Believe it or not, securing funding through grants is crucial for the success of any nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and research facilities. The Grant Management Software is a modern solution that will streamline the complicated processor managing grants from start to finish.

But what exactly is GMS, and what are its benefits and advantages?

What is Grant Management Software?

To talk about a GMS we need to talk about a CSR platform, which are the ones offering the best grant management software.

Grant Management Software is like a personal assistant for organizations, helping them keep track of grant deadlines and prizes deadlines, manage budgets, report on progress, and also helps them make sure they meet the grant requirements.

By taking care of these tasks, GMS frees up time and resources, allowing teams to focus on what really matters! Which is achieving their mission and goals.

Benefits of Grant Management Software

Grant Management Software isn’t just a tool; it’s a game-changer for organizations that looking to get grants.

Its benefits are vast and varied, touching on every aspect of the process.

Simplifying the Application Processes

GMS makes applying for grants a breeze with its customizable forms and different templates to the point that some software nowadays makes it automatically.

This means organizations can quickly put together their applications without having to start from scratch each time. This not only saves time but also increases the likelihood of submitting a top-notch application.

Better Collaboration and Communication

Grant management systems often come with features that let team members work together smoothly, no matter where they are.

This means everyone involved in the grant process or in the employee volunteering process can stay updated in real time, share documents, and communicate effectively.

It helps everyone work together seamlessly in managing grants.

Improving Financial Aspects

Financial management is a critical component of grant management and most business management.

In most cases, the GMS provides organizations with tools to track expenses, monitor budgets, and forecast future financial needs.

This level of oversight ensures that the funds are used efficiently and in compliance with grant stipulations and requirements.

Reduce Risk and Get a Better Compliance

Organizations must meet grant requirements without exception, and GMS makes it easier by sending reminders for reporting deadlines, keeping detailed records, and providing audit trails.

This helps reduce the chance of non-compliance and lessens the risk of financial penalties or loss of funding.

Makes Data Management and Reporting Easier

Making decisions based on data is crucial, and GMS offers excellent data management and reporting features.

Organizations can gather data at every stage of the grant process, study it for valuable insights, and create detailed reports for stakeholders.

This approach helps in making informed decisions that can ultimately lead to better outcomes.

Boost Productivity with Automation

Automation is at the heart of GMS, and it’s a major operational boon. By automating repetitive tasks such as data entry, tracking deadlines, and generating reports, GMS allows staff to redirect their efforts toward more strategic activities.

This boost in productivity can lead to more grants being pursued and, ultimately, more funding secured.

Easier Access to Information

Gone are the days of sifting through file cabinets or disparate digital folders. GMS centralizes all grant-related information in one accessible location.

This means that team members can easily find what they need when they need it, without unnecessary delays or confusion.

The post Benefits of Using Grant Management Software appeared first on Green Prophet.

He then returned to Cairo, where the overwhelming pollution caused all kinds of health problems. His doctor advised him to leave. Instead, he set out to uproot the problem by planting mini carbon sponges throughout the city – a goal that seemed attainable after Mubarak was ousted. Despite the numerous obstacles he faced, Samad persevered, and the organization’s first rooftop farm is currently being installed on the roof of Hassan Abu Baker School.

Shagara had to wait a full year before their status as a non-government organization was approved, and then spent the second year trying to get permission to work with public schools.

By then, all but two volunteers abandoned the project, which seemed doomed to fail – at least until Samad received an unexpected boost from on high.

“I met the prime minister at the shooting club and told him about the issue, and he helped to push the project,” he told Green Prophet.

“Shagara is fighting on two fronts: a very poorly designed bureaucracy that does not get anything done, and an ill mentality of several civil servants and bureaucrats.”

“Some of them just told me you are doing this to make money out of it or you must be a spy. Unbelievable!!”

With financial backing from the Swiss embassy and an agreement with the Ministry of Education to focus on just one public school to begin with, Samad and his green-thumbed posse could finally proceed with plans to build a small urban farm on the roof of Hassan Abu Baker School in Cairo.

“Because of the relatively scarce space found in the urban areas, employing rooftops and other space on the building is a necessity,” he said.

Using school property seemed like an obvious choice for various reasons.

In addition to being able to utilize large swaths of unused space, teachers are poorly paid, so a revenue-generating urban farm could provide added income.

Plus, most public schools employ maintenance people who can help to maintain the crops and plants.

Indigenous plants and trees will be planted on the ground to help absorb carbon emissions, while various organic vegetables will be raised on the roof and sold.

Only non-toxic and low-carbon materials are being used. The implementation of the school project started last Sunday, February 17th, and the second phase will begin this week Thursday.

“Actually last Sunday the principal of the school told me they were wary at the beginning that I am a foreign spy or something; she even asked me for a copy of my ID,” Samad explained.

“Other than that all the teachers were so happy and the students were amazing. They were really eager to put the things together themselves and know about Shagara.”

The post Rooftop Farm in Egypt Finally Trumps Red Tape appeared first on Green Prophet.

Gradually over the past two decades, Lakiya sisters Khadra and Hanan Elsana organized Sidreh, named for a tough desert tree. Since 1991, the Sidreh center provides a safe, female-only environment where the women practice the traditional art of Bedouin weaving. While at the center, they can learn how to read and write in Arabic and Hebrew, and how to earn a high school diploma. Some of the enterprising ones have gone on to start businesses or pursue higher education.

Khadra Elsana with a hand woven carpet

The Elsana sisters go on speaking tours regularly. Earlier this year, Hanan was at the United Nations headquarters in New York discussing the plight of Bedouin women. Khadra recently accepted a social advocacy prize in the United States.

Because of the Sidreh center, many Bedouin women in the region of Lakiya now feel comfortable leaving the house. Over time, their fathers and husbands grew to accept that the women could go outside the village for work, and even drive cars. Their daughters have started going to college, thanks to the small amounts of money the mothers make from the weaving initiative, and thanks to special programs created for them at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

“The men are surprised to see so many women driving today,” Khadra tells ISRAEL21c.

Hand spun, hand dyed wool

It wasn’t easy, says the mother of four and now executive director of Sidreh. In the beginning, “women here weren’t even walking on the streets,” she says. She had to fight her community to accept her leaving the home, and she had to persuade her own husband to agree. Yet in less than one generation, she points out, the women have come a long way.

In years past, the size of a Bedouin tent was determined by how many goat, camel or sheep’s wool carpets could be made for the dwelling. But without the need for tents anymore, the women of Sidreh have found a new way to weave ancient skills into the newly developing culture.

The handmade carpets start with the collection of the pure wool from Awasi sheep, or raw goat or camel wool discarded by shearers. The women of Sidreh gather it and bring it to the center for cleaning. At the center or at home, they wind it onto spools, dye and dry it, and then use it for weaving on traditional floor looms.

A four-meter-long strip of carpet can take about a week to weave. It’s a labor of love, with not a lot of profits, but the income from the onsite store and other fair-trade stores in cities such as Jaffa give the women enough money to buy self-confidence.

For a small fee, the women will demonstrate the entire process, with some hands-on opportunities for groups. They are open to having a dialogue with visitors, sharing details about their lives, dreams and ambitions.

“The women of Sidreh have done this to show that they can be honorable people,” says Yeela Ranaan, who runs the Bedouin Experience travel agency. A trip to the Sidreh center can be combined with other women-only Bedouin enterprises such as the embroidery center at the Association for the Improvement of Women’s Status in Lakiya, or Desert Daughter, founded by a Bedouin medicine woman’s granddaughter.

My daughter tries her hand at spinning wool by hand.

Ranaan says the situation still needs further improvement. “About half the women in this town still don’t get out. And their daughters don’t complete high school,” says Raanan.

But for the other half, the story’s been changed.

This story was first printed on ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org

The post Sidreh Weaves Bedouin Tradition Into Their Future appeared first on Green Prophet.

While Israel is primarily an arid country, it boasts an arterial network of rivers, lakes and streams. Major rivers such as the Alexander, Yarkon, Yarmuk and Kishon are unfit for swimming, says Maya Jacobs, executive director of Zalul.

She partnered with Waze to bring attention to the gravity of the problem during Sukkot, an autumn Jewish holiday that originally was a harvest and pilgrimage festival. Today the Israeli public celebrates much of the weeklong holiday by hiking, swimming and camping. Jacobs (pictured above) saw it as a perfect time to launch Zalul’s pollution-alert feature.

“I was driving with a friend of mine using Waze when all these pop-ups starting coming up. And I thought: Why don’t we use them to show people where the rivers are polluted?” she tells me in the story I wrote for ISRAEL21c.

When a logged-in user comes within about 12 miles of a waterway, the application will identify it, inform the user of its health status and identify polluters by way of a pop-up alert. During Sukkot, the organization sent users 120,000 alerts – including one warning of a sewage overflow in Tel Aviv that flooded a popular beach following the season’s first rain. See image of the sewage on the popular beach below.

Until now, the Israeli public has relied on news reports or signs posted on public beaches. A real-time alert system would not only be good for public health and safety, Jacobs reasoned; it would also force polluters to face the consequences of growing public awareness.

Certainly other regions, like Florida’s popular Gulf Coast, could use such an application as well, especially after the 2010 oil spill.

As far as she knows, there is no other public service like Zalul anywhere in the world, and Jacobs very much hopes to continue updating it along with Waze or as a standalone application, if interested parties can help support the cause. For now, Zalul must pay to remain part of Waze.

At the same time, Jacobs has a development team working on a social application for surfers, sailors, swimmers, port authorities, fishermen — everyone who cares about the Mediterranean Sea and Israel’s water resources.

Zalul will use this interested public to be the “eyes and ears outside,” taking the collected information to the local authorities in the hope of influencing regional water policy. “We call it a Forum for Defenders of the Sea. In the first stage it will be in Hebrew and then in English,” says Jacobs.

Zalul’s three main targets are mitigating harm from oil and gas drilling off the Mediterranean Coast; preventing Tel Aviv’s raw sewage from going straight to the sea; and putting pressure on polluters.

Jacobs wants the government to step up to the plate to avert a future catastrophe. Unlike other parts of the Med, Israel’s strip of sea is not fed by an active body of flowing water. If there were an oil spill, Israel would have to live with the consequences for a very long time, she tells ISRAEL21c.

But not all the water news from Israel is bad. Parts of the major rivers, including the Alexander and the Kishon, are being rehabilitated. And while Israel’s Lower Jordan River is reduced to a trickle and is not safe for swimmers, the Upper Jordan is fine for swimming, says Jacobs. Happily, the majority of Israel’s streams in the north remain clean, fed by fresh mountain-water runoff.

The post Zalul’s App “Tests” the Swimming Water in Israel appeared first on Green Prophet.