You may have heard about new tools/ grant management tools that can help you manage the grant-making process more effectively but, at least from where you stand, operations may seem to look OK. It’s easy to become accustomed to a routine when it’s been working for a while, but the fact remains that new tools are becoming available every day that provide a better way of accomplishing your tasks.

Here are three signs that your grant management processes could use an upgrade:

  1. You’re juggling multiple digital and manual data systems
    As a result of experience, you expect to put in significant overtime at certain points during the grant cycle. It’s just a fact of life, right? Not necessarily. While switching back and forth between several data systems may seem like a necessity, there are platforms that can eliminate the need to do this. Instead, you could have all the information you need under one roof. You may still put in extra hours during certain parts of the year, but good grant management software can take some of the burdens away. You owe it to yourself to see if there is a better way of accomplishing the tasks that take so much of your time.
  2. Collaboration is difficult
    If you’re still using spreadsheets to manage the grant review process, you and your team probably feel attached to your desktops. If this sounds like your organization, you stand to benefit from grant management software, according to Techsoup. At this point, your organization may have no comprehensive way to gauge how close you are to finishing your process, or whether you are even weighing the criteria equally for grant distribution. During the most crucial parts of your grant-review process, you need to have full insight into what your colleagues are doing and how close they are to completing the tasks you’ve delegated to them.
  3. Your reporting tools lack ease of use
    Sure, you put together reports about the organizations you funded, but are you putting them to good use? If you feel stuck in a rut and burned-out, it could be because you don’t have access to the data you’ve gathered in order to properly and efficiently analyze all aspects of that data. You need to ask yourself, “Is my organization prepared for the work we’re currently doing, and are we fully prepared for future growth?” With business intelligence, you can move efficiently in the direction your foundation wants to go in while providing full analysis and sharable reports for your members and donors to see.