Good Grants Review: Streamline Global Grant Management for Compliance

Managing grants shouldn’t be so stressful.

If you’re here, you’re likely struggling to keep your grant applications organized, your review process fair, and your compliance on track — all without drowning in spreadsheets.

Let’s be real, losing sight of deadlines and missing crucial data is the daily pain that turns an exciting program into a mess of confusion.

Good Grants was built with these headaches in mind, offering a single place to manage everything from application creation and in-depth review to award tracking and post-award reporting—without the complexity or steep learning curve you might expect.

That’s why, in this review, I’ll show you how Good Grants fixes the chaos from start to finish, giving your team time back and confidence that nothing will fall through the cracks.

In this Good Grants review, I’ll share my experience—diving into core features, automation tools, pricing, limitations, and top competitors—so you can make an informed choice.

You’ll walk away knowing the features you need to simplify your grant management without risking compliance or efficiency.

Let’s get started.

Good Grants Overview

I learned Good Grants is from Award Force, an Australian company that’s been around since 2013. Their mission is to make powerful grant management intuitive and accessible for your team.

They specifically target foundations, government bodies, and corporate programs that need a dedicated grants tool. I think their pure focus on the grantmaking lifecycle is what sets them apart, helping you avoid the complexity found in broader social impact platforms.

Recently, they’ve invested heavily in security, achieving top certifications like SOC 2. I’ll explore what this means for your data and compliance through this Good Grants review.

Unlike competitors like Bloomerang or Submittable that bundle in other functions, Good Grants stays laser-focused. I believe their real value is a truly user-friendly grant experience for everyone involved. It feels like it was designed by people who actually manage grants.

You’ll find them working with a diverse range of grant-makers, including community foundations, universities, and corporate CSR programs that need a reliable, specialized system to manage everything efficiently.

I found their strategy is refreshingly clear: prioritize a clean, frustration-free experience over adding every niche feature. This directly meets the market’s need for powerful software that your team can actually use without months of extensive training or IT support.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

Good Grants Features

Grant management feel like a tangled mess?

Good Grants features are designed to streamline the entire grantmaking lifecycle. Here are the five main Good Grants features that simplify the complex world of grants.

1. Application Management

Tired of messy grant applications?

Dealing with incomplete forms or constant back-and-forth can be a huge time-waster for your team and applicants. It’s frustrating when the process isn’t smooth.

Good Grants’ Application Management feature provides a privacy-conscious form builder that allows for customizable forms. From my testing, the ability for applicants to edit after submission significantly boosts user satisfaction. This feature also handles auto-scoring, eligibility screening, and duplicate management, which saves immense time.

This means you can easily create professional applications and reduce administrative headaches, getting better quality submissions.

2. Application Review

Making confident funding decisions can be a headache.

Sorting through piles of applications and ensuring fair, consistent reviews often leads to reviewer burnout and delays. It’s a real challenge.

This feature offers five powerful review modes and supports multiple review rounds with real-time results. What I found impressive is how reviewers can provide scores and comments directly, while recusal options ensure impartiality. The system can even automatically assign applications, streamlining the entire process.

So, you get a transparent and efficient review process, leading to fairer and faster funding decisions.

3. Award Management

Struggling to track all your grant agreements?

Centralizing award formalization, funding management, and tracking can be a nightmare without the right tools. It’s easy to lose sight of details.

Good Grants centralizes your awarding process with built-in tools to formalize grant agreements and manage funding. This is where Good Grants shines, providing unlimited funding allocations and grant document templates. You can track everything via a customizable grants dashboard, ensuring no award slips through the cracks.

The result is a streamlined award process that keeps all your commitments organized and easily accessible for your team.

4. Post-Award Management and Reporting

Keeping track of grant performance after awarding is tough.

Soliciting consistent reports from grantees and ensuring compliance can be an endless, manual chase, leading to compliance risks.

This feature offers streamlined tools for soliciting programmatic, financial, or KPI reports from grantees, whenever you need them. From my testing, the platform’s ability to assist with compliance tracking and audit trails is incredibly valuable. This helps you keep funding on track and performance in check, effortlessly.

This means you can easily monitor grantee progress and ensure accountability, without the constant manual follow-ups.

5. Workflow Automation and Customization

Is your grant process stuck in manual mode?

Dealing with repetitive tasks and rigid workflows slows down your grant cycle and can lead to errors. It just feels inefficient.

Good Grants is built for flexibility, allowing you to configure multi-stage review processes where applications automatically move through stages. What I love about this approach is the automated responses and notifications triggered by events like submissions. This feature also provides extensive branding options, promoting your opportunities effectively.

So as a grant manager, you can automate mundane tasks, freeing up your time for more strategic work.

These Good Grants features work together to create a comprehensive, integrated grant management system that simplifies your entire process from start to finish.

Good Grants Pricing

Hidden costs making you wary?

Good Grants pricing is clear and tiered, making it refreshingly easy to understand your investment for grant management software.

Plan	Price & Features
Intro	$3,750/year or $438/month • Application management tools • Unlimited users/managers • Unlimited fund allocations • Up to 10,000 applications • 5MB file size limit per upload
Premium	$7,500/year or $875/month • All Intro features • Broadcast email communication • Eligibility screeners • All review modes • Multiple language activation • API integration
Enterprise	Custom pricing – contact sales • All Premium features • Exclusive functionality • Over 10,000 applications • Enterprise-grade security • Custom feature requests • Implementation service

1. Value Assessment

Solid value for grantmakers.

What I found regarding pricing is that Good Grants delivers significant value by eliminating distribution fees, meaning your disbursements remain fully with your grantees. The pricing scales with your program size, so you’re not overpaying for unused capacity. Their pricing avoids hidden charges that often surprise budget-conscious organizations.

This helps your budget stay predictable while maximizing the impact of your grant funds.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Evaluate before you commit.

Good Grants offers a 14-day free trial, which is fantastic for thoroughly testing the platform’s features and workflows without any financial commitment. From my cost analysis, this lets you explore the software’s capabilities firsthand and ensure it meets your specific grantmaking needs.

This allows you to confidently assess its fit for your operations before investing in their pricing plans.

3. Plan Comparison

Choose the right plan for your needs.

The Intro plan is a great starting point for modernizing programs, while the Premium tier offers substantial upgrades like eligibility screeners and advanced review modes. For larger organizations, the Enterprise plan offers tailored solutions and custom support beyond standard features.

This tiered structure ensures you can match their pricing to your actual operational scale and complexity.

My Take: Good Grants’ pricing strategy offers clear tiers and excellent value, especially for organizations that appreciate transparency and want to avoid hidden fees or surprise costs.

The overall Good Grants pricing reflects transparent, scalable value for all grantmaking sizes.

Good Grants Reviews

What do actual customers really think?

My analysis of numerous Good Grants reviews offers balanced insights into user experiences, drawing from common feedback patterns across various platforms.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Users are generally quite satisfied.

From my review analysis, Good Grants typically garners high satisfaction scores across review sites. What I found in user feedback is how most users highlight a positive overall experience, particularly appreciating the platform’s ability to streamline complex grant processes effectively.

This means you can expect a generally positive transition from manual methods.

2. Common Praise Points

The ease of use consistently delights.

Users consistently praise Good Grants for its intuitive interface, making it simple for applicants and administrators alike. Review-wise, what stands out is how responsive customer support is frequently mentioned, with users commending quick, helpful, and professional assistance.

This suggests you’ll find the platform straightforward and well-supported for your needs.

3. Frequent Complaints

Some users report performance issues.

While largely positive, a recurring concern in Good Grants reviews is occasional slowness or buffering within the platform. What stood out in customer feedback was how these minor technical glitches can cause frustration, particularly during peak usage times or when dealing with large datasets.

These issues appear to be intermittent rather than persistent deal-breakers for most users.

Overall, Good Grants reviews show strong user satisfaction despite minor technical hiccups, particularly praising its usability and support.

Best Good Grants Alternatives

Which grant software should you choose?

The best Good Grants alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations and priorities, from broader social impact programs to specialized grant discovery.

1. Submittable

Need a broader social impact platform?

Submittable excels if your organization manages various social impact programs beyond just grants, like scholarships or CSR initiatives. From my competitive analysis, Submittable offers rapid deployment and significant time savings, often exceeding what a pure grant management alternative might provide.

Choose Submittable if you need a versatile platform for diverse application management and faster program launches.

2. WizeHive (Zengine)

Require extensive customization and automation?

WizeHive, via Zengine, is ideal if your grant process demands highly specific configurations and advanced automation, especially for reviewer assignments. What I found comparing options is that WizeHive’s flexibility adapts to unique requirements, surpassing some other alternatives in complex review process automation.

Consider this alternative when your organization has highly custom needs and requires deep process automation.

3. Instrumentl

Focused on discovering new grant opportunities?

Instrumentl shines if your primary goal is proactive grant discovery and efficient tracking of potential funding sources. From my analysis, Instrumentl actively matches you with relevant grants, a key differentiator from Good Grants’ focus on lifecycle management.

Choose Instrumentl if finding new grant opportunities is a higher priority than managing existing applications.

4. Bloomerang

Seeking integrated donor and grant management?

Bloomerang is a strong alternative if your organization needs to combine grant management with robust donor relationship cultivation. What I found comparing options is that Bloomerang integrates CRM with grant tools, offering a holistic approach not present in dedicated grant platforms.

Opt for Bloomerang if comprehensive donor engagement alongside grant management is crucial for your operations.

The best Good Grants alternatives depend on your specific programmatic scope and integration needs, rather than just basic features.

Good Grants Setup

Thinking about a smooth software setup?

Good Grants implementation is remarkably straightforward, offering a user-friendly deployment that simplifies the initial Good Grants review and adoption process for your team.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

This isn’t a long, drawn-out process.

Good Grants is designed for easy setup due to its intuitive interface, often allowing organizations to become operational quickly. What I found about deployment is that you can expect a relatively fast setup compared to more complex grant management systems, making it accessible even for smaller teams.

You’ll need to plan for initial configuration and data import, but the process is built for efficiency.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Minimal technical headaches here.

Good Grants is a cloud-based SaaS solution, meaning you won’t need to worry about hardware provisioning or complex software installations on your end. From my implementation analysis, technical requirements are minimal as it’s web-accessible, requiring only a reliable internet connection and standard browsers.

Plan for seamless access from anywhere, as this solution eliminates the need for significant IT infrastructure adjustments.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption is remarkably intuitive.

The learning curve for Good Grants is manageable, as both applicants and internal teams find it intuitive to navigate and use. From my analysis, the user-friendly design significantly reduces training time and accelerates your team’s comfort with the new system, promoting smooth transition.

Focus on familiarizing your team with the workflow, but anticipate a quick embrace due to the platform’s ease of use.

4. Support & Success Factors

Exceptional support drives successful implementation.

Good Grants boasts outstanding customer support, consistently praised for its responsiveness and helpfulness through various channels. What I found about deployment is that proactive support is a critical success factor for a smooth rollout, ensuring any questions or minor hitches are quickly resolved.

Leverage their extensive knowledge base and responsive team to maximize your ROI and ensure a seamless transition.

The overall Good Grants setup prioritizes simplicity and strong vendor support, ensuring a straightforward deployment and quick adoption for your organization.

Bottom Line

Is Good Grants the right fit for your organization?

This Good Grants review provides my final assessment, helping you determine if its features, pricing, and overall value align with your specific grantmaking requirements.

1. Who This Works Best For

Grantmakers outgrowing manual spreadsheet processes.

Good Grants excels for foundations, public organizations, and corporate giving programs, especially small to medium-sized grantmakers seeking an affordable, user-friendly, and comprehensive online platform. From my user analysis, organizations needing flexible, highly configurable systems for multi-stage grants will find it ideal, streamlining applications and reviews.

You’ll succeed if you prioritize ease of use, excellent customer support, and transparent pricing without hidden fees.

2. Overall Strengths

Exceptional user-friendliness and comprehensive functionality.

The software succeeds by offering an intuitive interface that streamlines the entire grant lifecycle for applicants, managers, and reviewers, backed by highly praised, responsive customer support. From my comprehensive analysis, its flexibility to create new grant programs and extensive customization options empower diverse grantmaking approaches, saving significant time.

These strengths translate into improved efficiency, reduced errors, and a remarkably smooth grant administration experience for your team.

3. Key Limitations

Occasional platform slowness and buffering frustrate users.

While largely robust, some users report experiencing slowness and buffering, which can disrupt workflow and be a source of frustration during peak usage. Based on this review, the platform doesn’t offer integrated grant discovery tools or deep donor management compared to some alternatives, requiring separate solutions for those needs.

I’d say these limitations are manageable trade-offs for its core strengths, but consider them if your primary needs include discovery or donor CRM integration.

4. Final Recommendation

Good Grants earns a strong recommendation for grantmakers.

You should choose this software if your organization needs to modernize and streamline grant administration with a user-friendly, affordable, and secure solution. From my analysis, your business will benefit immensely from its end-to-end functionality, especially if currently reliant on manual processes or less capable platforms.

My confidence level is high for small to enterprise-level organizations focused on efficient, impactful grant programs.

This Good Grants review shows strong value for organizations seeking streamlined grant management, providing a robust solution to optimize your programs and make a greater impact.