Well, it’s been a year.
A really, really hard one.
A real dumpster fire of one.
The more so, because much of what 2020 exposed so bluntly will take years to address: Take our pandemic readiness or the hard work ahead on ending police violence and systemic racism.
And yet.
As they tend to do, these dark days have also shown us our own resilience.
At Submittable, we’ve been encouraged and inspired by the way so many of our customers have used our platform to help others. From outpourings of relief funds, to new commitments around diversity, equity, and inclusion, to opportunities for creative outlets, we’ve (somehow) still managed to achieve so much together. In fact, the adversity has, in many ways, incited tough but necessary changes, innovation, and growth.
So here, we’re sharing some of the good that we’ve seen come out of 2020.
Evolving our product
It’s our platform that makes so much of this possible. Here’s how it’s grown over the last year.
Advanced Reporting
Graduated from its beta release this year, Advanced Reporting allows for reporting on virtually unlimited forms and form fields. Use it to make data driven decisions, learn lessons for next time, and answer stakeholder questions.
Eligibility Forms
Save time for everyone with new Eligibility forms. Screen applicants for your eligibility criteria, and customize the message ineligible applicants will see.
Charity Check
With our new integration with Candid (formerly Guidestar), you can pull nonprofit data directly into your Submittable from an EIN number. Plus, use Charity Check with Eligibility Forms to screen organizations based on their IRS nonprofit status. It’s faster and more reliable for everyone.
Collaborative Submissions
Submitters can now collaborate on an application in real time for a collective application (just like Google Docs). They can see real-time field presence, and you can message all collaborators to help everyone stay on the same page.
Add Payments
The Add Payment form field option gives you way more options for using Submittable to collect fees and payments. Charge per file upload, sell tickets, merchandise, or other products or services, or incorporate tiered pricing.
Shareable Reviews
With Shareable reviews, you can choose to share reviews anonymously with applicants, individually or in bulk. Let applicants know how to do better next time, or charge for expert critiques.
Group Assignments
Use groups to assign individual or bulk submissions to multiple reviewers at once, or when setting up auto-assignments for your multi-round review process.
Internal Forms
Provide context to reviewers and add internal documentation with a form specifically created for internal use.
The Discover marketplace
Discover, Submittable’s marketplace of opportunities connecting organizations with submitters, is now available to everyone to browse opportunities, whether or not they have a Submittable account
Submission Caps
Set a submission cap to your project to help accelerate your selection process or limit the demand upon your team in the review process.
Renewing our commitment
Like many of you, Submittable responded to the murder of George Floyd and renewed calls for racial justice by turning our gaze inward toward our own company’s policies.
We recognized Juneteenth as a company holiday and introduced a corporate matching program for employee donations. We were proud to support these causes in 2020:
We also recognized that we are uniquely positioned to help our thousands of customers reduce bias and increase equality across the myriad kinds of opportunities offered through our platform. To that end, we added a new section to our website to amplify our many actionable bias and inclusivity resources. We’ve been adding to this new collection frequently, and we hope you have found them helpful in working toward your own goals.
If you’ve missed them, here are a few of the best:
- Integrating Inclusivity Into Your Submission & Application Process: 7 Key Strategies (Guide)
- How to Create an Inclusive Application Process (Webinar)
- The Art and Science of Better Group Decision Making (Guide)
- 5 Tips for Making Your Review Panel More Inclusive (Blog)
Growing our team
Like so many of you, we have been fully or majority remote since mid-March. Luckily, we know a thing or two about effective remote collaboration tools.
We welcomed a new CEO, Thor Culverhouse. Thor joined Submittable with deep experience working with startups of our size, and we’ve been excited to welcome him to the Submittable team and benefit from his leadership as we continue to evolve the product.
We also launched a new customer referral program, and we’re so grateful to our many customers who have taken the time to spread the word.
Moving forward together
It’s really hard to try and put 2020 into words—especially when so many are hurting and grieving. And it’s all…not over. Still, we feel it’s important to celebrate what we all managed to accomplish, in spite of—and in many cases, because of—the unprecedented challenges. We’ve been compelled to innovate, confront hard truths, and ultimately, be better.
Thank you for being our partner through this $%#&-storm of a year. We’re really looking forward to achieving more with you, and to much brighter days, in 2021.
Natalya is a product marketer at Submittable focused on helping organizations get a ton of value out of the platform. She is a bookworm, adventure enthusiast and card-carrying cat lady as well as a writer and yogi.