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Uploaded documents viewable by applicant

It would be great to be able to share uploaded documents with applicants. I am talking about documents not part of a form but still related to a specific application. Specifically, I would love for grant partners to be able to see a copy of their signed grant agreement. These agreements are the only paper documents we still keep and we often receive requests for information in these documents. Agreements have original signatures of both our President and the grant partner's leadership and include reporting dates, grant restrictions, program budget and goals. These agreements are uploaded to individual applications in GLM but applicants are not able to see these uploaded documents. Is it possible to allow uploaded documents to be viewed by approved grant partners with active grants?

posted March 21, 2013 by Erin Baird, Allegany Franciscan Ministries https://d2r1vs3d9006ap.cloudfront.net/s3_images/964473/Untitled.png?1380504722

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  • Chris Dahl commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Erin and Linsey,

    Thatnks for the additional feedback. As part of the release we're currently working on, we've been building in some more logic around allowing certain roles to see certain documents. While it doesn't address the idea here exactly, it does lay the foundation for being able to look at it.

    From what I'm reading here, it sounds like if we could add the ability for an administator to add a "supporting document" to a request and set that document as viewable by the applicant, we'd address the need you two are raising. Does that sound correct?

    Assuming so, it's something I can bring up to our Product Team and see where it might fit on our roadmap, what the level of effort will be, etc.

    Thanks again,

    -chris

    posted June 12, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

  • Ideas commented  ·   ·  Report

    Thanks for this suggestion, I love the idea since I just had an organization contact me about needing an additional copy of their signed grant agreement.

    I see this as being useful for more than just grant agreements, too. We occasionally have updated budgets that I upload to the file and it would be helpful for whoever is submitting the report to be able to see that type of document.

    posted May 3, 2013 by Linsey Sauer, The Russell Family Foundation

  • Ideas commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Chris- Thanks for the follow up. We do not email signed grant agreements to applicants. We prepare two original paper copies of an agreement and mail it to the grantee. For us, the grant agreement is an award letter and grant agreement combined into one document and includes our President & CEO's signature. (I attached a completed agreement for your reference). The grantee signs the document(s) and returns one original copy to us. We then scan and post this agreement in GLM under the "documents" section of the specific grant. Ideally, the grantee has an original hard copy of the grant agreement but this often this gets misplaced.

    I have heard others use follow ups and have grantees upload the signed grant agreement there or create a form in follow ups and use a electronic signature. We're not there yet. Moving to online applications and grantee reporting (follow ups) was a big jump for us. We still use use paper grant checks, paper board books and only have limited number of reviewers online. We still require a hard paper copy of the original signatures.

    In answer to your question about allowing access, I am okay with anyone from a funded organization able to see all their organization's uploaded documents. Could you make it like you you have the comments fields now where they can be seen or not seen by applicant?

    I am going to do some investigating on my own of grant agreements and see what others are doing. In fact, this Friday we have an FL GMN Chapter meeting which Paper Diet is the subject. I think this topic would be a good fit.

    Erin

    posted April 10, 2013 by Erin Baird, Allegany Franciscan Ministries

  • Chris Dahl commented  ·   ·  Report

    Hi Erin,

    First, I understand what you're asking and can see where this would be beneficial. At this point, we haven't discussed making the "supporting documents" for requests or organizations visible by the applicant (or by anyone in the organization). As far as I know, most foundations are using these supporting documents for internal documents that they wouldn't necessarily want the applicants to see. Just out of curiousity, do you email the signed grant agreements to applicants?

    While it's not a priority at this point, it would be good to understand some options. We could potentially allow the supporting documents for requests and organizations to be marked as "show to applicant (or organization users)" and then they could be visible. If we go that route, one thing to note ... as we look at allowing people belonging to a non-profit to see the request history, they would be able to see these documents. Would that be OK?

    I'm hesitant to start making a lot of different levels for document visibility beyond that as it gets hard to train on and hard for users to keep straight, and I really don't want to have users mis-use a feature because it's too complex.

    In any case, whether what I'm proposing sounds acceptable, or you have other thoughts on how this could be accomplished, or concerns with what I'm proposing, please let me know. Thanks,

    -chris

    posted April 10, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

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