7 Best Grant Management Software 2024 (Track Every Grant)

by Chris Von Wilpert, BBusMan • Last updated November 23, 2023

Expert Verified by Leandro Langeani, BBA

First-Person Perspective: We buy, test and review software products based on a 3-step rating methodology and first-hand experienceIf you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our rating methodology and how we make money.

Today there are 94 different grant management software. We spent 70 hours comparing the top 50 to find the seven best you can use to manage all things grants related.

What is the Best Grant Management Software?

  1. Sage Intacct — best of the best
  2. Little Green Light — best for fundraising
  3. NetSuite — best for financial management
  4. Bloomerang — best for donor management 
  5. Blackbaud Grantmaking — best for fund accounting 
  6. Good Grants — best for international nonprofits
  7. QuickBooks — best for small nonprofits

Our Verdict — Best Of The Best

Price: Custom

Sage Intacct is a powerful financial management software for nonprofits seeking better grant management. We think it’s the best because of its robust reporting capabilities, efficient budgeting tools, and time-saving automations.

The Best Part:

  • Multi-entity support. Sage Intacct can handle multiple entities and currencies with ease — a must-have feature for nonprofits working internationally or across multiple states.

The Worst Part:

  • Steep learning curve. Sage Intacct can be challenging for those who are new to financial software or who have no background in accounting.

Get it if you want a powerful grant management program that's tailored for nonprofits.

I recommend you consult with a Sage Intacct expert to determine the best plan for your nonprofit.

(book a call)

Best For

Sage Intacct is best for nonprofits that want an all-in-one financial solution to streamline grant management, budgeting, and reporting.

Top Features

  • Efficient grant cost tracking. Calculate your reimbursable out-of-pocket costs with maximum accuracy, without any overlooked charges or inflated figures in your grant applications, reports, or overall budgeting.
  • Compliance made easy. Centralize your grant records and reports to ensure stress-free audits. You can even set up a dedicated shared knowledge base for your staff and auditors.
  • Keep a finger on the pulse. Monitor employee performance per grant to effectively assign workloads across your team, improve your nonprofit’s productivity, and responsibly manage your grants.
  • One-click charge collection. Collect outstanding charges from your donors with a click of a button.
  • Detailed fund tracking. Sage Intacct makes it easy to track funding figures, manage grant requirements, and match tasks with deliverables.

Pricing

Sage Intacct offers a single pricing plan:

  • Custom pricing: Custom quote, for nonprofits that want a comprehensive financial management solution with advanced grant management, customizable dashboards, and extensive reporting.

Try Sage Intacct today with a free call.

Our Verdict — Best For Fundraising

Price: Starts at $45/month

Little Green Light is a straightforward grant management solution for nonprofits that want to maximize their fundraising potential. We think it’s the best for fundraising because of its user-friendly event management system, extensive donor tracking features, and flexible reporting tools.

The Best Part:

  • Robust data reporting. Little Green Light offers in-depth reporting features to help you analyze your fundraising success, make data-driven decisions, and keep your team up-to-date with your nonprofit’s performance.

The Worst Part:

  • Limited integrations. Little Green Light doesn’t integrate with as many third-party tools as some alternatives.

Get it if you want a straightforward grant management solution to streamline your nonprofit’s fundraising and grant management efforts.

I recommend you get started with a 30-day free trial, then sign up for Little Green Light’s $45/month plan.

(30-day free trial)

Best For

Little Green Light is best for small to midsize nonprofits that want a to-the-point grant management solution to manage constituents and grants.

Top Features

  • Swift fundraising event tracking. Keep track of your events’ attendees, invitees, and donations with Little Green Light’s comprehensive event management tools.
  • Constituent coding. Categorize volunteers, members, and donors in your database with custom tags.
  • Scheduled reporting. Send out automated emails to your team to keep them in the loop about your statistics on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
  • Constituent data maintenance. Eliminate duplicates, make bulk updates, and monitor your nonprofit’s constituent data seamlessly with a sleek dashboard.
  • Document management. Safely store your constituents’ most important documents with Little Green Light’s dedicated web storage space.

Pricing

Little Green Light offers seven pricing plans:

  • Plan 1: $45/month for nonprofits that want a full-featured donor and grant management solution for up to 2,500 constituents.
  • Plan 2: $60/month for up to 5,000 constituents.
  • Plan 3: $75/month for up to 10,000 constituents.
  • Plan 4: $90/month for up to 20,000 constituents.
  • Plan 5: $105/month for up to 30,000 constituents.
  • Plan 6: $120/month for up to 40,000 constituents.
  • Plan 7: $135/month for up to 50,000 constituents.

Annual plans provide a 10% discount.

Try Little Green Light today with a free 30-day trial.

Our Verdict — Best For Financial Management

Price: Custom

NetSuite is a customizable resource planning solution for nonprofits. We think it’s the best for financial management because of its in-depth financial reports, unified approach to grant management, and seamless life cycle automation.

The Best Part:

  • Unified grant management system. NetSuite brings together all grant-related workflows and integrates them seamlessly with the rest of your processes.

The Worst Part:

  • Pricey implementation. NetSuite is more expensive to implement and maintain than most competitors.

Get it if you want a customizable financial management platform to effectively manage and track grants in sync with your other tools.

I recommend you start with a free product tour.

(free product tour)

Best For

NetSuite is best for nonprofits that need an integrated solution to efficiently manage grants, while keeping all data in sync with their existing tech stack.

Top Features

  • Customizable billing schedules. Set up billing schedules and alerts within NetSuite to send out invoices automatically or remind your staff to invoice donors on specific dates.
  • It supports your decisions. Get full insight into everything grant-related, like transactions, donation history, and revenue to date.
  • Seamless grant accounting. Record transactions, manage account payables and receivables, and close your books with NetSuite’s comprehensive fund accounting features.
  • Flexible scalability. NetSuite enables you to manage all of your processes, hassle-free, no matter how big or complex your nonprofit gets.
  • Comprehensive reporting. Generate customizable, real-time reports for grant-related transactions, vendor bills, expense reports, etc.

Pricing

NetSuite offers a single pricing plan:

  • Custom pricing: Yearly plans for nonprofits that need to grow and manage funds efficiently with a customizable financial and grant management solution.

Try NetSuite today with a free product tour.

Our Top Three Picks

Here’s a quick summary of our top three picks:

  1. Sage Intacct — best of the best
  2. Little Green Light — best for fundraising
  3. NetSuite — best for financial management

Here’s a quick comparison of our top seven picks:

Tool

Entry Offer

Pricing

Sage Intacct

None

Custom

Little Green Light

30-day free trial

Starts at $45/mo

NetSuite

Free product tour

Custom

Bloomerang

Free demo

Starts at $948/yr

Blackbaud Grantmaking

Free demo

Custom

Good Grants

14-day free trial

Starts at $375/mo

QuickBooks

30-day free trial

Starts at $37.50/mo

Here are the top 50 grant management software we considered in this review:

  1. Sage Intacct
  2. Little Green Light
  3. NetSuite Grant Management
  4. Bloomerang
  5. Blackbaud Grantmaking
  6. Good Grants
  7. QuickBooks
  8. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud
  9. SurveyMonkey Apply
  10. eCIvis
  11. MIP Fund Accounting
  12. Salsa CRM
  13. NeonCRM
  14. Fundly CRM
  15. Benevity
  16. Instrumentl
  17. Trail Blazer
  18. MemberClicks
  19. NonprofitPlus
  20. DonorPerfect
  21. Denali Fund
  22. SmartGrant
  23. Submittable
  24. Serenic Navigator
  25. Submit.com
  26. Zengine
  27. GrantHub
  28. CyberGrants
  29. OpenWater 
  30. LiveImpact
  31. Grant Lifecycle Manager
  32. Fluxx Grantmaker
  33. Evalato
  34. HOPE
  35. Grant Administrator
  36. Grant Manager
  37. Intelligrants IGX
  38. SmarterSelect
  39. ZoomGrants
  40. AmpliFund
  41. Bright Funds
  42. e-CImpact
  43. EveryAction
  44. Fund E-Z
  45. Optimy
  46. Workday
  47. FluidReview
  48. Altum Grants Management
  49. GrantVantage
  50. Foundant

Which grant database is best?

The best grant database depends on your organization's needs and preferences. However, some popular grants management solutions include cloud-based grant management software solutions that offer a single platform for managing grants, funding programs, and user satisfaction.

When selecting a database, consider user reviews, the platform's capabilities in supporting different types of grants (such as those for tribal governments or philanthropic sectors), and its integration with other software systems your organization uses. It's crucial to evaluate the database's security measures and data backup options to ensure your organization's sensitive information is protected and can be easily recovered in case of data loss or system failure.

We recommend that you opt for Little Green Light if you’re looking for a straightforward tool to seamlessly manage your grant database.

What is CRM in grant management?

CRM in grant management refers to Customer Relationship Management, a type of software that helps organizations manage their relationships with constituents, donors, and other stakeholders.

An example of a CRM with grant management capabilities is Little Green Light, a cloud-based constituent relationship management database specifically designed for nonprofit organizations. It's our #2 pick for our overall best software list for grant management. It has very powerful features for managing fundraising events, streamlining communications with your nonprofit's contacts, and powerful data reporting on your nonprofit's constituents.

Why is a CRM important for fundraising?

A CRM is important for fundraising because it centralizes and organizes constituent data, making it easier to track donor interactions, manage fundraising campaigns, and identify funding opportunities.

It enables nonprofit organizations to streamline their administrative tasks, improve donor management, and optimize their social responsibility programs with little effort.

A CRM allows nonprofits to segment their donor base, create targeted campaigns, and measure the success of various fundraising efforts, which ultimately leads to donors coming back more often and committing to your cause.

What is CRM software for nonprofits?

CRM software for nonprofits typically includes features such as donor management, donation tracking, event planning, membership management, reporting, and communication tools. These systems help organizations centralize their constituent data, making it easier to segment their donor base, create targeted fundraising campaigns, and measure the success of various initiatives.

In addition, CRM software for nonprofits often provides integration with other software systems, such as grant management solutions, email marketing platforms, and accounting software, which helps create a unified platform for managing various aspects of a nonprofit's operations.

What to look for in grant management software?

When looking for grant management software, key features to consider include a unified platform for managing the grant management process, grant application process, and grant funding. It should offer useful tools such as online forms for grant proposals, task reminders, a centralized dashboard, and a cloud-based service for easy accessibility. Other essential features include pipeline management, risk management, financial reporting, and award management.

These features can all be easily built or used with advanced software such as Sage Intacct and NetSuite, which we've included in our top three picks for grant management software. These two platforms are especially useful for streamlining all things fundraising related, including tasks specific to your organization that you may not find in a one-size-fits-all CRM.

NetSuite is a customizable, integrated solution that enables you to bring all of your puzzle pieces together into one unified system. You can connect it to pretty much everything related to your organization, such as your accounting, financial reporting, grant management, donor management, and fundraising efforts. Its cloud-based platform ensures that your data is accessible from anywhere, making it convenient for team members working remotely or across multiple locations.

Sage Intacct is another powerful grant management software solution that is designed to cater to the specific needs of nonprofits. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools for tracking grant funding, managing budgets, and ensuring financial transparency and compliance. With its real-time financial reporting capabilities, Sage Intacct enables organizations to make data-driven decisions and demonstrate their financial stewardship to donors, board members, and other stakeholders.

How do I organize my grant files?

To organize your grant files, consider using a cloud-based grant management solution or an online grant management system. These systems help you manage all aspects of the grant process, including grant opportunities, grant proposals, event planning, and impact stories. We recommend Sage Intacct as our #1 pick due to its impeccable grant file tracking and organization features.

Having a well-structured filing system in place can improve your organization's efficiency and accountability, making it easier to track progress, meet deadlines, and report on the outcomes and impacts of funded projects. It's simply very efficient to have a go-to, centralized location for storing and organizing documents and data related to the grant management cycle.

The Bottom Line

To recap, here are the best grant management software to try this year:

  1. Sage Intacct — best of the best
  2. Little Green Light — best for fundraising
  3. NetSuite — best for financial management
  4. Bloomerang — best for donor management 
  5. Blackbaud Grantmaking — best for fund accounting 
  6. Good Grants — best for international nonprofits
  7. QuickBooks — best for small nonprofits

Make Your First $100K Per Month

Learn how to leverage a blog + smart AI to make $100k per month. Includes examples, illustrations, and step-by-step instructions.

>