Defining the grant application process

CiviCRM's grant management tools are admittedly basic. However, in the broader context of CiviCRM's other constituent management tools, they provide a very useful set of functions.

Before configuring the grant tools, let's first understand the basic process assumed by CiviCRM as it relates to grant workflows. The following diagram helps visually communicate the workflow for organizations giving or receiving grants:

The grant application process basically consists of receiving applications, processing them to determine if they are to be approved or denied (that is, granted or accepted), and then tracking the progress as funds are transferred and reports are received from the grantee.

Grant records, like most other areas of CiviCRM, can have custom fields created and attached to them. In this way you can set up as many additional fields as desired to help in the grant-making or grant-seeking process. The ability to attach documents to records in CiviCRM...