Cityspan Funder™ is a flexible online documentation system that gives grant makers and their funded agenices a common platform for managing forms-based communications. By automating data collection and reporting, the software lets grant makers focus on policy and program evaluation, rather than paperwork. Our software supports proposal review, work plan development, budgeting, invoicing and performance reporting. Cityspan Funder can be configured to meet a grant maker's unique program design.
Cityspan Funder is comprised of the following components.
Grantee Directory
The Grantee Directory offers a simple, organized method for keeping track of multiple agencies. The Directory captures basic information about a funded agency, essentials about staff and board members and important pre-qualification information such as Federal Tax ID numbers and insurance expiration dates. Users can organize grantees into groups for easy data access and retrieval, map clients served at each location, and create mailing lists and labels for mass communications.
Progress Reports
Funders can establish periodic progress reports to review how service providers are meeting program objectives. Designed to meet the funder's specifications, the reports include narrative and statistical information: narratives might describe recent activities or milestone achievements; statistical reports typically include the number of clients served and clients served by service category. Progress reports also collect data from outcome-measurement tools, such as surveys, interviews and attendance reports.
Aggregate Reports
The Aggregate Reports component enables users to aggregate data, allowing for initiative-wide analysis. Funders can access an expansive set of initiative-level reports that focus on service projections, outcomes and funding allocations. Examples include the total number of clients served, the number of clients served across a demographic category, outcome reports summarizing the results of client surveys, and financial reports tracking total funds allocated or expenditures by line-service type.
Proposal Review
The Proposal Review component streamlines the grant application process. Applicants enter grant proposals online, into customized forms that mirror a funder's existing paper forms. Data reside in one storage center that is available to any funder with an Internet browser and password access. Funders can review proposals and enter scores, comments and funding decisions online, and use the system to notify applicants electronically of requirements and decisions.
Work Plan
The Work Plan offers a seamless method for funders and service collaboratives to track qualitative and quantitative data for each service provider. Users input data in standard, funder-specified formats based on their own evaluation frameworks. Qualitative data might include goals and objectives, service methodologies and statements of intended outcomes. Quantitative data might include client demographics, quantity of services provided and estimates of tangible outcomes.
Budgeting
The software's financial management features allow funders to track detailed, line-item budgets their service providers create. An extremely flexible tool, the Budgeting component enables users to manage multiple funding streams through linked budgets, and track individual expenses against separate budgets. The budget versioning tool also allows users to modify budgets over time, supporting archiving, line item transfers and other funding adjustments.
Invoicing & Funds Tracking
A key efficiency feature of the software is its ability to accept invoices and track payments. The invoice module allows funded agencies to submit expenditure requests, protecting funders through the establishment of reimbursement rules, such as a limit on the amount of funds requested or a requirement for additional documentation. When agencies submit invoices, the tool generates email receipts for the funder and funded agency. As invoices are paid, the tool maintains a running tabulation of year-to-date expenditures and account balances.