As nonprofits keep innovating and branching out with fundraising efforts, a lot of teams are managing increasing tech stacks. Two foundational systems, online giving software and grant management software, are frequently at the center of a nonprofit’s funding infrastructure. While both tools facilitate the influx of financial support, however, they exist for different teams, activities, and results. If you're wondering where one ends or the other starts, you’re not alone. Learning how online giving software and grant management software vary, and complement one another, helps your nonprofit increase operational effectiveness, increase transparency, and make the greatest impact. This guide outlines both systems, contrasts their functions, and details using them side by side empowers mission-driven orgs.
What Is Donor Management Software?
Online giving software is a web-based fundraising program that allows nonprofits to receive and process gifts online using online mediums. This program is designed with a focus on ease of experience for the donor, so supporters find it simple to donate using credit card, payment from a mobile or text-to-give. Most online giving solutions have customizable donation screens, peer-to-peer fundraising, automated thank-you emails, and dashboards that monitor giving patterns, trends, and donor activity. Some sophisticated programs sync with donor CRMs (Constituent Relationship Management solutions) and marketing automation programs for more advanced, individualized outreach and donor retention. Overall, online giving software takes care of the front-end of individual fundraising. It allows nonprofits to fundraise where the donor is, on social, on email, or on a handheld, and gives the nonprofit the infrastructure needed to process gifts, monitor activity, and build long-term relationships.
What Is Grant Management Software?
Grant management software, however, is a behind-the-scenes solution for managing institutional funding. This encompasses foundation, company, and governmental agency grants. While individual donations have no standardized requirements for application, budgeting, compliance, or impact reporting, these funding sources have defined requirements for those areas. Grant management systems such as Fluxx unify the overall grant life cycle, from the submission and approval of proposals through tracking deliverables, management of disbursements, and report preparation for funders. These systems enable cross-functioning of programs, finances, and development teams while providing for audit-ready history and transparent workflow. While online giving software is donor-centric and public-facing, grant management software is compliance-centric and internally operational. It’s the motor that makes sure institutional funds are strategic, properly tracked, and properly reported.
Comparing the Two
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Factor
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Giving Kiosks Software
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Grant Management Software
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Final Users
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Fundraising, Marketing, Donor Relations
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Programs, Finance, Development, Compliance
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Core Function
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Enables person-to-person giving, donation receipting, and outreach
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Administers institution funding and funding lifecycle
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Data Focus
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Donor cultivation, repeat gifts, Campaign ROI
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Budget tracking, funder demands, program results
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Workflow Orientation
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Front-end donor approach and campaign implementation
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Back-end team coordination and team compliance
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Best For
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Strengthening individual fundraising and donor acquisition
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Scaling grant funding and holding people accountable
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Both are crucial, but they exist on different planets of nonprofit revenue and have different strategies, metrics, and partnership approaches.
How They Can Work Together
When nonprofits merge the features of online giving software and grant management software, they have a full funding ecosystem. Online giving tools power current-of-money support from individuals, such as recurring gifts, fundraising campaigns, and event fundraising. Grant management software, on the other hand, facilitates longer-term strategic support from institutional funders. Together, they provide visibility into all revenue streams and make sure both funding sources are tracked, distributed, and measured properly. This combination also makes it possible for organizations to create a full account of impact on a single page. For instance, online donors might see updates subsidized by grants, while grant reports might incorporate success stories powered by community giving. The end result is a funding strategy that makes the most of every single dollar, which is more unified overall.
An Example of a Nonprofit Using Both
Consider a local food insecurity nonprofit that depends on a mix of community contributions and foundation funding. Around the holidays, they have an online giving campaign through a platform such as Givebutter or Classy, raising a number of small-dollar donations worth several thousand dollars together. These go towards direct services such as meals, materials, and volunteer activity. At the same time, the nonprofit receives a grant from a local foundation that operates to support their infrastructure and reportable needs. Through grant management programs such as Fluxx, the nonprofit manages the disbursement, allocates budgets for various program teams, and makes sure the foundation receives proper reports along with impact information. Through the combination of both tools, the nonprofit is not only capable of expanding its scope, but also staying compliant, while transparently holding all its stakeholders properly reportable.
How Fluxx Enhances Your Nonprofit Work
Although Fluxx is neither a fundraising CRM nor a donation processor, it provides a crucial support role for nonprofits' overall funding infrastructure. Developed specifically for institution giving, Fluxx streamlines the formidability of grant tracking, compliance, and cross-team collaborations. Nonprofits are able to:
- Centralize all grant documents, deadlines, and information
- Follow programmatic results against funders requirements
- Automate compliance processes, alerts, and report
- Consolidate with financial and donor-facing tools for easy data movement
- Give leadership true-time insight into funding pipes
In a world of transparency and accountability, non-negotiables, Fluxx imposes structure and clarity on nonprofits' most important funding relationships.
Power Your Nonprofit with a Unified Funding System
Both online giving programs and grant management programs are crucial pillars of a contemporary nonprofit tech stack. Online giving programs enable you to reach and engage individual donors, while grant management programs enable you to have institutional funding strategically managed and properly reported. Used together, they break down fundraising and financial fundraising silos, create harmony within your organization’s funding strategy, and enable you to clearly show impact to all parties involved. Adopting a unified approach towards fundraising and funding management allows your organization to have not only operational efficiency, but a much deeper level of credibility with funders and supporters alike. If your team is prepared to make funding infrastructure a leap towards using tools that communicate with one another, Fluxx is there to help you make the jump.
Schedule a demo now to learn how Fluxx upgrades your grant management processes and contributes towards a harmonious, modern approach towards nonprofit growth.
