Evolving Application Processes with e-CImpact

What a difference a year makes.

At this time last year, the Seabrooks team was helping Seabrooks family members working on setting up their annual request for proposal and application processes. The same is being done now in what feels like a wholly different world.

Funding positive impact in your community may look a little different this year. Seabrooks is often asked “What is everyone else doing?” as needs and priorities shift. The answer? Nearly anything you can imagine!

Some are staying as close to their standard process as possible. There may be a small tweak or two as well as adjusted service delivery expectations, but very little is changing.

Some have decided not to have a required application process at all. These folks are providing continued, stable funding to the best of their ability.

Most seem to land somewhere in the middle, and this looks different in each community and for each funder. Here are a few mini-trends among Seabrooks family members:

   • Streamlining applications to ask only the need-to-know questions.
   • Simplifying reporting requirements. This is particularly true for programs that have been shifting their service models due to the pandemic for the safety of the people that serve.
   • More closely monitoring the ability for programs to provided services.
   • Adding questions to determine reach and level of service provision to specific populations.
   • Adding board of directors and staff demographic questions to assess community representation and diversity in leadership.
   • Adjusting what information and data are required.
   • Shortening the funding period to be able to react quickly to emerging needs.
   • Reducing the number of progress reports an applicant must agree to submit.
   • Creating new funding opportunities with unique criteria for agencies responding to community needs in the wake of COVID-19.
   • Adding questions about how COVID-19 is impacting services and financial health.
   • Adjusting evaluation criteria to guide funding accurately and fairly in difficult times.

What Seabrooks sees most is organizations listening to stakeholders, evolving processes to meet community needs, and taking action to support their neighbors.

Seabrooks is proud to support these efforts with a tool that is built to evolve with you. Here’s how e-CImpact can help no matter what your process looks like this year:

   • Tailored forms, settings, instructions, and messages for each funding opportunity.
   • Simple-to- create (or copy and update!) forms to collect key information.
   • Easy-to-use, cloud-based sites for agency partners to provide information and volunteers to review that information.
   • Powerful report templates to aggregate and analyze data in a few clicks.
   • Much more!

Seabrooks is committed to your success with staff that has a full spectrum of experience and a grants management system as flexible as you are. If you are ready to explore how the right system can evolve with you at this critical time, reach out to the Seabrooks team at sales@seabrooks.com.