The journey to a funded grant proposal can be complex – often filled with fragmented information, disparate teams, fluctuating deadlines, and endless email exchanges of draft documents. On September 1, Grants Office introduced a new resource designed to simplify this process: Grants Office Communities.
This platform streamlines your workflow by offering a comprehensive, searchable database of grant opportunities alongside intuitive project management tools. This integration allows you to build grantseeking initiatives, coordinate with collaborators, and manage proposal submissions - all within a single, user-friendly environment.
The team here at Grants Office feels this new resource is a testament to our 25-year commitment to empower communities across North America to make a tangible impact with grant funding. To guide you through this platform, we've summarized everything you need to know by answering five key questions: What it is, Why we built it, Who it's for, How it works, and Where you can get started.
What is Grants Office Communities?
Grants Office Communities is a subscription-based platform that centralizes all your grant-seeking activities. It’s built on the understanding that while grantseeking can be challenging, it doesn’t have to be fragmented. Subscribers have access to the following components:
- Projects: You can create an unlimited number of project pages to organize your vision and manage your work plans. These pages serve as central hubs where you can log ideas, invite collaborators from inside or outside your organization, assign each other tasks, and use the built-in chat function to keep all communication in one place.
- Grants: Once you’ve assembled the basic idea for a grant-funded project, you can search our database of thousands of federal, state, and foundation funding opportunities. The platform enables you to quickly find grants that fit your project by using keyword searches and filtering your results by geography, funder type, and eligibility. You can save your favorite grants or link them directly to a project page for your team review later.
- Proposals: When you link a grant to a project, a dedicated proposal page is automatically created. This is where you can begin more formal grant-seeking activities, such as assembling a budget, building a project timeline, editing draft documents, and tracking your team’s progress toward a deadline. The activity and chat functions on these pages keep your team focused exclusively on the specific proposal, separate from broader project conversations.
- Grants Intelligence: While inside the platform, you have access to a hub of grants intelligence content. You'll find hours of recorded webinars in our Grantscast® library, along with articles on grantseeking best practices and recent federal government priorities to help you stay informed and build more successful applications.
This suite of tools is designed to provide a cohesive experience. Its underlying principle is captured in our tagline: "Built for grants people, by grants people." This isn't just a marketing phrase for the Grants Office team. It's a reflection of our understanding of your work and our commitment to providing a tool that meets your needs.
Why did Grants Office build this platform?
The motivation behind creating this platform is rooted in our 25-year history and our core values of Passion, Awareness, Collaboration, and Excellence. Over the years, the Grants Office team has used a custom-built series of internal tools for our own consultants to reduce fragmented information and to more seamlessly connect with one another. We have also spent more than a decade building an internal database of federal, state, and foundation funders for our exclusive use. We realized that the most powerful way to empower our fellow grantseekers was to share these internal tools - and the data that powers them - with all of you. We're excited to see what you achieve with this shared platform.
Who is this platform for?
Grants Office Communities is specifically designed for nonprofit and public sector organizations operating in the United States—including healthcare, education, and local government entities. Because grant seeking is inherently a team effort, the platform is built to support collaboration.
For instance, a K-12 school district or a university can grant access to all its educators and research faculty, enabling them to independently search for funding to support their classroom projects or research. The platform also assists organizations working with external partners - such as a hospital collaborating on proposals alongside a government-run rural health clinic. Communities is built to simplify both external and internal collaboration.
The platform is also useful for consultants and freelance grant writers. If you manage multiple clients, you can create separate projects for each one and invite their respective teams to collaborate at no cost to them. A key advantage for everyone is that PRO, TEAM, and ENTERPRISE memberships include an unlimited number of collaborators to work on your project and proposal pages without them needing a paid subscription. This ensures that everyone who needs to contribute to a successful grant can access the necessary information and workflows.
How can you get started?
The best way to experience everything Grants Office Communities has to offer is to try it yourself! We offer a free two-week trial so you can explore the platform with no obligation.
When you sign up for your free trial, you’ll choose a membership that best fits your organization’s needs:
- Pro: This membership is designed for single grant seekers and independent writers. It provides one person with full access to the platform and the ability to invite an unlimited number of collaborators to view and work on projects and proposals. Your collaborators can assist with the process without needing their own paid subscription.
- Team: Designed for small grant-seeking groups within the same organization, this membership allows you to work more closely with your colleagues. Team members of up to five individuals can view each other's project pages, while a designated administrator can be assigned custom dashboards to track progress across the entire group.
- Enterprise: For large-scale use by organizations like local governments or universities, an Enterprise membership is a custom solution. We work with you to understand your specific grantseeking needs and provide access for multiple departments or large employee groups.
Still have questions? Request a free demo with a member of the Grants Office team to get your specific questions answered before you start your free trial. Visit https://calendly.com/grantsofficecommunities to schedule a time that works for you.
Where can you get expert help?
Even with the best tools, you sometimes need human expertise—and that’s where the Grants Office team comes in. We remain a professional services firm, and our team of funding experts is available to support you at any stage of your journey.
Members can access a range of optional services from our team:
- Funding Reports: Let us do the research for you. We can develop a customized report outlining key grant programs for your project and walk you through it during two follow-up consultative sessions. Platform members receive a significant 60% discount on this service.
- Proposal Development: We offer a tiered flat-fee pricing structure for proposal services, from full grant writing to proposal review and feedback. Our team-based approach ensures your final application is comprehensive and competitive.
Unlimited Support Programs: For organizations needing continuous, year-round assistance, our annual support programs offer unmetered services, including unlimited funding reports, strategy calls, proposal reviews, and—best of all—the Grants Office Communities platform is included as part of the package.
The launch of Grants Office Communities marks a step forward in making the grant-seeking process more efficient and collaborative. Whether you need a centralized workspace for your internal team, a powerful database for finding new opportunities, or direct support from our funding experts, the platform is designed to replace complexity with clarity. Start your free two-week trial today and experience the difference a resource built by grants people, for grants people can make.