Take Grant Applications Online and Keep Every Small Nonprofit Applying

A 30-minute session for grantmakers on four steps to replace mailed and emailed packets with an online application, without shutting out the one-person organizations that apply to you today.

Nearly 60% of U.S. nonprofits are very small, with annual budgets under $50,000, according to Candid's 2025 analysis of IRS filings. Many are run by one person, or by volunteers, around another job, and many still apply for grants by mail or email attachment.

For the funder, every mailed packet means hand work: opening, logging, copying for each committee member, keying into a spreadsheet and filing. Moving online removes most of it. The worry that keeps many funders on paper is a fair one: a long online form can quietly push the smallest applicants out.

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 Intake Proportionality: does what you ask of an applicant scale to what's at stake for them? A small request that takes the same packet as a large one costs a small nonprofit the most.

The second is Decision Traceability: can any decision be reconstructed and defended? When applications, scores and notes live in envelopes, inboxes and one person's spreadsheet, the record of why a grant was made is hard to find.

When intake stays on paper, staff spend the weeks after a deadline copying and keying instead of talking with applicants, and reviewers score from binders while someone retypes every score. When intake moves online badly, the smallest nonprofits stop applying, and the pool tilts toward organizations with a grant writer. Either way, a funder hears least from the groups closest to the people it means to serve.

Guidelines and application forms get set before each grant round opens. Whatever goes out with them decides who applies and how much work it takes to get applications to reviewers, for the whole round.

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

• Start with a short, branded application sized to the grant, with conditional questions so applicants see only what applies to them
• Put eligibility questions first, so a small nonprofit learns in a minute whether it qualifies
• Let applicants save their work and come back, with reminders before the deadline
• Collect budgets, financials and other documents as uploads instead of mailed copies
• Keep a paper path during the switch, including printed packets for reviewers who want them
• Keep every application, score and decision in one record

You'll also see how Reviewr's team builds your application from the forms you already use, in about 30 days.

Who Should Attend

Grantmakers who still take applications by mail, email or fillable PDF: program officers, grants managers and committee chairs at foundations, community foundations, municipal and economic development funders, and corporate and cultural funders.

FAQ

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.

What if some of our reviewers prefer paper?They can print their packets and enter scores afterward, so the move online doesn't depend on every reviewer changing at once.

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