Decide Whether to Renew or Switch Your Grants System With Clear Answers, Not a Hunch

A 30-minute session for grantmakers on five questions that show whether your software still fits how you fund, and how to switch without losing your history if it doesn't.

Most grantmaking software gets chosen once and renewed for years. Over that time, programs add funds, reporting requirements change, committees grow and staffs shrink. When the software doesn't keep up, the work moves around it: scores in a spreadsheet, grantee reports in an inbox, a module that was never turned on.

This session is built around two of the five dimensions of Review Integrity, a framework for judging whether an application and review process is fair, consistent and defensible.

The first is Decision Traceability: can any decision be reconstructed and defended? When scores, notes and reports live in different places, the record of why a grant was made is hard to find, and harder to bring along when you change systems.

The second is Loop Closure: does what happens after the award, such as grantee reports and outcomes, connect back to how you choose the next round? A system that stops at the application leaves that loop to email and memory.

Staying on a system you've outgrown costs staff time, slows down every board or auditor question, and usually costs more at each renewal. Switching carelessly costs too: a move made mid-cycle, or without a plan for past records, can leave a team rebuilding a year of history by hand.

Software contracts often renew unless you give notice ahead of time, and grant cycles leave only a few windows when a change is practical. The right time to ask these questions is before both.

In This 30-Minute Session, You'll Learn How To:

• List what your team actually uses, and what still happens outside the system
• Add up the real cost, including add-on modules, per-program fees and staff time on workarounds
• Judge support by what happened the last time something broke during review
• Plan what comes with you: past applications, grantee history, scores, reports and decision notes
• Time a switch between grant cycles and before your contract's notice date

You'll also see how Reviewr's team builds your program from the forms you already use, and brings your past records with you, in about 30 days.

Who Should Attend

Grants managers, program officers, operations and finance staff and executive directors at private, family, community and corporate foundations, and at public and economic development funders, who are reviewing a grants system or a patchwork of tools.

FAQ

Is this a sales pitch for switching? No. The five questions work whether you stay, renegotiate or move. If your current system answers them well, that's a good reason to renew.

Can past grant cycles come with us? Reviewr can import past applications and records from PDFs and spreadsheets, so grantee history starts in the new system. Bring a sample to a 1-on-1 and we'll show you what that looks like for your records.

Does Reviewr send grant payments? No. Reviewr runs intake, review and follow-up, such as grant agreements, reports and receipts. It doesn't send payments or track fund balances. You can export a recipient report for your finance team.

‍