Who are our customers?

CyberGrants can be used by any foundation or corporation who needs to track and manage the money they grant to nonprofit or for-profit organizations in the United States and overseas. Our customers include family foundations, corporate foundations, corporate contributions departments, private foundations and community foundations.

What is an ASP (Application Service Provider)?

Although you may have heard many definitions of what an ASP is, it is perhaps easiest to think of an ASP as your Information Technology (IT) team in cyberspace. In the specific niche space of grants management software, CyberGrants is your tech team responsible for all of your software, data, backups, security, high availability, licensing, hardware upgrades, connectivity, data uploads and support. And, since we need to only maintain one set of servers, software and hosting environment, we provide these services at a fraction of the price to which you might be accustomed.

How much does it cost?

As an Application Service Provider (ASP), the CyberGrants pricing module is based simply on usage. Usage is easily estimated by the number of system users you need, the number of grants you make and the number of proposals you receive (if using the online application). At CyberGrants, we need to insure we allocate more than adequate system resources to your account to guarantee extremely fast system performance, high availability and, above all, responsive customer service.

Is it safe and secure?

CyberGrants has passed, with flying colors, some of the most stringent security audits from Fortune 500 corporations at every level of security. Multiple levels of security will satisfy all aspects of your company or organization's security policy. These levels include application security, budget line security, data encryption using 128 bit Secure Sockets Layer, Cisco PIX Firewall protection, Virtual Private Networking, PGP-encrypted file transfers and hand-scan entry to a corporate data center with required security guard escort to locked CyberGrants cabinets.

What if the server crashes?

As a responsible Application Service Provider, we maintain a 'highly available' environment to insure your access to your data at all times. In the event of any hardware failure, CyberGrants is configured in a redundant capacity with everything from dual firewalls, to dual switches, to dual application servers and dual database servers. It doesn't happen often but when it does, we're ready.

Can CyberGrants be customized?

We prefer to say 'configured'. Typically, customizations mean programming, which costs money. We have listened to your needs and have built in nearly every option and setting required to distinguish your giving program from another. Some customers only accept applications in certain areas while others are nationwide or even global. Some customers have detailed budgets while others are simple. Some grant application forms ask a few specific questions and others require pages and pages. All of these and many more settings can be quickly 'configured' in CyberGrants - with the proper security clearance of course.

More traditional customizations are also available such as custom reports, data feeds to accounting systems, data conversions and integration with your Web site.

We want to receive online proposals but will still receive paper proposals. Is that OK?

Some of our customers make exclusive use of online proposals. Others receive some online and some in the mail. Still others stay strictly with paper and use our 'Invitation' function to trial online applications with nonprofits they solicit. Each approach works perfectly well in CyberGrants.

While we do not recommend one approach over any other, we have learned over the past six years that nonprofits are very eager and willing to use the Internet if it facilitates the administrative processes of their potential funders. Nonprofits who do not have Internet access find public libraries a convenient resource as all are connected to the Web. It is also widely believed that online applications 'level the playing field' for all nonprofits, large and small.

How do we receive new software versions?

We are often asked: "Which version is the latest?" The concept of versioning is irrelevant in the Application Service Provider world. Therefore, the latest version is the one that is currently online. Every customer is notified of new enhancements approximately two weeks in advance. Customers need to do nothing at all in order to take advantage of the three to four major new releases each year. They are simply 'there' and available the next time you log on!

How does our data get backed up and can we get a copy?

100% of every customer's data is backed up on a nightly basis (including weekends). All backups are securely transported to an off-site storage facility and kept in locked containers for not less than ten years. Complete data extracts are prepared on-demand and a CD is sent to you via overnight delivery.

What are the hardware and software requirements?

The only requirement is that your computer have Netscape version 4 or higher or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or higher. It is preferred that you install the free Adobe Reader as a plug-in to your browser. That's it! As long as your computer has enough horsepower to browse other Web sites, it has enough horsepower to run CyberGrants.

How quickly can I get started?

We have seen customers get up and running in less than two hours. Other, more complex implementations involving data conversions, multiple location training, extensive review and approval processes, intelligent proposal routing and web site integrations may take a little longer but the biggest roadblock, software installation at your location, is always avoided with our delivery of world-class software as an Application Service Provider.

What about my existing data - can it be converted into CyberGrants?

Our eleven years of computer consulting has exposed us to numerous data conversion exercises in a multitude of database formats. We typically require one week to perform the conversion. The process is straightforward. First, we review your data to determine proper 'mappings' into CyberGrants. Next, we prepare a conversion document for you to review. This document contains our assumptions and plans for conversion. Finally, we develop the conversion utility script to perform the conversion and execute it on your data. Usually, we try to schedule training immediately after this initial conversion. It is far more effective to train you with your own data. Once you are trained, we mutually select a 'cutover' date and perform the final conversion immediately before cutover. This way, you start off well-prepared with your most up-to-date information in CyberGrants.