Home Testimonials West Kootenay Regional Arts Council Half the price, hundreds of hours saved Why West Kootenay Arts Council switched to Good Grants Industry Arts council Location Nelson, British Columbia Client since 2024 Employees 0-50 More info wkartscouncil.com About the program The West Kootenay Regional Arts Council supports a thriving arts, culture and heritage sector and acts as a catalyst to build capacity throughout the creative ecology. By convening the cultural sector and offering a comprehensive suite of programs to strengthen the regional arts community, the council looks to a future where the Kootenay region is recognised for its world-class arts and culture. The West Kootenay Regional Arts Council uses Good Grants for the rollout and administration of their art grants. Their funding program consists of six funding streams tailored to individual artists and arts and culture organisations, and provides approximately $500,000/year to arts and culture in the region. Reviewer:Lily Andersen, Grants OfficerWest Kootenay Regional Arts Council Program challenges before Good Grants Blackbaud was outdated, very difficult for our applicants and grantees to use, and in general, not user-friendly. It was also difficult for folks to fill out and submit reports.” The arts council previously used Blackbaud Grantmaking for their grantmaking system. “Blackbaud was outdated, very difficult for our applicants and grantees to use, and in general, not user-friendly. It was also difficult for folks to fill out and submit reports,” Andersen said. “The backend required staff to have a high level of technical understanding, far beyond what we require of our staff. The applicant portal was external to the main system so it required more tech support than what we were able to provide and ended up being admin-heavy.” In addition, tech help from Blackbaud was not as accessible as we wanted. If we had a problem, we often had to wait a few days for an answer, and the back and forth was inefficient. And, the ability for applicants to manage their own accounts securely was not straightforward. For example, organisations are sometimes asked to share their accounts and passwords within their organisation in order to manage applications and final reports. This led to people having several accounts in our system because they got confused and set up new ones. Then, they couldn’t access their reports and ended up requiring our help.” Access to basic functions like updating applications and running reports was tedious and time-consuming. “ The Good Grants choice Good Grants has saved us hundreds of hours of admin time managing our grants in the last year. It usually takes us approximately three months to get the results out to applicants, and this year we were able to get the results out six weeks early!! “We previously paid upwards of $20,000/year for the [Blackbaud] software, which is nearly double what we pay now for Good Grants. As a non-profit organisation in the arts sector, this is critical savings, and we can now use our additional funds to benefit the community in other ways,” Andersen said. “The applicant portal is user-friendly and visibly pleasing. We are now able to add images of previously funded projects to our applications, which helps build excitement with the process. We have also heard feedback from applicants that the application process was smooth and the software is really easy to use.” Favourite features: Applicant portal, tagging and reporting The applicant portal is easy to understand and use. We are able to walk our users through the process easily and they seem to grasp how to find things much quicker than Blackbaud.” The applicant portal is easy to understand and use. We are able to walk our users through the process easily and they seem to grasp how to find things much quicker than Blackbaud. The tagging helps us to segment different years. I don’t believe that Blackbaud has a tagging function at all, and if it does, then we never found it. The Good Grants backend is mostly straightforward, and it’s nice that there are always a few ways to get the same result. There are options for filtering and segmenting that we find really beneficial for creating reports. This also helps us to communicate with our bookkeeper about payments. Support (and a product) they can count on Truly, our most favourite part of Good Grants is that when we need help, it’s there! We have yet to wait more than a few hours to get a response and the workarounds are usually really easy.” — Lily Andersen, West Kootenay Regional Arts Council “It is so user-friendly for staff and applicants,” Andersen said. “We also like how the grant manager can see different views like the applicant view, as well as the manager’s view—all in one place without having to log into another system. Truly, our most favourite part of Good Grants is that when we need help, it’s there! We have yet to wait more than a few hours to get a response and the workarounds are usually really easy. Building the application was simple and straightforward. We still have lots to learn, but we are super happy with our decision to move to Good Grants. Thanks to your whole team for welcoming us into this new system and for all the onboarding. But especially thanks to Gabriela for being the best teacher! Also, thanks for building a software that is simple to use, nice to look at, and easy for our applicants!” Back to all testimonials