My organization utilizes the Blackbaud Grantmaking for the entire grant application and review process with all of the grant giving for the entire organization. The applications are submitted via the Blackbaud Grantmaking portal, the reviews are submitted via each respective reviewers within the portal, and the grant distributions are also recorded there as well.
Pros
Ability to customize the grantmaking process to fit the organization
One stop hub for the grant recipient, to update & submit required information & supporting documentation
Tracks disbursements and approvals
Cons
The customization can be tedious and pricey, but the finished product is well worth it.
The linked functionality between Blackbaud Financial Edge and Blackbaud Grantmaking is limited unless a complete custom built connection is made (also pricey).
Learning curve is intermediate to advanced.
Likelihood to Recommend
Blackbaud Grantmaking is a great hub for housing grant recipient organization information, supporting documentation and all grant requests and data. It tracks status of grant requests (approval & declinations), has the ability to create custom payment schedules and track actual payment data. Custom notes & alerts are also available to applied to each individual grant recipients profiles.
Although 3 other employees have the software I am the one who uses it the most. One colleague may use it occasionally. It helps me keep track of our grantees and generates reports that are of use to my colleagues.
Pros
I run a report called the "History Sheet" almost every day.
I am able to keep track of reports that are due from our grantees.
I am able to keep track of scheduled payments.
Cons
We recently looked into having our board meetings online rather than creating "board books" but found the cost prohibitive.
Likelihood to Recommend
As previously mentioned, it helps me keep track of payments and reports.
We use Blackbaud Grantmaking (formerly GIFTS Online) to manage a funding program, including: all aspects of database and contact management, grantee reporting; our internal (staff and board) and external (funder) reporting; online applications; reviewer portal; budgeting, allocating and tracking grant disbursements. We utilize Blueprint for further ability to customize according to our needs. We disburse grants to individuals and organizations.
It provides clarity in tracking project deadlines, completed and outstanding projects, financial tracking by project, contacts (and associated applications) as well as project and program outcomes. We used to rely on more paper and multiple programs / databases to manage this information piecemeal when the program was smaller, but this was not efficient when the program kept expanding. The data management and reporting functions are great at managing and extracting the information we require.
Pros
Pulling information from the online application portal into the main database
Automating requirement and deadline reminders to grantees and relevant reports to specific staff members
Applications and reporting functions are highly customizable
Cons
Because it is so complex it is not very intuitive to learn at the beginning - trying to align our workflow with the modules was challenging at first because we didn't have a full understanding of the capabilities of the software.
When these is functionality we need which is not obvious, usually support can figure it out, but sometimes they say "no, but that is a great idea, post it to the community as a suggestion". If it is a great idea, why can they not just pass it along internally or post it? Taking the time to post to the community and / or search to see if my needs are already posted to the community so I can up-vote is not a good use of my time. Often I can't find the time to do it. I do appreciate that they are responsive and do make suggested changes, but this process is time consuming (reading through numerous posts) and unwieldy.
Support people are very good, but would like to have access to them until 6 pm pacific time.
The cost is prohibitive. We were hoping that the move from paper and multiple platforms into one online platform would lessen the time spent on admin (helping to offset the cost), but implementation has taken us longer than anticipated (we are a small org. with no dedicated IT staff). Some tasks are definitely more streamlined, and we definitely have a better overall handle on data management, tracking grant finances, deadlines and reporting, but sometimes it seems like some admin work has just been replaced with different work, such as: database management and providing support for the applicants / grantees. I think this may improve somewhat over time, but each year there will always be a certain amount of program changes to implement / program and new applicants to walk through the online portal submission process (including requirements and reporting) so time spent on this work will remain.
Likelihood to Recommend
As I mentioned, cost is prohibitive for us. Because it is highly customizable, it is very powerful, but if you are looking for an intuitive, easy to use solution right "out of the box" solution because you have few staff and no IT dept. this may not be the best fit (unless they develop some lower cost / less customizable options?).
That being said, we have managed to implement successfully with no IT. I completed the implementation, code the application and online reporting forms (using HTML) and use Blueprint to customize what we need, but it has been a big learning curve and an investment of time to manage the back end of the program. I will say that training new general users is pretty straight forward so their ability to search for information they need and quickly is greatly enhanced. The automatic customized reports and reminders are pretty great, and the overall integrity of our processes and data are greatly improved. Sometimes we wonder if it is overly complex and if there is a way e could "hide" more of the aspects that are not relevant to us, or that we are not using, so we can have a cleaner interface.
It is being used by our organization to manage our grant-making process from inquiry to reporting on grants awarded.
Pros
Easy to export data into multiple applications for various reports and requests.
Mobile app for access to records in the field.
The help desk is responsive.
Cons
Would like to be able to print letters, envelopes, giving histories directly from the organization's record versus switching to reports, queries or creating a template...too many steps.
History of giving prints from first to last and this cannot be changed. I have to export to Excel and re-sort by most recent date.
Likelihood to Recommend
Blackbaud Grantmaking is a comprehensive grants processing tool that helps nonprofits track, manage, approve and report on their philanthropic activities. I recommend Blackbaud Grantmaking to any nonprofit accountable for more than 100 grants annually.
It is used by our community relations department. It keeps track of all of our donations and gifts.
Pros
If you have a blueprint with your subscription, you can customize a lot of internal and external fields.
If you have the budget module, you can keep track of real-time budget information, as well as export this information easily.
The forms manager is very responsive to HTML coding, so there are a lot of options when it comes to the look and feel of your grant portal.
Cons
Reporting and automatic reporting is not as intuitive as it should be. There is a lot of modification that has to happen for the report to come out the way you want it.
Sorting by custom fields or coding is difficult and requires advanced searching with syntax. It is easier to export your data or fields to an Excel spreadsheet and then sorts.
Users are not notified to do tasks and other to-do items. A user has to log into the platform to see what they have to do, and they must have a dashboard part set up to show them what needs to be done. This makes some less frequent users confused.
Likelihood to Recommend
For our corporate foundation, this platform is very practical and easy to use. To be able to customize or configure the system to your needs is difficult, but can be an easy task for a savvy administrator.
We are a charitable foundation that gives grants to other not-for-profit entities. We track our annual giving, giving categories, and QD for our foundation. Monthly reports and annual reports are supplied to IRS with our 990.
Pros
Reports are fairly easy to create ad-hoc items for your own accounting needs.
Being able to categorize grants, areas, etc., allows for more reporting capabilities.
Cons
Reporting is odd because they clear your search fields each time so refining a report to get the information you're are looking to show can be frustrating... Old original GIFTS did this much better.
Screens in online do not put curser in the first cell so you can tab....
We are currently using Blackbaud to manage all of our online grant applications and to provide reporting information for accounting as well as program staff.
The system has provided access both for staff and grantees, better management, the ability to pull data from the grants using classifications and drop down menus. The Improvement is so significant it would be difficult to list how transferring to an online Grant Management System has benefited our organization.
Pros
Very versatile.
Allows as many applications as needed for multiple types of Grants including single stage and allowing for a letter of interest followed up by a second stage application.
Allows all corresponds to be maintained in one location within the grant application
Provides access to contact information, payment information, refunds, etc.
Modules allow for as many specialized fields as needed.
Internal and external reviews allow grant review without additional licenses.
Cons
While comprehensive application creation can be difficult and confusing
Cost can be high with additional modules
I highly recommend new users complete the online training courses available on Blackbaud before creating applications, reports, and templates for correspondence.
Not sure about current modules but in the past did not transfer well to accounting software.
Better spell check
Better formatting for application forms to make them pretty
Likelihood to Recommend
Allows multiple ways of accomplishing a task, such as creating grants. Documents can be uploaded to applications allowing a history of what transpired.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Product Management (11-50 employees)
Blackbaud Grantmaking is used by our bank in the US for both charitable giving through our foundation and corporate giving through local community partnerships and event sponsorships.
Pros
Cloud-based data collection allowing for online applications through electronic notification of grants
On-the-go access to data either through a web address or mobile app
Best in class grants management
Large community of system users and strong user groups
Cons
Application linking process is time consuming
System enhancement ideas must be submitted to a community portal and other users must take the initiative to vote on their favorite ideas instead of vendor programmers collecting received ideas and doing the work themselves.
Lack of conditional logic in online application
Communication with other Blackbaud products notably Employee Volunteering and Engagement (fka AngelPoints)
Likelihood to Recommend
Pros - User groups, number of programmers on staff, environmentally conscience, research and analytics, easy of code management for data collection
Cons - Portal voting on ideas, lack of seamless connection with other Blackbaud products like AngelPoints, and no conditional logic on application forms
