GrantIS

For the first two decades of its existence, Meyer Memorial Trust accepted printed applications via postal mail. Our first database was handwritten on 5x7 cards. Moving these primitive records to a FileMaker database in 1988 was a giant leap forward, but by 2003, we were coming up against limitations of that database. We had dabbled in online applications during 2004-2006 through our Support for Teacher Initiatives and Small Grants programs, but those early electronic applications were not especially user-friendly and did not ‘talk” to our database, making them less than ideal.

In 2006, MMT conducted a survey of available commercial software and found that the few products available were extremely expensive, non-customizable, and would only run on Microsoft Windows (MMT is an all-Macintosh office). After much research and deliberation, we embarked on an ambitious project to develop our own online grants management system. Consistent with our culture of openness and sharing, we decided to build it using LAMP(Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP)-based Open Source Software, which would reduce annual licensing costs and could potentially be shared with others.

After several years of development by consultants and in-house technical staff, Version 1.0 of GrantIS is now complete. GrantIS includes an online application system where applicants can store their organization’s profile, apply for grants, check the status of their applications, review their organization’s application histories, and upload reports for active grants. On the foundation side, the system allows MMT staff to quickly confirm tax-exempt status through a Guidestar Charity Check plug-in, review submitted applications and supplemental materials, create grant agreements, and track and monitor reports and payments.

We’ve learned that building your own software from scratch is much more challenging and time consuming than we had ever anticipated. However, we are pleased with the results to date. A benefit of customized software is that it can be updated and improved as necessary, so GrantIS will be an ever-evolving project in which we add features and make changes in response to suggestions from applicants and staff. Although the software code is currently too customized to be useful to others, in the future we plan to review options to create a shareable version that will be available to other foundations.

We encourage you to take a look at GrantIS. For questions, suggestions or to provide feedback about GrantIS, please contact Director of Grants Administration Phoebe O'Leary using thisform.