GivingData has become a trusted source of grant information in departments across the Foundation. We've replaced countless shadow spreadsheets, streamlined meeting materials, and cut down on all the data discrepancies those shadow spreadsheets create. We've moved our application process online and begun to expand grant monitoring for learning purposes (less emphasis on the "audit" role of reporting). We've also connected systems through APIs with both our website (to report grant data seamlessly) and Salesforce, which has bridged disparate data sets. We are currently in the process of sunsetting another stand-alone database; work that would not have been possible prior to our migration to GivingData. Finally, we benefit from the implementation, project management, and general philanthropic expertise of the GivingData staff. More than functionality, large scale data migrations and databases require adept change management skills. GivingData staff have them, and also help structure projects and engagements so that foundation staff can build or improve their own change management skills. We've continued to feel that support two years after our initial migration. Their annual client convening also offers incredible professional development opportunities beyond "how to use GivingData." The company seeks to help clients think about ways to further leverage the software in their work, but also how to learn skills that their daily jobs might not build. This probably sounds overly positive, but truly our experience has been so positive.

GivingData is an intuitive software at all user levels. For casual users (e.g. President or VP of Grant Programs), the dashboards provide a quick and easy-to-read overview of progress towards the key performance indicators they are tracking. For program officers, GivingData has a strong scenario planning tool that helps them plan their work for the current and future years. For grants management staff and other power users, GivingData is fast, streamlined, and easy to configure to a particular workflow. Finally, the Learning (Measurement/Assessment) module leverages evaluation data that was previously decentralized and difficult to access, and allows us to view foundation-wide metrics for reporting to the board and other stakeholders.

The current iteration of contact management could use improvement (which I understand is under development). But this has similar functionality to all other grants management platforms, and dedicated CRMs like Salesforce. I just don't think anyone has yet cracked the code on CRM for grants management.

Given the product is used by various organizations, the out of the box product does require some customization depending on use.

The software is very intuitive. GD responds quickly to suggestions and implements less complicated fixes very quickly.

I highly value GivingData because of their deep commitment to providing a modern platform making it easier for grantmaking entities to achieve their mission. They honestly and earnestly work with clients, greeting challenges as an opportunity to further their offerings. Selection and implementation of a grant management system is stressful and fraught with pitfalls. The GivingData team helped soften the inevitable stress by providing solutions efficiently. Through the use of agile methodology, they delivered (mostly) on time and budget. Overall it was a fairly smooth implementation from data/document migration (out of GIFTS Classic) to training new users. The product is very easy to learn and intuitive to use with a clean interface. Core components are in place with enhancements and new functionality being released all the time. Overall the functionality is reliable and the few occasions it has not been they have been responsive. The tax verification, document management and budget forecasting functionality match or beat its competitors. I love that they already have a track record of moving data across platforms. We have received positive feedback and solid adoption from staff at all levels from programs to grants to finance to leadership. Their non-technical staff has experience working in a wide range of foundations and bring that understanding to bear when helping on an implementation or when building functionality.

The contact management functionality is a little underdeveloped and has a 2018 target for improvement. The process of building individual merge field-based templates is time consuming and they lack some materials that a more established system may offer. There is still room to improve some of their data visualization offerings, ability to save/share/customize how query results are displayed, and batch processing. Admin tool is being updated regularly and it is still a few versions away from where we need it to be. What works is good but it is not all there yet.