Feature focus: How to use documents to organise your grantmaking 

The grant management lifecycle can span months, seasons, even years. From grant applications to award contracts and progress reports, the paperwork that comes along with grantmaking can be significant.  

But, the good news is that it doesn’t have to be difficult! Good Grants provides grantmakers a streamlined way to manage their entire grant lifecycle, supported by our powerful documents feature.

In Good Grants, you can generate, store and provide secure access to any type of grant documents directly in the platform. Whether you need to create personalised or generic documents from a template you build, Good Grants has you covered.

How to use documents in Good Grants

Grant managers can upload documents and create templates in Good Grants to make it easy to apply documents to a wide swath of users in the system, complete with merge tags for personalisation. 

The documents can be monitored and managed with automatic notifications to alert recipients of new and updated documents. And, all fonts, formatting, organisation logos and branding in the uploaded file will be maintained when converted to a document template, giving you the freedom to create documents that look good and match your organisational identity. 

For programs that run in multiple languages, separate language versions of a document template can be uploaded to easily create documents in the user’s preferred language.

Learn more about documents in Good Grants.

Why generate documents in Good Grants?

The use of Good Grants for generating documents can help you streamline your grants lifecycle and centralise your supporting documents all in one place

Here are the benefits to consider:

• Convenience and time-savings. Documents can be managed much more efficiently and quickly without the use of external programs or applications. Using your own templates stored within Good Grants, you can create personalised or generic documents to simplify your workflow. By doing so, you can quickly create any document you may need without starting from scratch each time
• Accessibility. Having a centralised view allows for quick retrieval of specific documents when needed —no more endless scrolling through emails or folders in search of the correct file. 
• Better visibility for grantees. With its dedicated list view of documents provided to grantees, all documents are available in one single location in Good Grants. Grantees can quickly access the latest versions of documents without worrying about missing a document or not receiving a copy.

Five documents to start using right now in your grants management process

Different document types serve distinct purposes and can play a significant role in grant application, approval and assessment. Let’s explore five common use cases for generating grant documents.

Application summaries

Have loads of applications but limited bandwidth? Grant managers can automatically create application summaries directly from specific fields in an application to provide a concise overview of the application in a single document. 

This will allow you and your team to quickly and easily access key information about the project and its associated grants without having to go through an entire application to see basic information quickly. An application summary would be ideal in a moderation round, offering your team a summary of each application moving forward.

Notice of award letters

Streamline your grant awards with fast notice of award or approval letters to inform applicants and grantees about the status of their application or awarded grant.

By creating a template approval letter in Good Grants, you can automatically apply it to any grant application, which can be used to notify grantees of approval, any details for next steps and provide a formal confirmation that their application has been approved.

Proposal summaries

Simplify a grant proposal for your review team with a template proposal summary, which provides an overview of the grantseeker’s project objectives and goals. 

Also called executive summary or abstract, the proposal summary is often the first piece of a grant application reviewers will read. And, if you want all proposal summaries to follow the same format, you can create a document template for your applications to complete. This could include information such as project description, objectives, qualifications, funding needs and more.

While it’s also possible to create a field in the application for a proposal summary, and build moderation rounds based on one particular field, the document template option is a helpful way to create a fast, downloadable PDF for your team for every application. 

Denial letters

Unfortunately, your organisation won’t be able to fund everyone. Denial letters are a less fun part of the process. But, make them easier with a template letter. 

Create a template with relevant merge fields for personalisation to inform your applicants they have not been approved for grant funding. Grant rejection letters are usually short and express your respect and understanding for your participants’ efforts. 

Funding letters about coming payout processes

Also known as offer letters, funding letters include information on the payment schedule, expected amounts, and other terms and conditions related to the payout process. 

This is a great document to create as a template, as you can use relevant merge fields from your grant program in Good Grants to save time and provide the exact information each grantee needs to move forward.

Using documents in your grant management lifecycle is a powerful way to streamline your communications and track each grant as it moves forward. 

Want to learn more about documents in Good Grants? 

Documents are available to all Premium and Enterprise plans and are not subject to any limits. See document management in action or learn how Good Grants can help you manage your grant lifecycle seamlessly by trying Good Grants risk-free for 14 days.