Great software. Great support. Great value.

It's easy to make custom applications and export the data from those applications, which saves time doing boring data entry work. The custom options help me offer tools to our review committees, which makes their partnerships with us more meaningful. It also has turned our application process nearly paperless, which saves us printing and paper costs, and makes looking up historical information easy.

Pros

Smarter Select is an easy-to-use platform that meets many needs for our organization. We can easily and quickly create custom applications for our variety of grant and scholarship programs. We find it very valuable to have online evaluator access, which allows our committees to get a jump start on the review process, oftentimes allowing them to reduce their number of in-person meetings, which is a big plus for busy schedules. Because application data can be easily exported into a csv/spreadsheet file, it is easy to upload to our database management system, which saves me countless hours of data entry. When I have had issues in the past, their support staff have been amazingly responsive -- my issues are often addressed and fixed the same day. I also appreciate their focus on education. Their free webinars have made it easy for me to understand the software's capabilities and new features and upgrades. All around, I'm a big fan of Smarter Select and would not be able to do my job as efficiently or easy without it!

Cons

Honestly, I have very few negative comments concerning Smarter Select. There are a few quirks to the system that you have to get used to, but once you do, it's very reliable and easy to use. Honestly, I'm hard pressed to come up with an actual con. If I can offer an improvement, it would be that once users log in, they could see any applications they have yet to complete, instead of just past applications. I would also like a way to better sort disabled past applications -- we have a lot of different apps and it gets a little crowded looking through our history. Other than that, it really is a great product.

You can't go wrong with SmarterSelect

Pros

I have done a lot of research into software that could improve the work we do at our Foundation, specifically our management of a 65+ scholarship fund portfolio that kicks off nearly $500k each year. SmarterSelect allowed us to take our manual paper process to an incredibly efficient, streamlined, paperless approach. Since implementation we have increased our application submissions by over 400%

Cons

The ONLY reason I might consider another software is for the integration aspect. Our Foundant and Blackbaud have similar products but the edge they bring is the ability to integrate with our accounting software. That said, I am still not convinced that the integration will improve our system because I truly have been so pleased with the product, and the price, that SmarterSelect has to offer.

Would like more user-friendly and customization!

Pros

I like that it meets the basic needs of our program in terms of letting students apply to our program.

Cons

The user interface feels very slow and clunky. It's not super intuitive. For example, when creating an application form, I assume I can just edit by clicking on what I see, but in order to actually edit a section, I have to click through the sections on the right hand side first, and that doesn't seem very intuitive. I also wish we could create our own statuses that would allow us to do specific autoscoring. For example, one of the things we need to do is make sure that the applicants have submitted the correct attachments. I wish we could check for that in SmarterSelect continuously throughout the application period and not just at the end.

Unconventional and Easy

We were able to create a pre-screening questionnaire for our volunteer application. A potential applicant would have to pass the pre-screening to be able to move onto the actual application. It has drastically reduced the # of 'casual' applicants and just led to less wasted time on our end, narrowing it down to those who are serious about serving our patients. We ALSO added references as a required part of the application. This cut down on time we spend on the phone tracking down references and writing them.

Pros

The ability to create and customize applications.

Cons

Sometimes it's difficult to navigate and could use more sorting options.

Applications Made Easy

We thoroughly enjoy using the SmarterSelect software for our scholarship applications and highly recommend this program.

Pros

Using the SmarterSelect software is very intuitive, and translated well from the hard copies of applications we used in the past. It is very easy to track when applications come in, and then to assign to evaluators. We are able to use the software for awards nominations, for scholarships and grants, and even for approving trademark designs. With applicants from across the country, there is easy access through the links we put on our website. Our evaluators are also able to access the applications from any location. Staff members find it easy to set up new applications with the copy feature, and adjustments area also simple to make.

Cons

We have not had any difficulties. If the staff have questions, the support team is always very timely with their responses.