We are working toward "less paper" in our office, so Community Force has helped us keep everything all in one place. Scholars United is an amazing resource with their videos, and support has been amazing. I have contacted them in an absolute panic some days, and they have always been helpful and efficient. I could not ask for better service! They always explain things in the easiest way possible and provide screenshots to show me what I need to know. A+ service!

The ease of use! I enjoy creating sections for my applications because it is very self-directed and easy to understand. With minimal issues I have crafted multiple scholarship and grant applications, and each and every one is customizable with lots of options! We also enjoy learning all of the new functions we can utilize as time goes on. It's nice knowing that when I set something up in CF it will work. One thing we could explore in the future is blind applications.

What I like least is the limitations on reports that can be run from the system. There is a built-in AdHoc Reports feature, but it is limited to Excel. I would love for there to be different ways to run the reports - mainly Microsoft Word or Publisher. Our issue is we have essays with some of our scholarships, and fitting an essay box on an Excel spreadsheet while still trying to make it user friendly isn't possible! I would love to see reports where each each qualifying student could have all of the information needed on one page of a report. So if there are 15 students who qualify, there would be 15 pages, one for each student, in the report. Easier to read than an Excel spreadsheet that scrolls and scrolls.

We have been a CommunityForce customer for just under a year now. Before making the switch to the CommunityForce solution, we utilized a home grown custom built solution to support 6 individual scholarship programs. As with many home-grown systems, it had reached a point of no longer being feasible for us to support. But most importantly, we finally came to the realization as an organization that we are not in the business of being software developers. Our purpose is our mission, which is providing educational opportunities to women. After an exhaustive search, we decided on the CommunityForce solution. It is a decision that we are fortunate to be reminded of daily as being the right one. As you can imagine coming from a custom-built solution that was tailored around our business processes, there were certain facets of the system unique to our organization. These facets became embedded in our operating policy, which turned into requirements for CommunityForce. CommunityForce stepped up to the plate and in short order added the functionality into their solution to accommodate our uniqueness. To date they continue to step up to provide solutions vs. presenting barriers to our requests. As with any implementation of new technology there are always challenges, but the CommunityForce team was always and continues to be there to help us overcome them. Because of their implementation approach and intuitiveness of the solution, we are fully capable ourselves of building additional application workflows with the support of the CommunityForce team as needed. I think the best way sum up our experience with CommunityForce to date is to say this. Even though we are fully aware CommunityForce has hundreds of customers like ourselves, we are made to feel like we are their only customer. We are fully committed to being a customer for life!

Support Team. Ease of use. Cost to operate compared to the previous solution. Road map for the future.

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We found that our users of our scholarship platform found the software was easy to input information and that the technology requirements was not overwhelming. In addition, we found once we learned the system, we, as administrators found it easier to work with. If you have strong skills in technology you will love the autonomy of this system.

It was not always easy to go into the system to clone the application and then make necessary changes in the new application. It did require a lot of learning and reviewing numerous videos to find the best way to proceed. In all honesty, this was a self service platform and one needed to become very adept at the technology required to fully implement the application platform. In addition, it was not possible to have multiple applications opened, released and tracked simultaneously and easily which was a requirement for our college saving account application. By means of tracking, there was no way to develop student profiles and connect email communication directly to the student that would cover an extended period of time.

Time management by implementing and utilizing the Scholarship Management Software is phenomenal. Having the ability to bundle and send applications to reviewers within 24 hours of the application deadlines is incredible. We were able to accept applications over a 3-4 month period. Then bundle, send to reviewers, score and award all within a very short time frame (2 weeks) that would have taken 30 days or more. Electronic documentation of an unbiased and blind review process is easy and efficient.

We found the integration of the Scholarship Management Software super easy to use and implement with our applicants. Having a one to many application allowed applicants to apply for multiple scholarships increasing the overall number of applicants for consideration. Plus the software allowed us to customize questions, outline donor specific criteria for each scholarship, streamline recommendation letters with specific questions and the ability to upload supporting documents.

The most challenging aspect is that we are in the system with both grant management and scholarship management sporadically throughout the year. We implemented the software at a time Community Force was launching the new platform, therefore our training was originally on the old platform. Additional Training was and is available however, having a step by step written instructions work best for us. Once you have an overall knowledge of how the system works, keeping the online support current with program changes becomes essential. Our only other challenge is the inability to call and talk directly with support. We have found articulating the challenge through email or communication threads does not also expediate a solution quickly. The support is overall great.

Customer service responds incredibly fast. Users log the issue through the Zen Desk and an email is sent almost immediately for initial troubleshooting, after which a tech representative follows up with step-by-step assistance. Community Force's customer service is their strongest asset.

Having the ability to set up a scholarship program with over 130 scholarships with varied criteria was a great benefit. We are able to have one common application that matches student information to each scholarship fund's criteria. The program tracks scholarship award amounts annually, has the ability for students to accept their scholarship via the same application, and we can communicate with students through the program with notifications of upcoming deadlines and other vital information. The common application can also be cloned and updated each year so a new application is not created from zero yearly.

We do wish a text messaging option were available to communicate since students are very text-driven.