Be a Philanthropist Response Tool
Executive
Summary
Be A
Philanthropist (http://www.BeAPhilanthropist.com)
is a grant distribution organization in the Grantwell program. Grantwell is part of the Romney Institute at BYU and
is primarily run by MPA students. Be A
Philanthropist (BAP) distributes $20,000 per year ($10,000 per semester) in
$300 increments. The Sorensen Legacy Foundation
entrusts the student-run organization to award the micro grants to applicants
that have small cash requirements and innovative ideas.
Each week,
the BAP team designates three team members as grant evaluators with one acting
as “Lead Evaluator” that has final say.
In order to make the process more objective, the BAP team came up with
several criteria used to rate each application.
Late this semester, we developed a more comprehensive weighted system
with a few qualifier questions to make sure that the applications fit into the
scope given by the fund sponsors. Since
quick turnaround time is critical in the BAP process, I offered to make an automated
decision support tool using VBA.
The tool has
three worksheets (Main, Criteria, and Data) that enable users to rate a given
application in ~2 minutes per person instead of approximately 10-15 minutes per
person using the old process. VBA sub procedures
populate the “Data” sheet from a Google spreadsheet where the application forms
filled out at http://www.BeAPhilanthropist.com
are collected. The data is cleaned up on
this sheet before new records are brought over to the “Main” sheet.
The “Main” sheet
holds application information as well as scores, comments, and decisions made
for each application. At the top of this
page, there are four buttons that control the data update and the three rater user
forms. The “Criteria” sheet holds all of
the various levers that can be pulled by the BAP team to tweak the user forms
should future BAP teams want to adjust the rating criteria in the future. There is space for four qualifier questions
(three currently used) and eight rating criteria (six currently used) that
allow weight to be assigned as determined by the BAP team. The “Criteria” sheet also holds the potential
recommendations available to reviewers as well as stock email responses for
each recommendation.
The user
forms bring in the applicant name, project description, and specific use of
funds fields from the applications. This
allows the reviewers to rate them with all relevant information at hand. After the first two reviewers have finished
their recommendations and comments, the lead evaluator’s form also displays the
opinions of the other two reviewers.
After making a final decision, the lead evaluator has the option of
sending an email response immediately to the applicant. Another form is activated that allows the
evaluator to adjust the canned response if they so desire (applicant name is
already pulled in) and then send it from the BeAPhilanthropist@grantwell.org
account.
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