback and Evaluation/Selection/Electronic Agreement/Progress Monitoring/Payment/Correspondence. It helps to keep us organized by creating a single spot for our applicant/grantee application/grant agreement interactions.
Pros
I like the features that allow me to look at and provide input to applicants and grantees as they fill out applications and reports while they in progress. This is beneficial to both of us and helps us to build a good working rapport.
I like being able to review applications in the side-by-side with the my score sheet. It makes my reviews more efficient when I can look at the application while I'm writing my notes. No more printing things off. I can do it all online.
I like that there are multiple ways to find the grant information that I'm looking for within the system. The dashboard is easy to use and intuitive. I can usually find what I need fast.
Cons
I don't think about what's lacking. This is much better than our previous grants management software.
The landing page could have a snappier design.
I wish our grantees could see more than one follow-up for a process at a time. Sometimes there needs to be a project mod submitted while that is an active renewal going on.
Likelihood to Recommend
It's well suited for a philanthropy that has multiple roles within the organization that need access to a system that is easy to understand.
I am the Executive Director of the Luther I. Replogle Foundation. I am the only employee of the Foundation, I work part-time, and I report to a Board of six Directors. The Foundation has an endowment of $11.7 million and we distribute about $500,000 in grants to non-profits. The Foundation follows several guidelines to make decisions as to how to allocate the grants. We use Grant Lifecycle Manager (GLM) for ALL of the grant management. I am the primary user of the licensed software, however, my Board members use it periodically to rate the grant requests before their Board Meetings. One significant problem that is addresses is that grant requests can be tracked, and paperwork and recordkeeping does not get stalled on my desk in hard copy. Requests enter the system through the Foundation's website on GLM, I review the Letters of Inquiry and Applications on line, I respond to all the LOIs and Applications on line (through email set up through GLM), I can see all the records of past grants, including historic grants pre-dating 2010 when we started using GLM. I do almost all the work of the Replogle Foundation using GLM.
Pros
Grant requests arrive at the Foundation only through the web. We do not accept hard copy Letters of Inquiry or Applications. This means nothing gets lost! And I can do the reviews at my office or at home. Previous to GLM, it was difficult to log and to track the grant requests because we get a lot BUT I have limited amount of time manage them. There are several software packages out there that now do this function, but Foundant was one of the first and continues to be the best at it. They have a continuous development process and respond to customer comments and requests regularly and frequently.
GLM allows the Foundation to keep historical grant records in the cloud, with two benefits. (1) We have been able to eliminate hard copy records. The only hard copy records we keep at this point are the Foundation's Board Meeting minutes and the 990-PF Tax Returns. (2) It is easy to search and recover information regarding grants or requests that took place 5 years in the past or 8 years in the past. This ability has proven itself useful several times.
The GLM user community is diverse and very helpful. As a solo employee, I find that the GLM user community is an extraordinary resource of knowledge and savvy. I hardly ever have to "re-invent the wheel," because someone else has more than likely had to deal with the same issue. And if not, the community is able to rally with suggestions.
Foundant Technologies, the owner and manager of GLM, is a responsive company with a depth of knowledge and experience in the database field and the philanthropy field. A significant reason of why I think that GLM is the best software for my purposes is that the support provided by the company seems to be endless and extraordinarily smart.
I have not had a bad or even mediocre experience with Foundant or with GLM. When I don't know something and I get frustrated, I have a name and number to call who is immediately available to help (on the same day).
Cons
GLM has gone beyond the bounds of what I need. The company is still adding functionality for other users whose organizational needs differ slightly or enormously from mine. I hear about these new additions because I receive an email newsletter regularly with updates on new functions and uses. Sometimes I discover that there is a functionality that I didn't think about until Foundant Technologies mentioned it - and then I have a ah-ha! moment. That's fun!
Likelihood to Recommend
From where I stand, GLM is well-suited for use by small-staffed charitable foundations who make more than thirty (30) grants a year and distribute more than $500,000 in funds to non-profits. The software is able to handle every step in the grant-making process from receipt of a request, to the evaluation and decision regarding the grant, to tracking the pay-out, and to closing the grant when the work or the year is completed.
The grants department at United Arts of Central Florida uses Foundant's Grant Lifecycle Manager to manage multiple grant programs funding arts and cultural activities in a four-county region. We are able to design our own grant forms, accept applications, collect contracts and reports, and track payments.
Pros
Foundant provides a streamlined grants management solution for reasonable cost.
The company listens to its users, collecting ideas and making improvements. Updates to the software are rolled out several times a year. When something cannot be changed right away, the company gives context and forecasts when the change might be possible.
While the software is easy to use, it also offers more advanced features (such as merge templates) that allow more customization for the advanced user.
Cons
While tech support is responsive, sending timely emails and updates, I sometimes feel as if a needed item is going to be dropped because they can't figure it out. On the plus side, they always send an electronic survey afterwards, and if you have an issue they will call you personally to resolve it.
The external evaluator feature is a great idea, but doesn't work well for me as I prefer to only give my reviewers access to very targeted pieces of the application. I have worked around this by using merge templates, and sending PDFs to my reviewers.
I have supported a number of possible improvements (and suggested some of my own) on the user message board. Many of these have already been implemented, but many remain. It's a common problem with software that it takes so much more time to fix something than to suggest something. But on the whole, I have been pleased with the rate of improvements.
Likelihood to Recommend
The software has served our needs well for the past four years, and with the continuous improvements that keep rolling out, I can't see us moving to another type of grants management software in the future.
The family foundation I work for uses Foundant's Grant Lifecycle Manager product for all aspects of their grantmaking - letters of inquiry, grant applications, grant reports, tracking payments of grants, evaluation of grant applications, as well as producing customized reports. Our entire organization uses it - staff, executive directors, grantees and our board of directors. We have been told by many grantees that this is the best online software they use - is it easy to access, understand and you can save your work as you go, rather than having to submit something in one sitting.
Pros
With GLM we are able to customize our application exactly as we want it to be. This ensures that we receive the precise information we want and need in order to make the best decisions for the community.
I also particularly like that we can automatically send reminders to grantees when reports are due, confirmations that applications and LOIs have been received and instant notifications to me that things have been submitted.
With GLM the process to scan and upload documents is seamless. Our auditors like to see signed grant contracts and board minutes confirming the terms of a grant. We upload these and it serves as our virtual filing cabinet - we are striving to go paperless and GLM has greatly assisted in the endeavor.
Cons
It is exceptionally difficult for me to be critical of GLM. If there was one place, it might be in the customized reports. Frankly, I don't really think it is GLM's fault - I think the fault lies with me. My brain doesn't tend to think as analytically as is necessary to craft a report that gives me the information I am seeking in a concise form. Fortunately, the customer service at Foundant is always ready to assist me to make the best report that I can. Once the report is written we save it and I can continue to run it on a regular basis.
Likelihood to Recommend
Grant Lifecycle Manager (GLM) is very well suited for the small staffed foundation. I have highly recommended it in the past and will continue to do so. Their customer service is flawless and the product is excellent. It has reduced my paper and simplified my work flow. I cannot think of a family foundation or small staffed foundation that it wouldn't work well for.
I oversee the charitable arm of Eastern Bank. We use GLM for online processing of all community support. Included is a variety of grant programs as well as Bank sponsored events.
Pros
Highly Configurable
Creating applications is easy
We can make changes to our process without waiting in a queue for the vendor to make the changes
Cons
Reporting has improved dramatically. This was their biggest weakness, but it is now acceptable.
Mail merge is great but to date there is no email merge.
Likelihood to Recommend
I think the product is usable for most organizations regardless of size and volume.
We are using it for the grant applications we receive. We involve community volunteers who review and score the applications. The software is used internally among three program staff members. We plan to use the system for all of our grantee reporting.
Pros
Continuous saving - so far, no data has been entered and lost.
User friendly- very intuitive to use, even for a beginner.
Simplifies the task of reviewing a grant application.
Cons
I would like to see enhanced ability for email merging to do customized mass emails.
Likelihood to Recommend
From what I can gather, the volume of applications is irrelevant. The Grant Lifecycle Manager can handle a large number or a small number very well. Perhaps the biggest downside is that the Grant Lifecycle Manager does not integrate into other financial databases, so it is necessary to enter grants a second time if another financial database is used. However, I think the benefits of using the Grant Lifecycle Manager far outweigh and drawbacks.
