With Submittable’s new capability, you can quickly and securely disburse funding to awardees with the click of a button.
From grants to scholarships to contests, awarding and disbursing funds is often a key component of program workflow for many Submittable clients.
To help, in 2019 Submittable introduced the Funds feature, to track the awarding and payment of funds to applicants. Until now, tracking was where the Funds feature stopped. But Submittable is pleased to announce that we now offer full-service payment disbursement through new Funds Distribution.
We’re particularly proud to offer this new product at this moment. In 2020, Submittable client organizations created 2,313 relief grants related to COVID-19, receiving 621,448 applications (and counting) and ultimately distributing nearly $2 billion in funds.
As our team has partnered closely with these clients, we’ve seen firsthand what a hassle it can sometimes be for organizations to get much-needed dollars into recipients’ wallets.
In fact, over half of Submittable organizations that distribute funds are still writing paper checks—a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, and a poor experience for grantmaker and grantseeker alike. Still more struggle with mountains of red tape to seek approval and ultimately get dollars out the door. And, the nature of funding cycles often demands that all payments be disbursed all at once, compounding the burden on the team responsible for allocating funds.
These obstacles not only take up valuable staff time that could be refocused on important work, they also delay getting funding into the hands of awardees. Particularly when it comes to emergency relief funding, these delays have a real human cost.
To solve this need, we created new Submittable Funds Distribution. Organizations can now trigger payments to awardees, directly within the platform they’re already using to evaluate applications. Submittable will then get funding to awardees quickly and securely. Here are the details.
What is Funds Distribution?
An addition to the Funds tracking tool, Funds Distribution blends product and service, giving you the quickest and (better yet) easiest way to disburse funding to awardees. Here’s how it works.
- Award funds to applicants in Submittable using the Funds feature. You determine the amount and the cadence.
- When you’re ready to send payment, simply select the new “Send Funds Now” button.
- Submittable will get funds to awardees swiftly and securely, through our partnerships with trusted payment vendors.
- Submittable handles communication and any questions that may arise from awardees.
- Submittable will provide regular reports on payment disbursement progress.
- Payment vendors satisfy tax requirements, including sending 1099s to awardees when applicable.
How will Funds Distribution help me and my team?
Feel the benefits of Funds Distribution organization-wide—and better serve awardees.
- Efficient for your team. It doesn’t get easier than this—trigger payments with the click of a button.
- Eliminate red tape. Having Submittable on the job means no more jumping through internal hoops to send out awards.
- Disburse funds quickly. We work with you to make the full fund available ahead of time, so payments go out without delay.
- A great applicant experience. Applicants will appreciate receiving funding quickly and securely from a trusted source.
- Outsource tedious tax forms. Payment vendors handle getting the appropriate tax forms to awardees, so your team doesn’t have to.
- More time for your mission. Refocus time saved on your important work.
How can I get Funds Distribution?
Funds Distribution is premium capability available immediately. If you’re a current client, contact your account manager to learn more and sign up today.
Also new from Submittable
- Somehow, we all made it out of 2020. And while it was no fun (for anyone, we trust), still, we saw an awful lot of good, as thousands of organizations used the Submittable platform to help others. We rounded it all up in this 2020: Our Year in Review.
- Wondering what’s new with Submittable? Catch up in this webinar, where we cover Funds Distribution as well as roundup the biggest new features from the last year.
- Attention, grantmakers: we recently convened three client organizations for a discussion of lessons learned in emergency grant management, relief funds, and more from 2020. Catch the conversation.
Learn more about Submittable
New? You’ve come at an exciting time. Funds Distribution is only the latest of Submittable’s broad suite of professional services and robust features that serve large corporations, small but mighty nonprofits, and everyone in between. Watch a demo to learn more.
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.