This guide is intended for those who will determine the application review process within Benevity Grants (NGE) – your new Community Investment platform. It should be reviewed by the Program Administrators below to ensure preparation for and completion of the implementation activities.
What is Benevity Grants?
Benevity Grants is a community investment browser-based SaaS platform that will streamline your processes to make program management more efficient, more impactful and better aligned with your strategic goals. That means your program runs smoothly while your administrative load gets lighter. Configuration is divided into two parts: Applicant/External facing (forms and surveys) & Admin facing (Management Interface).
Overview
The approval workflow describes everything that happens within the management interface, from when an application is submitted to the time it is approved or declined. Many of the configuration decisions that will be made during your Grants implementation will be based upon the review process you have in place.
Objectives
Throughout the Grants implementation, we will work to ensure that the approval process is as efficient as possible for all of your internal administrators and reviewers by setting up the following:
- Routing to the appropriate reviewers automatically if required
- Appropriate status names that reflect the stage of the review process
- Automatic assignment based on status changes
Technical Details
There are several technical requirements for the Approval Workflow that will be required during your implementation:
- Entire end to end process for review
- Status Names and rules for assignment
- Review types (scored review, recommendation, single decision)
- Email notifications to be triggered to the applicant when the status changes
Recommendations
We find that our clients have the best post-launch experience when they consider Benevity’s best practices and recommendations. Here are some related to the Approval Process:
- Identify any stakeholders and key decision makers within your existing approval process. Start the conversations with them to identify any pain points and get their buy in for any changes to the existing process as early as possible.
- Where possible, plan to bring reviewers into the system to assess the grant application to eliminate the external paper trail
- The approval process should be appropriately structured based on program type of scope of funding (ex: Does a $5000 request need to go through the same assessment as a $50,000 request?)
- Think about the type of review that may come into play as a grant application is assessed. Would an unbiased scorecard be helpful at some stages, and leaving only a comment at others?
Next steps
Get a head start! Review the Technical Details above and start work on gathering the technical requirements prior to kicking off your implementation.
Items you should gather for your approval process prior to implementation are:
- A complete list of all the steps and actions taken when an assessing a grant application
- If routing rules are applicable (ie: applications from X state go to Y team) include these details
- The implementation team will be able to offer suggestions and ways to streamline your process, but it will be very helpful for you to have your current state mapped out.
- Try to already identify which steps are required (ex. for internal auditing purposes), and where we might have room to shake things up
- A complete list of the different teams or individuals who take part in the assessment process
Workflow Example:
- Applications are submitted and routed to the appropriate offices based on state selected
- If State = Washington, routes to Washington Office. All other states direct to HQ
- Office reps review the application and fill in a scoring card
- All scored above 60% are advanced, below are declined
- Compliance team assesses the applications – if any red flags, sent directly to Community Investment team
- Any applications over $50K will be sent to the VP for approval
- Sent to Community Investment team for final approval
Team List Example:
- Office Reps
- Compliance Team
- VP Office
- Community Investment Team