Are you wondering – “What is grant proposal management software? Who buys it? Who needs to use it?”

Grant proposal management software is created for state and city governments, charitable organization, arts funding groups and other organizations that give a LOT of money away. It is an in invaluable processing and evaluation tool to any type of governing body, corporation or company that receives hundreds or even thousands of applications for grants.

A good example of the type of body that might use grant proposal management software would be the state that suddenly receives a lot of money from the federal government for “green programs.” It then becomes necessary for that governing body to put out the word to businesses, schools and individuals in cities and towns in their state that they can receiving grants for projects that help save the enviroment. The result of such an appeal can be a flood of applications that have to be categorized and processed somehow!

Hiring employees to categorize, process and evaluate applications by hand can be expensive and slow, so that is where grant proposal management software comes in handy.

A Submission Management System That Works!

Grant proposal management systems or grant proposal software as it is also called is simply known as a submission management system. The purpose of this type of collection is to track and manage electronic submissions.

Most submission management systems are located on the web and the individuals or groups applying online can just do so right in their browser.  However, sometimes this type of software is shipped in the form of a desktop application as well.

Common Features of Grant Proposal Management Program

Grant proposal management systems and software usually have some features in common.  Usually they have –

• A provision for the start time and end time when submissions can be collected
• A mechanism that helps categorize applications and store them
• A mechanism that assists authorized people to view the proposals
• A mechanism that accepts and rejects submissions
• A way of sending back relevant feedback to those who have made provisions
• A way of requiting resubmission of incomplete or error-ridden submissions
• A way for applicants to view their submissions and any comments made on them

There are a lot of generic systems for submission management on the market that can be customized in-house to give the organization what it needs to process those applications, swiftly, fairly and accurately.

A Way of Quickly and Fairly Shortlisting Applicants

For the most part proposal application management programs help the evaluators shortlist those who are eligible to receive money.

Submitting proposals is the first step of the process and in order to apply, all the applicant has to do is go online. They go to their browser and to a URL and they are then guided online through the submission process and asked to provide documents, fill out fields and provide information. If for some reason the information is not complete when it is evaluated by the program, the application is either sent back for correction or disqualified from the adjudication process.

Not only are these systems efficient, but they are also quite fair. The online software is unable to deploy a bias of any kind as these applications are evaluated thus preventing unfair profiling practices and prejudices to be part of the evaluation scenario.

Furthermore, submitting and evaluating these proposals online really does go a long way towards cutting down on the cost of staff, paper, ink and office equipment. It also shortens the time between the adjudication and notification of the money to the applicants. Perhaps the only people that this process does not benefit are those applicants who do not know how to use a computer or who do not have access to one.