Grants platform: off spreadsheets, onto one secure system

The challenge

The client's charitable foundation, part of a global investment bank, makes grants to charities and runs its own fundraising. It was managing all of this on spreadsheets, with approvals handled by hand. That made it hard to keep a proper grip on budgets, spending and who money had been committed to, and it was never going to be good enough to sit inside a bank, where data like this has to be tightly secured. The foundation needed a proper system, and one that could meet the bank's exacting security standards.

Our approach

We led the analysis and design, then built the foundation a single, secure system to run its grant-making on.

1. One place to run grant-making. We replaced the spreadsheets with a central system where the foundation could track budgets and spending, keep a record of the charities and organisations it was considering, and manage the whole grants process, including approvals and correspondence, in one place rather than by hand.
2. Security to the bank's own standard. Because it lived inside a major bank, the data had to be protected to the institution's standards. We built it so information is encrypted and stored securely, and only unlocked by a member of staff using their smart card, so sensitive data stays safe.
3. Proven before full delivery. We built a working prototype on site first, to prove the trickiest part, the security and sign-in, worked against the bank's systems before committing to the full build.

The result

The foundation moved off spreadsheets and manual approvals onto a single system built for the job. It can track budgets, spending and potential grant recipients, run approvals properly and keep the surrounding correspondence in one place, all held to the security standard a global bank requires.