Written By:

The CRM Firm

In the evolving landscape of philanthropy and impact investment, organizations want to stand out for their commitment to driving positive change. With a focus on planetary health, one particular philanthropic client (the Client) of ours supports entrepreneurs, innovators, and community leaders across four key impact areas: Food & Agriculture, Climate & Energy, Oceans, and Community.  

Despite their noble mission, the Client faced a significant challenge in managing their grant application process efficiently. In January 2023, with a disconnected Grantee Experience in their existing Salesforce instance, the Client approached The CRM Firm (CRMF) to step in and help streamline operations and transform their entire grantee experience.   

The Business Problem— Disparate Systems Lead to Futile Data Management 

Prior to engaging with CRMF, the Client struggled with a disconnected grant application process. Applications were managed through disparate tools like Microsoft Word and Excel, leading to inefficiencies, manual errors, and a lack of centralized data management. Recognizing the need for a more streamlined approach, the Client sought the expertise of CRMF to assess the full breadth of the situation and take the necessary steps to bring their operation to a level commensurate with their mission. 

During discovery, CRMF concluded that the best approach was a complete overhaul and to leverage their Salesforce by centralizing the whole grant application process. The CRMF team would design and build a bespoke grantee experience portal, dubbed the Grant Application Hub, to provide the Client with the type of hands-off creative solution they were looking for.  

CRMF undertook a multi-phase, collaborative approach to this large project, which provided the client with clear, defined, and easily trackable steps throughout each phase, from Discovery to Go-Live.    

Phase I: Feasibility & Requirements 

The journey began with a comprehensive discovery phase, where CRMF delved deep into the Client’s business practices and processes, as well as technical and non-technical requirements.  

Through in-person and virtual sessions with the Client’s program officers, CRMF gained insights into the current grant application workflow and identified viable elements that could be preserved and areas for improvement.  

By the end of Phase I (approx. 5 weeks), CRMF had compiled a detailed set of user stories, system requirements, and process diagrams, laying the groundwork for the project’s next steps. 

Phase II: Schema Build 

Armed with the results of a thorough feasibility study and an understanding of the Client’s needs, CRMF embarked on Phase II: Schema Build. This phase focused on enhancing Salesforce’s architecture to support the security and data collection requirements of the Grant Application Hub.  

CRMF meticulously designed master-detail relationships and field configurations, collaborating closely with the Client’s system administrators to ensure seamless integration with existing processes.  

As the new infrastructure was built, CRMF maintained all visibility and access to the Objects and Fields via two Permissions Sets to keep from creating technical debt within the soon-to-be decommissioned Salesforce Profiles. 

CRMF was responsible for net new object deployments while the Client internally deployed features related to existing objects or layouts already in use (like the Account and Opportunity).  

This approach was undertaken to avoid any internal confusion regarding when users should begin use of the new features. It is this type of collaboration with stakeholders that safeguards against any deployment falling short of its technical need and alleviates the potential for any chaos amongst end users. 

Phase II was completed in 30 days and only consumed 80% of the original budget estimate. With the infrastructure built and the rest of the Grant Application Hub mapped out, it was time to start construction on the Experience.  

Phase III: The Experience Build 

With the infrastructure in place, CRMF transitioned to Phase III: The Experience Build. This phase involved configuring screen flows, custom automations, and leveraging native Salesforce applications to create an intuitive and efficient grantee experience.  

Some of the Grantee Experience requirements included:  

• • Automatically creating Experience Users with the correct security permissions based on their Role 
  • Allowing Applicants to see and interact with multiple Grant Applications within the same logged-in Experience 
  • Allowing multiple individuals to contribute to a grant application prior to its submission 
  • Saving progress iteratively throughout a potentially lengthy process 
  • Ability to upload and tag required and optional attachments 
  • Enabling reporting on JEDI (Justice, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion) metrics for staff, executives, and board members 
  • Ability to show applicants scheduled and received grant payments 
  • Allowance for portal users to set goals for funded grant money, which, if awarded, could be reported on by rendering the previously captured qualitative/quantitative details from the application stage 
  • Allowance for applicants to review their complete application before final submission 
  • Allowance for Program Officers to bounce a previously submitted application to the applicant for additional modification 
  • Data submitted from within the Grantee Portal will not be injected throughout the enterprise objects of Salesforce (Accounts, Opportunities, Contacts, etc..) until approved by the Program Officer 

CRMF delivered a solution tailored to the Client’s needs and specifications. By embracing Salesforce platform advancements and technical innovations, we ensured the longevity and stability of the solution, providing the Client with a powerful tool to streamline grant management processes. 

The Result 

In just four months, CRMF transformed the Client’s grant application process, centralized their data management, enhanced security, and improved overall efficiency. By prioritizing collaboration, innovation, and a deep understanding of the Client’s needs, we delivered a solution that exceeded expectations.  

The new Grant Application Hub empowers the Client to deploy funds more effectively, supporting the changemakers driving progress in planetary health. As the Client continues its mission to make the world a better place, CRMF stands ready to support them every step of the way, building impact one grant at a time.