I actually want our applicants to complete their forms in due date order, but I want them to be able to see future forms, just not submit them. I would like to see a way for the applicant to at least view the form so that they may work on their reports (outside of the system), but have a pop up or something that clearly says, you are unable to edit this form until all forms with due dates prior have been submitted and reviewed by the Foundation.

This would be so helpful! A big reason is that every FY we ask grantees to update their financial reports with us. Since each org has different FYs it is kind of arbitrarily built into the follow up process at the moment. If we had the choice to allow a follow up to be worked on at any time that would allow our grantees to submit updated financials when they have it ready rather than waiting for the end of our FY. Thanks!

On the follow-ups, the cover page does not show what the follow-up is. The cover page should say "progress report" or "final report" or whatever the report name is. I had to leave the cover page off of my printed copies so that I could see what the report is.

Maybe a solution could be for a popup to appear if they open a later-due followup that says something like "An earlier report for this grant is not yet submitted. Please make sure you are filling out the correct report." That would make sure they're aware of what they're doing and don't accidentally fill out the wrong report.

Case in point: I haven't marked a follow-up as complete because the applicant has yet to send me one more document (which I will accept via email, as it may come from them directly or from their insurance agent). But the next follow-up is due in a few days, and they can't work on it. So I'm forced to mark the first follow-up as complete, confusing my records... However, if they could edit all follow-ups, there would be some risk that the applicants may submit the wrong report, and I certainly don't want that. So I'm not sure what the solution is.

That makes sense to me. :)

Hi Mary and Jessica,

I double-checked, and we actually used to do this - allow people to view subsequent follow-ups but just fill out the "next" one due.

If we left the terminology on the links as "View" and "Edit" ... where "View" would be for both completed follow-ups as well as follow-ups the applicant couldn't fill out yet, while Edit would be reserved for a follow-up they could fill out, would that work?

Thanks in advance for the input,
-chris

Hi all, we assign all the follow ups to the grant record at the beginning of the grant term. It would be great if the grantee could view all the follow ups without having to submit before being able to access the next one. A typical sequence is:

- grant financial report (same due date as status report and due week before meeting)

- grant status report due (same due date as financial report and due week before meeting)

- grantee meeting with foundation staff

- repeat sequence for next year

It's my understanding that follow ups with the same due date can be viewed all at once by the grantee.

Problems that I see with this scenario are:

1. the grantee cannot respond to the meeting until the reports are due which is one week before the meeting.

2. the grantee cannot see the report template and we need to provide alternative ways of communicating this to the grantee.

Any thoughts are welcome.

posted July 23, 2013 by McAllister Myhra, John Rex Endowment

Is there a way for the second follow-up to be available in read-only mode, until the first one is completed? I agree that they need to be done in order (and I have had a few grantees mess this up in the past on other systems), but our grantees always want to know what information they'll be required to provide so they can collect it during the funding period. My current workaround is to list the requirements for the second follow-up at the end of the first follow-up so they have SOMETHING to refer to.

posted September 13, 2013 by Mary Giraulo, United Arts of Central Florida

Hi Chris:

What you are saying does make sense. I would say that we have never had a problem with grantees filling out forms out of order. This would mostly be because it is very rare they have the necessary information for the second follow up before they complete the first follow up. Having all follow ups for a grant opened at once would simply be more of a matter of convenience mainly for us, but also for the grantees. Sometimes a grantee submits a follow up and we may or may not have the time to go in and mark them complete right away. When the second follow up is due and the grantee is ready to work on it and submit it, they can't because is still shows that their first follow up is in submitted mode. Then the grantee has to email us and ask why they can't access the second follow up. Balancing the needs of all your foundations is certainly important, but for us this seems to cause a hiccup in an otherwise pretty smooth process. Hope this helps clear up a little of what I originally discussed.

posted June 18, 2013 by Jessica Leuthold, Martin Family Foundation

Hi Jessica,

I think I understand your question. Basically, because a lot of clients want follow ups to be filled out in order (i.e. a Grand Agreement, an Interim Report, than a final report), they want applicants to fill out the follow up forms in order. And yes, they want to make sure the previous form is complete before allowing an applicant to fill out the next form.

As far as allowing "the grantees to know exactly when each follow up is due" ... they should be able to see that. Note the "Due Date" in the attached document (it let me paste the image in the comment but it wouldn't display). And it doesn't really make sense for people to fill out the 2014 form before they fill out the 2013 form ...

Hope that explains the "method behind the madness" ... I'm sure there are some things that could be improved on, but it will take some work to balance the needs of different foundations. And would you always want your grantees to be able to fill out follow up forms out of order? If so, that would help us understand a different work flow.

Thanks,

-chris

posted June 17, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

https://d2r1vs3d9006ap.cloudfront.net/s3_images/965459/FollowUpForms.GIF?1380650954

There was a recent update that allowed grantees to see all of their assigned follow-ups, instead of just being able to view them one of a time as they became due. BUT, would it be possible for the grantee to be able to work on any follow-up at any time? Now I think it is contingent upon the administrator marking a follow-up complete before the next one can be released. When staff is slow it holds up the grantee. Or sometimes more than one type of follow-up is due and they might be due within a short time of each other.

posted July 2, 2013 by Amy Palmer, Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville