Profile

client The Larry L. Hillblom Foundation
location Petaluma, CA
market sector Non-profit Foundation
solution Grants Management System
site http://grants.llhf.org

The Larry L. Hillblom Foundation provides philanthropic support exclusively for charitable, religious, scientific, literary and educational purposes. Primarily, LLHF supports medical research, including basic scientific research, clinical research and research related to patient self-care and management.

Problem

The Foundation needed a way to reduce its reliance on a cumbersome and time-consuming paper-based process it uses for receiving and reviewing grant application submissions and progress reports from the research community.

Solution

Vercadia developed a web-based grants management solution that allows the foundation to manage the grantmaking process electronically, replacing this process.

This solution allows investigators to apply for grants via online form submission. Foundation administrators and medical advisory board members collaborate on the funding decision process by reviewing submitted applications and conducting evaluations directly through the web. Grantees can submit annual progress reports for their funded grants and foundation staff can perform an online evaluation process to help determine whether to continue, withdraw or terminate the grant.

Technology

The solution was built using the open-source Plone content management framework and leverages custom workflow, security, user profiles and a comprehensive context-sensitive help system that adapts to user role and current function. The system was deployed in a parallel configuration that allows the foundation to preview functionality enhancements on a test site before committing them to the production site.