MorrisonGrants

… is really no question if you have a choice.

Many federal, state, and other grant programs use online grant submission processes.  I use the Internet in my work as much as most people and more than many, but unless electronic submission is mandatory, we recommend sticking with paper.

We have worked with several electronic grant processes; by my observation they range from “mediocre” to “atrocious.”  Most are cumbersome, and incompatibility with common user software is a frequent issue.  We have worked with electronic submission processes that cannot handle documents created on a Mac, on PCs using Windows Vista, or with Office 2007 software.  We’ve worked with others that restrict the user to Internet Explorer and won’t work with computers using Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and other popular browsers.

Many electronic submission processes require inputting information in text boxes.  These often strip out any formatting on text pasted from Word or other word processing programs (such as numbering, bullets, bolding, italics, underlining, and even paragraph breaks).  It is also important to preview or print anything input to a text box before you submit your proposal as some processes add seemingly random characters or replace others.  For example, one process we’ve worked with turns quotation marks to apostrophes and hyphens to upside-down question marks – but only some of the time. 

One of the worst problems is the tendency of some processes to crash, especially in the hours before the deadline, but also while you are inputting.  Data can be lost and deadlines can be missed.

The worst problem, however, is the reaction of some granting agencies to the issues with their systems, which can be, simply put, “That’s your problem.”  We worked with an organization that submitted their proposal a few hours before the deadline but the system crashed as they were uploading it and didn’t come back online until after the deadline.  The granting agency acknowledged the crash and was even able to electronically verify that the proposal had been submitted on time, yet took the position that because it was received late it was disqualified.  Their stance boiled down to “You should have known that we suck so you should have submitted your proposal a few days early.”  My words, but that was the drift of it.

We recently had a good experience with the State of California when their system went down for two days for unscheduled maintenance and only came back online the workday of the deadline.  The agency sent an email to applicants within two hours notifying them that the deadline would be extended for two days.  I commend them for both the appropriateness of their action and its promptness, both of which are exceptions to the rule. 

If you must use an electronic process, be ready early and review everything well in advance.  If you have a choice, file by paper.  Stamps don’t crash, and FedEx has never failed us.