Fund distribution software has become an indispensable tool for organizations looking to streamline their grant and scholarship management processes. These platforms offer a range of benefits, from reducing administrative burdens to enhancing transparency and improving donor relationships.
Automating tedious tasks, ensuring compliance, and providing real-time insights - These are just a few of the things fund distribution software can handle for you. Leveraging software allows nonprofits to focus on what truly matters – making a meaningful impact in their communities. Let's explore four of the best options available and see how they can revolutionize your organization's giving process.
When it comes to efficient and secure fund distribution, SendGrant stands out as a top contender. This innovative platform is designed specifically for organizations that need to distribute scholarship, grant, and award funds electronically. Let's dive into what makes SendGrant a powerful choice for nonprofits.
Pricing:
SendGrant offers a unique pricing model that allows organizations to test the waters before fully committing. Your first five transfers are free, giving you a chance to experience the platform's capabilities without any upfront cost. For specific pricing details beyond the initial free transfers, there are two different tiers available:
Pay as you go: $25/transaction
Volume: $5/transaction + $1,000/year. Best for organizations that send more than 50 transactions a year
3 Key Features:
1. Safe Electronic Funds Transfer:
SendGrant's primary focus is on secure and efficient fund distribution. Their electronic funds transfer system eliminates the need for physical checks or wire transfers, significantly reducing delays and potential errors. This feature ensures that funds reach recipients quickly and securely, streamlining the entire distribution process.
2. Comprehensive Client Portal:
One of SendGrant's standout features is its centralized client portal. This robust platform serves both program and accounting managers, offering a unified space for all fund-related activities. The portal provides easy visibility to the status payments, grantees, and payees.
3. Detailed Transaction Log:
Transparency and accountability are crucial in fund distribution. SendGrant addresses this need with its detailed transaction log feature. This tool provides full visibility for organization staff, creating a comprehensive audit trail. This not only simplifies reporting but also proves invaluable for dispute resolution, should any issues arise.
4. Notifications:
Only SendGrant provides notifications to all parties in the payment process. This includes the payment originator, payment approver, receiver of the payment (e.g. universities), and the grantee/student.
5. SendGrant Network:
For scholarship payments to universities, only SendGrant has a pre-built database of university contacts to send payments on behalf of students. No more researching and calling to find out how and where to send scholarship payments.
SendGrant's focus on security, efficiency, and transparency makes it an excellent choice for organizations looking to modernize their fund distribution processes.
Submittable offers a robust platform that goes beyond simple fund distribution, providing a comprehensive solution for the entire grant management lifecycle. Let's explore what makes Submittable a strong contender in the fund distribution software market.
Pricing:
Submittable's pricing is not publicly available on their website. They offer customized pricing based on your organization's specific needs and scale. To get a quote, you'll need to contact their sales team directly. Their claim is that individualized pricing ensures you're only paying for the features and capacity you need.
3 Key Features:
1. End-to-End Program Management:
Submittable shines with its ability to handle the entire lifecycle of your grant or scholarship program. From the initial application process to final reporting, the platform offers tools for every stage. This includes a drag-and-drop form builder for creating custom applications, collaborative review tools, and impact reporting features. For payments, it appears that Submittable is using a third-party, so visibly to payment status and notifications may not be available to the user.
2. Powerful Review and Decision-Making Tools:
One of Submittable's standout features is its suite of review and decision-making tools. The platform allows for customized review workflows, including options for blind reviews to reduce bias. You can set up multi-stage review processes, assign reviewers, and use built-in scoring systems. These tools help ensure fair, efficient, and transparent decision-making processes.
3. Security and Compliance:
In the world of fund distribution, security and compliance are paramount. The platform also helps organizations stay compliant with relevant regulations, reducing legal risks and ensuring that funds are distributed appropriately.
Submittable's comprehensive approach makes it an excellent choice for organizations looking for a single platform to manage their entire grant or scholarship program, from application to impact measurement.
While manual MS Excel sheets may seem like a simple and cost-effective solution for managing fund distribution, they come with significant limitations such as no automated notification capabilities. Despite their widespread use in nonprofits, relying on manual data entry can lead to inefficiencies, errors, and increased administrative overhead.
Pricing:
MS Excel is often part of a larger Microsoft Office package, typically requiring a subscription that starts from $6 per user per month, depending on the features needed.
3 Key Features:
1. Customizable Templates for Tracking:
Excel provides the flexibility to create custom templates for tracking fund distribution. Nonprofits can set up their own workflows and reporting mechanisms, tailoring the spreadsheets to fit their specific needs. However, the process requires a deep understanding of Excel functions and formulas, and maintaining these templates can become complex as the volume of transactions grows.
2. Manual Data Entry and Reconciliation:
Managing fund distribution with Excel involves significant manual data entry, which increases the risk of human error. Additionally, reconciling data across multiple sheets, such as donor information and transaction records, can be time-consuming and prone to mistakes, especially in larger organizations.
3. Limited Automation and Scalability:
While Excel can handle basic fund distribution tasks, it lacks the automation capabilities of dedicated fund distribution platforms. As your organization grows, scaling processes in Excel becomes cumbersome, leading to inefficiencies and potential delays in fund distribution.
Despite its flexibility, relying on manual MS Excel sheets for fund distribution can quickly become a burden as organizations scale, leading to data integrity issues and inefficient workflows.
Bill.com offers a comprehensive solution for organizations looking to optimize their financial operations beyond just fund distribution. With its robust features for managing accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), spend control, and expenses, Bill.com helps nonprofits streamline cash flow and automate payment processes.
Pricing
Bill.com’s pricing is flexible based on the size and needs of your organization. Ranges from $7 to $29, plus transaction costs. Enterprises should contact Bill’s sales team for a personalized quote.
3 Key Features:
1. Automated AP and AR Management:
Bill provides a centralized platform to automate accounts payable and accounts receivable processes. This automation not only reduces manual workloads but also enhances the accuracy and timeliness of payments, helping nonprofits improve their cash flow and avoid delays in fund distribution.
2. Spend and Expense Control:
With integrated spend and expense management tools, Bill allows organizations to monitor and control expenditures in real time. This feature is crucial for nonprofits that need to ensure every dollar is allocated appropriately, enabling better decision-making regarding fund allocation and distribution.
3. Unified Financial Management Platform:
Bill consolidates AP, AR, spend, and expense management into a single platform, offering full visibility into an organization’s financial health. This unified approach simplifies reporting, ensures compliance, and eliminates the need for multiple disconnected systems, making financial management more efficient. However, typically a program manager would not have access to the platform for visibility and tracking purposes.
Bill stands out as a versatile tool for those seeking to optimize cash flow while maintaining control over their financial processes, from payments to spend management.
While all four software options offer valuable features, SendGrant emerges as the top choice for organizations focused specifically on efficient and secure fund distribution. What sets SendGrant apart is its unique SendGrant Network feature.
The SendGrant Network is a game-changer in the world of fund distribution. This feature allows organizations to send funds to previously verified receiving organizations, such as universities or other nonprofits. This network effect significantly reduces the time and effort required to gather and verify banking information for fund recipients.
The SendGrant Network not only saves time but also enhances security and reduces the risk of errors in fund distribution. By leveraging pre-verified information, organizations can ensure that funds are sent to the correct recipients with minimal risk of misdirection.
Furthermore, SendGrant's laser focus on fund distribution means that all of its features are optimized for this specific purpose. While other platforms offer fund distribution as part of a broader suite of services, SendGrant has honed its tools to address the unique challenges and needs of organizations that regularly distribute grants, scholarships, and awards.
In conclusion, while each of the software options we've explored offers valuable features, SendGrant's specialized focus on fund distribution and its innovative SendGrant Network make it the standout choice for organizations prioritizing efficient, secure, and streamlined fund distribution processes.
We’ve shared four of the best fund distribution software options, but how do you know which one is best for your unique needs? To help you out, we recommend that you consider the following factors:
1. Organization Size and Complexity
Small nonprofits might be looking for user-friendly interfaces and essential features. Large foundations on the other hand might want more comprehensive solutions with advanced reporting.
2. Primary Focus
Why do you want this software to help with your fund distribution? If you’re primarily focusing on fund distribution only specialized software like SendGrant. However, if you’re looking for something to help you with full grant lifecycle management we’d recommend using it in tandem with SmarterSelect.
3. Budget
Even if the solution they are considering is what they consider to be the best fund distribution software, most organizations might have to make their final choice based on their budget. As you’re shopping we recommend you assess pricing models and choose one that aligns with your financial capabilities. Consider long-term value and potential ROI, not just upfront costs.
4. Integration Needs
Not all software plays nice together. So consider your current software tools and check compatibility with each option. It might be best for your organization to prioritize solutions that offer seamless integration with your existing systems.
5. Reporting and Analytics
It’s no secret that when you’re giving away money - whether it’s grants, scholarships, or some other monetary reward - there’s a lot of paperwork involved to ensure compliance with local and federal government regulations.
That said, you should assess your reporting needs and choose software with appropriate capabilities. We recommend you consider solutions offering real-time insights and customizable dashboards.
6. User-Friendliness
Software won’t do you a bit of good if you can never figure out how to use it. Evaluate the learning curve for each platform. Sign up for demos and free trials where you can, and consider solutions with intuitive interfaces to minimize training time. It’s also a good idea to ask if the software you are thinking of purchasing has tutorials and knowledge base articles in case you ever need to reference them.
7. Security and Compliance
While no one wants to think about cybercrime, it’s something we all have to consider when evaluating software for anything that has to do with money. That said, whatever software you purchase, you want to make sure it meets industry standards for data protection. Furthermore, check for compliance features relevant to your organization.
8. Customer Support
What happens if something goes wrong in the middle of a transaction? Assess the level of support offered by each software you’re considering. Ask about things like availability, response times, and training resources as well.
9. Mobile Accessibility
We’re all on the go these days, so it’s important to determine if the software you’re considering has mobile access. Mobile accessible solutions (that are encrypted and protected!) are typically best for organizations these days. This is especially true if your team works remotely.
We hope by the time you have finished reading this post, you have determined SendGrant is the best option for your organization. If you would like to try it before you buy it, click here. You can get your first five transactions for free!