Issue 5 2021

10 Acquisition International - Issue 5 2021 Mar21316 The Minds Behind the New Era of Grant Management Now with the title of ‘Best Online Application Management Solutions Firm’ for 2021 under its belt, USA based company ZoomGrants has been secured in its place as the leader of grant management software solutions. Combining top of the line technology with unrivalled customer service, its exemplary approach is as unique as it is well executed. n online platform for the creation and management of grants, scholarships, and monetary funding schemes, ZoomGrants is an online system streamlining the process for companies and non-profits across the board. It is widely known as the easiest tool to use in its industry, with an intuitive user interface and thorough onboarding, and its reputation has been bolstered by its exemplary customer service. Above all, ZoomGrants take pride in being user- friendly, dynamic, affordable, and transferrable across all sorts of devices and technologies with its web-enabled nature. Made in the USA, many of its supporters are also US based entities, but it didn’t always start this way. In the beginning of its brand, ZoomGrants was a streamlining tool specifically made for a non-profit organisation Geoff Hamilton was working for early in his career, the backbone supporting the success of that project. Hamilton’s job for that non-profit was managing hundreds of binders with grant recipient names and details in, evaluating the applications. It was time consuming and bloated, and not conducive to quick or effective work, and so Hamilton wanted to change all that. Thus, he took the process online, and began to work on ZoomGrants; before long, it was being used to administer for his non-profit’s grant scheme. Shortly after that, it became a world staple, and today, it is a technologically forward thinking and innovative platform used by hundreds of organisations and serving over a million applicants. ZoomGrants was created inside the Morgan Library on the Colorado State University Campus in 2002, with its focus primarily on corporate social responsibility. The bottom line was always people, planet, and prosperity, and this is something that has survived to this day. ZoomGrants maintains it at the heart of its organisation, scaling its expectations and operations sustainably with its growth to be able to do this. In this way, despite its nature as what is now a worldwide and highly prestigious company, it has kept the individual customer at its core, using its Denver base as a jumping off point to international connections. These connections have allowed it to forge long term healthy relationships with organisations of all strokes. In its initial days, ZoomGrants found that its first challenge was encouraging people to reject the norm and give the bold new application a chance. Especially in the early days of technological innovation’s exponential curve, the acceptance of a technologically enabled management method just seemed too out there to ever take off in the culture of the time. Of course, that swiftly became no longer the case, but it presented significant hurdles to ZoomGrant when it started. It just came down to making firm connections with the more open-minded firms that were willing to give it a chance, and then A waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. ZoomGrants really got its big break when this began to happen, and with the advent of continued innovations in software and hardware both, philanthropic organisations, governmental entities, associations, and educational bodies began to realise the benefit of online applications for grant management. Moreover, they began to realise the benefit behind ZoomGrants specifically. Because it was created by someone already well versed in the industry of grant management and who was well versed in the old system, Hamilton could create ZoomGrants with those processes in mind. Instead of throwing them out completely, he could refine them, cutting the fat from the process. Furthermore, ZoomGrants deep desire to adhere to CSR principles made it stand out in its industry and thrust it into the spotlight as an example of good practice in the budding sector of using technology in tandem with personable service to rise to the demands of critical causes and outreach. In this way, it has drawn many programmes to it over time that now make up its client base. These clients have seen it grow up from a grassroots company to a true industry leader, and thus ZoomGrants has made itself a cornerstone. Such programmes include the CARES Act related grants, HUD Community Development and Planning Grants, Community Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnerships Grants, Emergency Solution Grants, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS Grants, Continuum of Care, and many others. It also works hard to ensure it serves a wide cross section of clients, working with the arts, education, early learning, tourism, cultural heritage, transit, law, research, and housing. All of this provides simply a small snapshot of the true extent of ZoomGrants true operational acumen. Its applications have grown and developed over the years to remain fiercely competitive in its market, and now, it offers fully customisable solutions. A client can set up the application exactly as they want it, in line with organisational goals and stakeholder expectations, with easy-to-collect collatable data to take back to said stakeholders. Its toolkit can be used for grants, scholarships, fellowships, award nominations, and even call-for-speakers. If a client is trying to wrangle a competitive application process, it is confident that it can help them to manage this. From pre-application screening to application questions, programme budget, post funding reporting, activity logs, and the ability to attach documents containing supporting evidence, ZoomGrants’ work takes into account the numerous challenges an entity trying to manage financial funding applications might face. It also simplifies the review process significantly, allowing this to happen quickly and easily even before the deadline so they can get a head- start. For each applicant, ZoomGrants makes it possible for the client