Must have tools for grant managers

3 “must have” tools for grant managers.

We get it – managing grants is a ton of work. Naturally, that’s why we built Reviewr. But if we could summarize the three essential tools that grant managers “must have” in their tool belt so they can spend less time “managing”, and more time making an impact, what would they be?

In this webinar we discuss:

• Who is Reviewr?
• Creating a centralized place to manage online submissions.
• Developing a review workflow and online evaluation process
• The keys to comprehensive data and analytics

Centralized submission management

It’s 2020 and time to embrace the digital experience. While “going digital” seems like an easy thing to do – we must first look at what digital really means. Spoiler: It’s not using things like spreadsheets, free online forms, and other tools that were not built for the task at hand. The American Society for Association Executives said it best, “Associations that focus on leveraging data, improving processes, and investing in new technologies, the hard work will likely pay off in more engaged and satisfied members”.

• Think of the tools Reviewr provides as a hammer is to a carpenter. We don’t build the house – but we are an essential tool to doing things the right way in the most efficient way possible.
• Often, combining tools in ways unintended will cause more harm than good. There’s a reason dedicated tools such as Reviewr exist.
• Having a centralized spot to manage submissions is all about ease of accessibility.
  •  One stop shop for everything.
  • Data at the palms of your hand with filters, sorting, and exporting.
• Online grant applications are more than just submitted online forms – they need to be part of the bigger digital experience.
  • Each submission will include the submitted form, but their profiles will also hold communication, files, workflows, etc.

Online evaluation and review workflows

Dare we say, having online review and selection is the most important tool for grant managers? Yup – we said it!

• Creating workflows that work
  • Create a bucketing system based on review phases and categorization.
  • Consider pairing submissions with review teams based on dedicated committees or randomization.
  • Leverage metrics to evenly distribute a fair, random number, of review members to each submission
• Be adaptable.
  • Review team turnover
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Changing review pairings on the fly
• Online evaluation and selection
  • Ease of use – virtual sharing of submission profiles to review team
  • Split screen evaluation – submission profile on one side, the evaluation on the other
  • Scorecards
    • Ranking tools
    • Forced rank
    • Weighted scoring
  • Automated results 
  • Online review team collaboration
  • Feedback and note sharing

Analytics and Reporting

Data is king and created program integrity and confidence through accurate, transparent, consistent, data driven decision making. But what’s data without the ability to easily access it in a way that is usable? Not all data is made equal, and in fact, can often create blinders that prohibit the success of an award, grant, scholarship or competition. What does that mean? It means program managers often get too bogged down into analytics and over-complicate things – causing more harm than good. Let’s look at the tools we need.

• Applicant progress tracking
  • Who’s done and who’s not. 
  • Automated email reminders that increase volume and reduce dropoff.
• Review committee tracking
  • Much like applicants, they procrastinate. 
  • Track who has logged in, when, how often, and their completion percentage.
  • Easily send reminders and get ahead of potential last minute challenges.
• Automated results reporting
  • Real time analytics thats showcase evaluation progress and rankings.
  • Reduce potential human error by crunching numbers manually in spreadsheets.
• Data exporting and year over year comparisons
  • Dedicated reports on demand
  • Full data exporting for long term archiving
  • Comparative data for year over year progress.
  • Offline capabilities
    • We love technology – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a fall back plan.
    • One click exports of data into pdf’s and files.

While there might be a million dedicated tools and reasons to use a tool like Reviewr, this sums up our 3 favorite and most essential. Without these three, program administrators will find themselves overworked and the participants left lacking the experience they desire. Ready to learn more about implementing these tools into your grant management workflow? Reach out today!