Operational Challenges Grantmakers Can’t Afford to Ignore

Grantmakers today face a complex landscape of paperwork, technology, and stakeholder expectations. Many organizations rely on outdated, manual workflows—think spreadsheets, fillable PDFs, emails, and siloed web forms—to manage applications and reviews. Such inefficiencies consume staff time and strain limited budgets. Meanwhile, applicants struggle with clunky interfaces, lack of feedback, and hard-to-navigate processes​. Together, these issues hamper participation, slow decision-making, and risk the integrity of funding programs.

In a recent webinar titled “The Operational Challenges Grantmakers Can’t Ignore,” Kyle Fredrickson, CEO at Reviewr laid out the core pain points for grantmaking organizations and offered practical solutions. In this article, we distill those insights into a clear, step-by-step guide for streamlining your grant operations. We’ll outline the key challenges identified in the webinar, explain how they can undermine your mission, and present best practices—backed by Reviewr’s platform features—to help you turn grants administration into a competitive advantage.

Key Operational Challenges Impacting Grantmakers

Grantmakers often juggle numerous programs, deadlines, and data sources. The webinar highlights several core challenges that repeatedly trip up organizations:

• Manual and Inefficient Processes: Many programs are managed with “manual workflows” that rely heavily on scattered spreadsheets, PDFs, emails, Word docs, and basic web forms. Staff must spend hours entering data by hand, merging files for reviewers, creating score sheets, and manually anonymizing sensitive information. Small teams can easily get overwhelmed by routine tasks like assigning reviewers, tracking volunteers, or compiling application packets. This inefficiency not only wastes time, but also raises the risk of errors and missed information.
  
  
• Poor Applicant Experience and Accessibility: Outdated interfaces and inflexible forms discourage applicants. Many systems don’t allow saving progress, uploading multiple or large files, or filtering out ineligible applications. Applicants receive little feedback—no confirmation emails or alerts—so they’re left wondering if their submission was received. The result is a “high barrier” application process that drives down participation and leaves potential grantees frustrated.
  
  
• Lack of Centralization and Integration: Without a unified platform, data and processes live in multiple places. Applications might come through Google Forms or email, reviews might happen in shared drives or spreadsheets, and reporting is cobbled together manually. There’s often no single portal for applicants, reviewers, and staff to see the full picture​. This fragmentation makes it difficult to coordinate programs at regional or national levels, manage multiple grant categories or stages, or simply know where an application stands. The lack of integration means staff waste time reconciling disparate systems instead of focusing on strategic work.
  
  
• Review and Judging Challenges: The selection process can be a bottleneck. Assigning reviewers manually leads to uneven workloads and “review fatigue,” causing delays. It’s hard to ensure consistency when judges use different scoring standards or when personal biases creep in. Traditional processes often involve exporting entries to file shares or spreadsheets, which can be cumbersome​. Moreover, many systems lack features like anonymization or data redaction, making it difficult to conduct fair, blind reviews​. Non-technical reviewers may also struggle with clunky tools or unclear workflows, further slowing the process.
  
  
• Reporting, Impact Tracking, and Data Management: After decisions are made, many organizations still struggle to measure outcomes. Generating timely, customized reports for committees or funders is often “difficult to impossible”. Without insights into reviewer performance, scoring trends, or long-term outcomes, organizations can’t evaluate program effectiveness. There’s often no way to track grantee follow-up or “grantee redemption” after awards. Disconnected data systems mean that important metrics (like demographics, milestones, or story-based impacts) aren’t captured consistently.
  
  
• Security and Compliance Concerns: Finally, handling sensitive applicant data poses risks. When grant data lives in unsecured spreadsheets or email, there’s a chance of breaches or mishandling. Without robust role-based access controls or automated redaction, confidential information might be exposed. Manual review processes can also introduce inconsistencies in how sensitive data is treated, potentially exposing organizations to compliance issues.
  
  

Collectively, these challenges erode efficiency, fairness, and impact. Staff spend precious time on busywork instead of strategy. Applicants get frustrated or drop out. Programs risk inconsistent outcomes and delayed decisions. In short, the negative consequences include wasted resources, reduced trust among stakeholders, and ultimately less impact on the communities served. As the webinar makes clear, ignoring these operational hurdles can undermine a grantmaker’s mission as much as funding constraints or regulatory changes.

Modernizing Application Intake

The first step in addressing these challenges is modernizing how applications are collected and managed. Rather than relying on disconnected forms and emails, unified, user-friendly application portals should be implemented. These portals offer a single, intuitive interface for applicants to complete forms, upload materials, and track their progress.

A key feature of modern portals is profile-centric applications. Instead of requiring an applicant to re-enter the same information for each grant or scholarship, profile-centric systems allow applicants to create a personal profile that auto-populates their details across multiple submissions. This saves applicants time and reduces errors. Applicants can save their progress and return later, ensuring that busy individuals or those with spotty internet connections can complete applications without starting over.

Automation also plays a big role. Smart portals can perform automated eligibility checks and validation, immediately flagging missing information or unmet criteria. This early filtering helps eliminate ineligible or incomplete applications before they enter the review queue, reducing wasted effort. Personalization can further enhance the applicant experience: forms can dynamically adjust based on previous answers, showing relevant questions and hiding irrelevant ones.

Real-time features such as progress tracking and automated reminders keep applicants and staff informed. Applicants receive confirmation emails and status updates, boosting confidence and engagement. Many grantmakers report that making forms mobile-friendly and offering clear, step-by-step guidance significantly increases participation from diverse applicant pools. In short, a modern intake portal with built-in automation and user-centric design transforms the experience for everyone – applicants submit higher-quality entries, and staff avoid repetitive data-entry tasks.forward is clear. By implementing unified application portals, centralized data management, structured reviews, and automated reporting, grantmakers can streamline every step from intake to impact.

Reviewr’s webinar lays out these strategies in detail, and its platform is built to deliver them. The result for your organization? Significant time savings, higher fairness and consistency in awards, data-driven insights for better decisions, and meaningful impact measurement that inspires confidence in your mission.

In today’s competitive funding landscape, operational excellence is not optional—it’s a necessity. Embracing these best practices ensures your organization can focus on what really matters: supporting your grantees and making the greatest possible impact in the communities you serve.