Foundant Grant Lifecycle Manager

Score6 out of 10

17 Reviews and Ratings

What is Foundant Grant Lifecycle Manager?

With Foundant GLM, users can create, launch and receive online applications and grant reports, manage online proposal reviews, and manage grants and information from a single, integrated solution from anywhere they have internet access.

Categories & Use Cases

Grant Management Software

Kristen Summers View profile

Grants Manager at Saint Luke's Foundation (11-50 employees employees)

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.

Return on Investment

Positive customer service--fairly easy to use for applicants.
Positive--easy to run reports you have already set up, so [it] saves time.
Negative--limited question types makes it harder to gather the data we want to track.
Negative--our budget is more complex than can be tracked in Foundant, so we have to use a separate program.
Negative--we have to track potential grantee conversations in a separate program.
Negative--getting data ready to display in a dashboard takes a lot of time to manipulate in Excel.

Gwenn Gebhard View profile

Executive Director in Corporate at Luther I. Replogle Foundation (1-10 employees employees)

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!

Return on Investment

Grant Lifecycle Manager has only a positive impact on our overall business objectives. This software package is all we use to manage grants. I work part-time, and this software allows me to get ALL the necessary work done to manage the work of the Foundation. The software has become so efficient in the last couple of years, that I now have time to do special projects as requested by the Board of Directors. I have conducted a survey of our grantees about the issues of capacity building within their own organizations and on the question of professional development. I have led workshops for our grantees on how to use GuideStar, a non-profit database that provides data on organizations all across the nation. The GLM software allows me to prepare for the twice-yearly Board Meetings with a minimum of stress and no confusion.

Alternatives Considered

Blackbaud Grantmaking (formerly GIFTS Online)

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Premier

Sara Palmer View profile

Vice President of Programs at COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ELMIRA-CORNING AND THE FINGER LAKES, INC. (1-10 employees employees)

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.

Return on Investment

Less time and labor working on grant cycles
Ability to focus on what's important in grantmaking
Reporting is amazing - really helps our organization think strategically about our impact

Diana Maxwell View profile

Grants Manager at National Trust for Historic Preservation (201-500 employees employees)

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.

Return on Investment

It absolutely has brought our grant making into the 21st century. Previously we only took grant applications via paper forms- having a system where we can have applicants submit online, and reviewers from all over the country review the applications online, saves us so much time.

Charles Dwyer View profile

Program Officer I at Maine Health Access Foundation (1-10 employees employees)

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.

Return on Investment

It's helped us gain efficiencies.
We've stabilized the cost of our data management. The pricing structure provides better value than competitors that seemed to nickel and dime us.

Alternatives Considered

HiveFlux, Blackbaud Grantmaking (formerly GIFTS Online) and LiquidFrameWorks

Foundant Grant Lifecycle Manager

What is Foundant Grant Lifecycle Manager?

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

GLM is an affordable solution for your basic grantmaking needs

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Still having fun and, GLM, you're still the one

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Say Yes to Foundant - You Won't Regret it!

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment