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Proper planning, clear communication among stakeholders, and a focused long-term outlook can guard foundations against debilitating stress and ensure a smooth transition to better technology.
The philanthropic community has enjoyed many benefits from the rapid development of
grants management technology. Communication, workflow, and collaboration can now be enhanced and augmented digitally, making processes more streamlined than ever before. Although this development is positive, it comes with new challenges. Once a grantmaker determines the right software for its needs, it still
must implement it to reap the benefits. This can be a stressful project to take on for any funder — tech-savvy or not.
But grantmakers don’t have to suffer from implementation-caused anxiety, and they certainly shouldn’t shy away from seeking out the precise technology they need simply because implementation takes time and effort.
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THE CHALLENGES WE ALL FACEWhen faced with an ambitious undertaking, the best place to start is understanding the difficulties that may lie ahead. Change affects every person and every organization differently. At least one of the following hurdles will most likely crop up during a technology implementation:
Expertise (or lack thereof) Technological know-how is always in high demand. Not every organization can sustain its ownin-house tech team, making implementations challenging but not impossible.
Time (or lack thereof) We can’t ignore the fact that implementations take time, and we wouldn’t try to argue otherwise. Everyone may not be able to devote months of full-time work to the endeavor, but a time commitment shouldn’t be feared any more than investing money toward improvements.
Organizational self-awareness (or lack thereof) Technology supports defined processes, so going into a project with a clear sense of how your organization functions is critical. The same holds true for your data. You may have collected a lot of data over the years, but it must be ready to migrate to the new software.
Fear of change People don’t always like change. It’s hard to upend systems and habits that have been considered dependable and effective. But change should be seen as an opportunity rather than something negative. The benefits of streamlining processes and reducing administrative burdens through an online system are worth temporary discomfort.
Forgetting the business case If you forget why you’re embarking on an implementation to begin with, you won’t get very far. Throughout the implementation process, you and your staff must remember that grants management software helps you increase the quality and efficiency of work, eliminate human error, increase transparency, and save time for your staff and your grantees.
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THE KEYS TO A SEAMLESS IMPLEMENTATIONImplementing new grants management software can be an exciting transition for your team, but it’s up to leadership to rise above the inherent challenges and craft that experience. Taking these five tips into consideration will make your implementation process as smooth as possible:
1. MASTER THE ART OF CHANGE MANAGEMENTBefore you take any action, reflect on how change affects your organization. After all, your organization is made up of people, and people don’t always relish change. Whether it’s fear of technology or fear of failure, change can create an atmosphere that can doom your project from the start. Acknowledging these fears and adhering to some of the tenets of the art of “change management” can correct this and start your project down the right path. There are several ways to be a master of change management:
Articulate a vision. Know your project goals. Reflect on pain points and what you want to achieve (e.g., increase transparency, streamline processes, improve reporting, improve the user experience, etc.).
Make the case. Understand (and communicate to the team) how achieving these goals will help them do their day-to-day jobs better, get to where the organization wants to be, and make the kind of impact the organization sets out to achieve.
Engage the team. No one can tell you your team’s concerns and hopes better than your staff can. Arrange in-person discussions, and listen to different members and departments. When people feel like a change is happening to them, they’re more likely to resist it. They need to be a part of the process for it to succeed. Early engagement also helps you identify supporters who can influence the rest of the team. Enthusiastic individuals can spread excitement and help win over slow adopters.
Support and empower the team. You have an entire group of people who all have to learn a new system. As different people, they will experience varying degrees of difficulty. It will take time to get everyone up to speed. People will experience a smoother transition if they know the end goal and its value and if they feel comfortable with and confident in the direction the organization is taking.
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THE KEYS TO A SEAMLESS IMPLEMENTATION2. GRANTMAKER, KNOW THYSELFBelieve it or not, implementing technology provides a great opportunity for self-discovery. In fact, the more you know about your team, your processes, and your data, the smoother the implementation will go. It may even present a chance to improve upon your current grantmaking practices. Take advantage of the perfect opportunity to:
Review your existing data.Are there inconsistencies? Can you reconcile those inconsistencies? Which historical data is necessary? Are there any you can get rid of?
Analyze your reporting needs.How will you capture your grantees’ financial information and proof of compliance? How will you document your grantees’ project activities and lessons learned? And how will you handle results and impact reporting?
Define roles and responsibilities for the implementation. Who is leading the project internally? Who are your internal champions? Who else will play vital roles and be required to actively participate in the implementation?
Define your workflows.Every foundation has its own way of doing things. Programs vary from funder to funder, as do grantees. The issues’ complexity requires the process to be flexible. But know your processes, and be ready to collaborate with the implementation team to map them to your new grants management system. Spending time mapping and changing processes before implementation prevents delays and rework.
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THE KEYS TO A SEAMLESS IMPLEMENTATION3. CREATE YOUR TECHNOLOGY ROLL-OUT PLANThorough planning will save leadership from spending all its time putting out fires. As you onboard a new grants management system, there are several tactics that will ease the strain on everyone involved:
Set realistic timelines. No one benefits from constantly missing deadlines while trying to fast-track a project. Create bite-sized milestones along the way to foster a sense of momentum and progress that will help push your project over the finish line. Implementing a new tool during a slower time of the year will allow staff to better prioritize tasks.
And planning extra time is never a bad idea — a big endeavor often takes longer than you might think, and being ahead of schedule will only be encouraging. But it’s essential that you take the time to make sure everyone is fully trained, comfortable with the new system, and committed to using it instead of backsliding to old methods.
Create a training plan. Design one that empowers your staff, within each department, to successfully use the platform. Make sure it’s clear, detailed, and encouraging.
Develop internal and external communication strategies. This will enable you to continue to address any needs or incorporate any feedback from staff or the vendor’s implementation team. Incorporating the standard use of “feedback loops” (regularly scheduled and agreed-upon feedback sessions) will give you the ability to iterate and adapt as needed as the process moves forward.
Build out a long-term plan for maintaining data quality. Everyone who uses the new grants management system must understand the implications of high-quality data. Articulate to your team why it is so important to keep your data clean, and set a goal to achieve this. Clean data isn’t an IT issue — it’s a people issue. Executive-level buy-in helps validate the importance of high-quality data and the long-term impact it will have on your grantmaking.
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THE KEYS TO A SEAMLESS IMPLEMENTATION4. AFTER INITIAL TRAINING COMES LONG-TERM TRAININGTraining shouldn’t end after the standard end user training is over.
Continued success is reliant on creating a training plan with a long-term vision in mind. The best cases of technology adoption are the result of training that is role-based and shows value to each user.
Identify a system administrator who will own the training plan. Owning the training allows organizations to proactively manage changes in staff and processes. Then, train any admins who can act as reliable resources for the rest of the end users. Admin training and administering the system on an ongoing basis is best done by a limited few so they gain deep knowledge and can facilitate additional structured changes.
Choose different leads from different organizational areas (grants management, program, etc.) to become super-users who can help coach and drive acceptance throughout the organization. These leads can meet periodically to stay abreast of how adoption and training progresses. Often, vendors will have online communities, in-person events, or conferences for users. Take advantage of them all.
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THE KEYS TO A SEAMLESS IMPLEMENTATION5. KEEP THE TEAM ACCOUNTABLE
Don’t forget that accountability is a two-way street. Your internal team members should be aware of milestones and have realistic goals set for any tasks they need to achieve, from the preparation phase through onboarding and training.
Additionally, you should hold the vendor’s team accountable to the time frame set forth at the beginning of the project. If you don’t consider yourself a technology expert, it may be intimidating to hold the implementation team accountable. But this is your project. They will walk away at some point, but you, your staff, and the people your foundation helps will experience the long-term consequences of the vendor’s success or failure.
Fluxx has a mind for technology and a heart for philanthropy. Our deep commitment to transforming the grant process and sparking lasting good propels our vision and innovation. Fluxx differentiates its cloud-based products by a unique, intuitive user interface that makes collaboration, clarity, and organization of data effortless. Large and small foundations, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and corporations are dramatically shortening their grant cycles and making more strategic decisions with Fluxx. Until no further need for philanthropy exists, we will continue to expand our mission-critical solutions to drive real change.
For more information, visit fluxx.io.
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Whatever decisions you make for your organization, don’t base them on fear. Implementing a new system may require time and resources, but making the switch to a suitable grants management software is a valuable investment that will make your operations more streamlined and simple. These changes in your foundation will expand your reach, give you more time in the field where the real work happens, and make the daily tasks your people work so hard on more enjoyable and rewarding — three things every grantmaker could use.
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