We initially were spreadsheet-based, and then our new director said, “We need to make this a bit sharper, a bit smarter.” Our charity’s scope was growing, and while the charity had a database for fundraising, that didn’t work for our requirements. We looked at three or four grantmaking systems during our search process. Blackbaud Grantmaking ticked all the boxes we were after and was the clear choice.

We have a lot of different applications and hold a lot of different funds. Many we inherited are restricted. One application won’t fit every single grant we do. Even though a lot of the functionality for Blackbaud Grantmaking is out-of-the-box, we could still configure the system for our specific needs. We also needed to know that we can amend the application forms without having to phone a help desk or be stuck in a queue waiting for assistance. Being able to have multiple forms and have the freedom to change forms in-house—with no limit—has been a real plus point. We’re not limited to 10 changes a year— you hear of vendors that do that to their customers.

We used to have multiple spreadsheets that had to be updated one at a time, and then finance would have a separate spreadsheet. There was always the potential for duplication error at different points of the journey. Blackbaud Grantmaking has negated that duplication because we’re all looking at the same sheet. At the end of the day, we don’t have to worry about someone transferring a figure or a code and getting it wrong. So that time saving was massive to start with. The ability to easily generate letters and to keep everything in one place—those have been big timesavers as well.

We’ve taken on more grantmaking funds, including several that are smaller in nature, that we wouldn’t have been able to incorporate and track easily without Blackbaud Grantmaking and the flexible setup it provides us.

We are getting hot on dashboards, and that’s definitely increased the system’s usability for people. My colleagues realize, “I don’t need another spreadsheet. I can just click, and everything I need is in front of me.” Blackbaud Grantmaking’s budget module is really useful for us, and the dashboard’s budget summary is a good way for us to track money we spend, including money that we spend on behalf of others. Also, managers can use dashboards for looking at their staff’s workload, to avoid someone being overloaded. Or, if someone is out sick, we can see through their dashboard what’s outstanding that someone else might need to jump on.

They have access to it and have their own dashboards. My team can flag feedback for marketing and comms to consider running as social media posts, or say, “This requires branding.” They can contact grantees and say, “We understand you’ve received a grant. We’d love to brand your project. Can we get in touch?” It closes the loop and takes that piece off our grants team. Blackbaud Grantmaking has become a tool for the whole charity, which we didn’t really envisage at the time we chose it.

Definitely. The ability to save an application that they’ve started but haven’t completed is huge for applicants. And they can share the application easily with other members of their team to get feedback. That’s a very valuable tool.

They all think it works really well, and it’s easy for us to pull reports based on their assessments and present the overall scores to committees.

Monitoring progress of our grant recipients through the Blackbaud Grantmaking portal—with automatic reminders for our recipients and staff—has been really beneficial. We can see whether recipients are meeting outcomes, and I can take look at what they share with us— including uploaded attachments, photos and case studies—and pull from that to show the difference our grants are making.

We can take the data we’ve collected with Blackbaud Grantmaking and play with it using Power BI’s data visualisation tools. We just produced a review of all the grantmaking we’ve done the past year. There’s a lot of narrative but also charts and graphics generated by Power BI with information from Blackbaud Grantmaking.

I made a big claim in a meeting the other day, that of all the challenges people have put to me and said, “Can we do this?” I have not had to say, “No, sorry.” The more you show people what Blackbaud Grantmaking can do, the more they want it to do. You’re an absolute game-changer for us.