What is CiviGrant?

CiviGrant is designed to be used by organisations that distribute funds to others, for example foundations, grant givers, etc.

As of CiviCRM version 5.46, CiviGrant ships as an extension which can be enabled from the extensions screen.

In contrast to CiviContribute, which tracks money going into your organisation, CiviGrant tracks money going out of your organisation. CiviGrant has a data structure and workflows that supports the grant application process with the ability to manage the amount applied for, amount received and any reports necessary for the process.

If you have a more complicated grant application process with multiple pathways, you may wish to consider using CiviGrant in conjunction with CiviCase.

Scenario: Wookie Hole

Wookie Hole Community Action is a small umbrella organisation that distributes funds to support the annual Wookie Hole Community Festival held each year in Wookie Hole Cave.

They have a total grant pool of £40,000, which comes from local businesses and other grant giving organisations, that they make available each year to local organisations participating in the festival. Each organisation that applies for funds needs to complete an eligibility questionnaire, which is then entered into the applicant's contact record, and an application that details how they will spend the money, which they attach to the grant. As well as filling in certain fields for each grant, they also attach a read-only PDF copy of the original application form for future reference.

Ineligible applications are rejected and eligible applications are scored according to pre-defined criteria. The grant committee members then look at the total amount applied for by all applicants. If it is greater than £40,000, they look again at all eligble projects to decide which ones to fully or partially fund. CiviGrant has fields that they can use to store and search on this information.

Once the funds have been granted, the organisation uses CiviGrant in conjunction with CiviMail to solicit feedback and reports from all organisations that they have funded. Once the feedback is received they mark the grant as "feedback received". Multiple emails often have to be sent to organisations to get feedback. The organisation does this by using an email template and searching for all contacts who have successfully received a grant but not yet sent feedback.

Finally, once all reports are in, a staff member compiles a report and thank-you which they email to all organisations that gave funds toward the festival. The report details how their funds benefited the local community. Wookie Hole Community Action also prints a certificate for each local business and funder (directly from CiviCRM) which they can proudly display on their premises.