Now with the title of ‘Best Online Application Management Solutions Firm’ for 2021 under its belt, USA based company ZoomGrants has been secured in its place as the leader of grant management software solutions. Combining top of the line technology with unrivalled customer service, its exemplary approach is as unique as it is well executed.
An online platform for the creation and management of grants, scholarships, and monetary funding schemes, ZoomGrants is an online system streamlining the process for companies and non-profits across the board. It is widely known as the easiest tool to use in its industry, with an intuitive user interface and thorough onboarding, and its reputation has been bolstered by its exemplary customer service. Above all, ZoomGrants take pride in being user-friendly, dynamic, affordable, and transferrable across all sorts of devices and technologies with its web-enabled nature. Made in the USA, many of its supporters are also US based entities, but it didn’t always start this way. In the beginning of its brand, ZoomGrants was a streamlining tool specifically made for a non-profit organisation Geoff Hamilton was working for early in his career, the backbone supporting the success of that project.
Hamilton’s job for that non-profit was managing hundreds of binders with grant recipient names and details in, evaluating the applications. It was time consuming and bloated, and not conducive to quick or effective work, and so Hamilton wanted to change all that. Thus, he took the process online, and began to work on ZoomGrants; before long, it was being used to administer for his non-profit’s grant scheme. Shortly after that, it became a world staple, and today, it is a technologically forward thinking and innovative platform used by hundreds of organisations and serving over a million applicants.
ZoomGrants was created inside the Morgan Library on the Colorado State University Campus in 2002, with its focus primarily on corporate social responsibility. The bottom line was always people, planet, and prosperity, and this is something that has survived to this day. ZoomGrants maintains it at the heart of its organisation, scaling its expectations and operations sustainably with its growth to be able to do this. In this way, despite its nature as what is now a worldwide and highly prestigious company, it has kept the individual customer at its core, using its Denver base as a jumping off point to international connections. These connections have allowed it to forge long term healthy relationships with organisations of all strokes.
In its initial days, ZoomGrants found that its first challenge was encouraging people to reject the norm and give the bold new application a chance. Especially in the early days of technological innovation’s exponential curve, the acceptance of a technologically enabled management method just seemed too out there to ever take off in the culture of the time. Of course, that swiftly became no longer the case, but it presented significant hurdles to ZoomGrant when it started. It just came down to making firm connections with the more open-minded firms that were willing to give it a chance, and then waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. ZoomGrants really got its big break when this began to happen, and with the advent of continued innovations in software and hardware both, philanthropic organisations, governmental entities, associations, and educational bodies began to realise the benefit of online applications for grant management.
Moreover, they began to realise the benefit behind ZoomGrants specifically. Because it was created by someone already well versed in the industry of grant management and who was well versed in the old system, Hamilton could create ZoomGrants with those processes in mind. Instead of throwing them out completely, he could refine them, cutting the fat from the process. Furthermore, ZoomGrants deep desire to adhere to CSR principles made it stand out in its industry and thrust it into the spotlight as an example of good practice in the budding sector of using technology in tandem with personable service to rise to the demands of critical causes and outreach. In this way, it has drawn many programmes to it over time that now make up its client base. These clients have seen it grow up from a grassroots company to a true industry leader, and thus ZoomGrants has made itself a cornerstone.
Such programmes include the CARES Act related grants, HUD Community Development and Planning Grants, Community Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnerships Grants, Emergency Solution Grants, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Grants, Continuum of Care, and many others. It also works hard to ensure it serves a wide cross section of clients, working with the arts, education, early learning, tourism, cultural heritage, transit, law, research, and housing. All of this provides simply a small snapshot of the true extent of ZoomGrants true operational acumen. Its applications have grown and developed over the years to remain fiercely competitive in its market, and now, it offers fully customisable solutions. A client can set up the application exactly as they want it, in line with organisational goals and stakeholder expectations, with easy-to-collect collatable data to take back to said stakeholders.
Its toolkit can be used for grants, scholarships, fellowships, award nominations, and even call-for-speakers. If a client is trying to wrangle a competitive application process, it is confident that it can help them to manage this. From pre-application screening to application questions, programme budget, post funding reporting, activity logs, and the ability to attach documents containing supporting evidence, ZoomGrants’ work takes into account the numerous challenges an entity trying to manage financial funding applications might face. It also simplifies the review process significantly, allowing this to happen quickly and easily even before the deadline so they can get a head-start. For each applicant, ZoomGrants makes it possible for the client to add in custom scoring criteria, voting recommendations, allocation recommendations, private notes, and committee discussion notes.
Its administrative tools are also just as powerful as the applicant management elements, with a system specially designed to be a grant manager’s personal assistant. Its easy to use toolbox of apps allows a client to maintain full control over a process without being overwhelmed by constant and unnecessary notifications from all sides, managing workflows and project elements from both zoomed out and zoomed in perspectives. The emphasis here for ZoomGrants was on creating something both fast and reliable. Again, here ZoomGrants benefitted from having a founder that came with experience of administrative work in grant management, and thus has developed a solution that addresses the biggest challenges one might face in that role. Its admin toolbox therefore emphasises decision-making tools, reporting, and communications.
Its offerings in this realm include workflow dashboards, application comparison features, weighted scoring comparisons that allow for at-a-glance views of applicants, custom email templates that trim the busywork from getting in touch with what could potentially be thousands of applicants, invoice and payment tracking, post funding reports that provide intuitive visualisations, and the ability to export data in a variety of file formats. Some of the other features that have had it proclaimed as exemplary include the number of unlimited elements. It allows for an unlimited number of users per client and per project, as well as uncapped document attachment, saved reports, and technical support. All these aspects culminate in a client-first service that ensures a client the easiest and best experience possible without hidden niggles or roadblocks.
Its honesty and transparency with its products have seen it achieve countless return customers, as well as word of mouth referrals that have been spreading around the industry like wildfire. Furthermore, its dedication to being a user-friendly option for clients has seen it implement automatically saving data, intuitive navigation, and email confirmation. Its responsive customer service team handles all issues that a client may have quickly and effectively, ensuring its clients feel appropriately supported during ZoomGrants work with them. It guarantees that a customer will be able to focus on what truly matters, and that they will be able to leave the most difficult management elements of grant administration to the programme. In this way, it allows its organisations to worry about the content, and the people they are trying to help, not the system. After all, an organisational platform should be an asset, not a roadblock.
Its pricing is also simple and easy to understand. This is something it is very serious about and ensures that none of its work comes with hidden surcharges or surprise added costs. It uses a yearly subscription and a per-program pricing system to allow a client to elect a plan that suits their budget and project accordingly, with a pricing and savings calculator available through its website to help a client through this. Of course, if any additional questions should occur to client, they are encouraged to get in contact with the team at ZoomGrants, who will be able to clear it up in a friendly and professional manner. Bringing itself up to stand head and shoulders above the competition, ZoomGrants has become well known for its cohesive branding and marketing technology alongside the watertight nature of its technology.
The two-pronged approach that has emerged from this ensures that ZoomGrants remains a household name. Dissatisfied with just working for a customer and calling it a day, ZoomGrants wishes to work with a customer to make their grant management experience seamless and easy both on the them and their applicants. Its vision therefore evolved over time to reflect this new goal; ZoomGrants wanted to cement itself as a trusted partner for its clientele, a motivation that has given it new life as it continues to set the industry standard. For over a decade, it has published and republished the latest news in its sector, specifically the elements that stand to impact its target market. This has involved speaking at numerous conferences and hosting webinars, as well as the hiring of multiple grant administrators to ensure that its support is effective and relevant.
In this way, ZoomGrants’ staff have all sat in the same seats as the clients, with an exemplary understanding of the unique pressure points that are applied to professionals its sector. This has made the entire team trusted advisors in their own rights, listening to the client’s feedback, comments, and concerns, making changes and tailoring services accordingly. ZoomGrants knows that despite the common ground in terms of processes and workflows that most of them share, no two grants programmes are ever the same, and so it must reflect this. Its sophistication in doing so is notable and beyond reproach, and completely based on user feedback. Consequentially, ZoomGrants has done an excellent job in showing instead of telling its dedication to its clients’ campaigns and their effectiveness, working hard to implement criticism and better its processes across the board.
With a motto of ‘great technology is a given, exceptional service is a promise’, it delivers uncompromising focus and a united front across its team. Having such a unity across the departments that make up its business ensure consistent excellence in service. Furthermore, it is another method by which it has streamlined itself, ensuring all parts of the whole are working towards the larger goal. Its proactive co-operation with its clients and active demonstrations of having listened to their needs has strengthened the company as a whole and made it an indispensable resource. It will be continuing to enhance this as it moves forward into the future, hoping to break into the market of using technology in collecting applications for call for speakers. This feature is paired with its traditional scholarships offering, and the launch of it has already been massively successful. The Grant Professionals Association or GPA has already lauded ZoomGrants as an outstanding company, and their go-to for managing their call for speakers. Clearly, the future for ZoomGrants is just as stable as the solid foundation of hard work it was founded on. In this way, it will continue to lead the pack in its sector and direct the future of grant management.
For further information, please contact John Hall or visit: www.zoomgrants.com/
