Feature focus: What are workspaces in Good Grants?

Good Grants is a single, online location for all participants in your program to interact with your grants.

Using an extensible system for defining user roles and associated system use permissions, your program participants only have access to views and functionality relevant to them, whether they are applicants, reviewers, the public and of course, you and your grant management team.

By accommodating all the different program participants in one location, grant managers benefit from:

• The ability to test the applicant and reviewer experience, fast
• Easily troubleshoot the program configuration
• In-context editing of content, help and hints
• Zero confusion between applicants and reviewers (there is only one location they need to know)
• Manage one location. No need to manage multiple, separate portals for applicants, reviewers or stakeholders.

To serve all the different potential participants in your program, Good Grants uses what we call “workspaces” to help switch between the different participant contexts.

Workspaces are role specific, and logically separate manager, applicant and reviewer views and functionality. To access these workspaces, you can simply click the appropriate option in the top menu, aptly labeled Manage, Apply and Review. 

The manager workspace

Accessed by clicking Manage in the top menu and for exclusive use by grant managers and their teams, the manager workspace contains all of the configuration settings and program management views and functionality.
The left hand menu only contains links to views available to the grant managers and their teams.

The applicant workspace

Accessed by clicking Apply in the top menu and for use by applicants, the applicant workspace contains all the current and future views and functionality otherwise required by an applicant to create and submit their application. If enabled, they’ll also see a menu link to the about page.
The left hand menu only contains links to views relevant to the applicant role.

Important notes:

• If no “About” page content is present – there is no need for a left hand menu and it will be hidden for a better user experience.
• Applicants will not see links to either the manager or reviewer workspace in the top menu (unless they have been provided a reviewer or grant manager role).
• Grant managers have access to this workspace in order to test the applicant experience and see what an applicant might see in the process of applying to your program opportunities.

The reviewer workspace

Accessed by clicking Review in the top menu and for use by reviewers, the review workspace contains all the current and future views and functionality required by a reviewer in your grant program. If enabled, they’ll also see a menu link to the about page and gallery.
The left hand menu only contains links to views relevant to the reviewer.

Important notes:

• If there is only one reviewing round enabled and neither a gallery nor any about content configured – there is no need for a left hand menu and it will be hidden for a better user experience.
• Reviewers do not see links to either the manager or applicant workspace in the top menu.
• Grant managers have access to this workspace in order to test the reviewer’s experience and see what a reviewer might see in the process of reviewing applications to your program.

Workspaces are a powerful way for grant managers to both test, edit and manage the participant experience in your grant program but they also play a crucial role in keeping everything nice and simple for the grant manager.