Value for Money
The explosion of powerful, affordable technology offers grantmakers the opportunity for more efficient, effective and transparent management of their grant programs, from application to acquittal.
But with more choice has come new risks. How do you know which system is best? Making the wrong decision has massive implications.
Over the past decade, we have seen millions of pounds spent on grants management systems that could have been procured for a few thousand. We've seen systems implemented that staff can't use and don't like, systems that take so long to build that they're out of date before they're installed, costs that double and triple and quadruple during development, application forms that look terrible and crash regularly, grantmakers who could weep at the lost opportunity for efficiency and reform.
SmartyGrants is your insurance against a grants sytem implementation disaster
Share costs. Old-style system procurement involved everyone designing, building and hosting their own bespoke grants management systems. With a cloud-based system there’s one team of designers, one team of builders. That means you’re sharing the costs of continual development, the costs of security, the costs of service and training.
Share knowledge. Each year we interact with hundreds of system users (both grantmakers and grantseekers) so we have up-to-the-minute knowledge about the improvements that will make the most difference in people’s lives.
Cut risks. You pay a fixed annual fee. That means you can leave whenever you like – and that we have a vested interest in not just winning your business, but keeping it.
A system built for the real world. SmartyGrants uses the latest in intuitive, user-friendly technologies. That means our support costs are far lower than those of clunky, custom-built systems.
Get the most up to date system all the time. With a custom-built or installed system, you have to pay every time you want to make a change or improvement. With SmartyGrants, you get access to the very latest version of the software at all times
A system built by a company with ethics at our core. As a 25-year-old business that is squarely focused on our social mission to "build stronger communities through stronger community organisations", the bottom line is not our major motivator. We want to ensure that grantmakers can make the very best use of their limited resources. It’s that factor that drives our pricing model, not the pursuit of quick profits.
Independently verified. SmartyGrants is ISO accredited (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 - the world's best-known standard for information security management systems).