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Like Your Favorite Sensible Shoes, Only for Data!
September 20, 2016

Like Your Favorite Sensible Shoes, Only for Data!

Meridian Napoli | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with MicroEdge

MicroEdge GIFTS Classic is one of several systems we use in managing the funding we provide to nonprofit organizations serving the greater Houston area. There are four core users, three of which rely on MicroEdge for the bulk of their daily work to track awarded/declined/pending funding requests, payments due and grantee reporting requirements. Another 10 employees have view only permissions and may use the database as infrequently as once a month. We rely on the database to track due diligence information, ensure the correct person at the organization receives funding and to send out contracts, among other key activities.
  • GIFTS Classics does a very good job of processing transactions. You can track workflow and enter/change important information along the lifecycle.
  • My favorite feature is the ability to select almost any field within the database and organize how it will be viewed, either within the system or when exported to Excel. You can relabel the column headers, sort, switch the order, stack fields, and capture all the information that will help in both processing and decision making.
  • I find the ability to create a wide range of templates that can then be generated and stored through the document manager tool to provide great efficiency and reduce opportunity for error.
  • The old-school tables format has made it particularly difficult for the system to be as nimble as the work demands. Its user interface is unappealing and general navigation makes it hard for infrequent uses to find what they need.
  • Ad-hoc reporting can get you far. But the set of canned reports with preset criteria and formatting is very limiting.
  • Because we want controls between the funding database and the financial database, we value the two systems being separate. However, the way GIFTS tracks different payment activities (cancellations, refunds, voids, etc.) and the inability to easily get 'as of' information, reconciliation with a true accounting system is problematic.
  • We have to use several other systems to get our work done and/or to present the information in a visually pleasing manner to key stakeholders.
It is really a matter of priority. I can see situations where GIFTS Classic is a very strong option! Once an organization determines its priorities then it should definitely consider GIFTS to see how well it compares with mission critical functionality.
It is a very robust system and with the various modules you can accomplish much of what is needed for traditional transaction US-based grantmaking. If you have more complicated grantmaking, deal with foreign currencies or want to have tighter alignment of finance and budget numbers, GIFTS may not meet your needs. Additionally, some of their core projects have limited accessibility in terms of various mobile devices or access from outside the organization's network.