Before applying, please review these tips on using our online application system.
The Registration Process
The registration process has four sections: (1) organization information, (2) individual user information, (3) executive officer information, and (4) individual user password. Each person who needs access to the grants management system should have their own login and password and should go through this registration process.
During the registration process, you cannot save partial information; therefore, you should gather all required information before beginning the registration process. Your user login is your e-mail address.
Updating Your Registration Information
To update your user information or organization address, click on your name at the top right corner of the screen and select “Edit Profile” or “Edit Organization” from the drop-down menu. To update the chief executive officer’s information or to deactivate contacts who are no longer with the organization please email Katie Brennan.
Your Dashboard
After you have registered you will be brought to your dashboard. Click the Home icon anytime you are logged in, to access your Dashboard.
There are three columns on your Dashboard.
- Action Needed - Contains draft applications and any approved applications that need action or will need action in the future.
- No Action - Contains active requests that do not need further action
- Historical – Contains past applications that are no longer active.
Apply for a grant
- Click on “Apply” in the menu at the top of the screen. If the foundation is accepting applications, you will see an “Apply” button in this section.
- To go back to an application that you have saved but not submitted, click on the “Home” icon.
Manage your grant application and awarded grants
When you click on the “Home” icon, you will see all grant agreements, follow up reports, and/or other tasks assigned to you in the “Action Needed” column.
Uploading Files
The only acceptable file type for attachments is Adobe PDF (.pdf). Only one file can be uploaded per question.
Things to Know
- If you have not submitted a grant report (interim or final) for a previous grant award, you are ineligible to be considered for funding. Please be sure to submit the required report(s) before completing a new application.
- If you do not provide an answer for one of the required questions, you will not be able to submit the application.
- A user will be automatically logged out of the online system after 90 minutes of inactivity. The user will receive a warning message at 80 minutes of the pending time out. Working on a form without saving does not count as activity.
- Please remember to regularly save your work. The system will auto save every 20 minutes.
- The character counter includes spaces as well as characters.
- You may choose to prepare your response in a document outside of the online system (e.g. Microsoft Word) and then copy and paste the text into the online form. If you prepare the application in this way, be sure to keep track of character limits. As noted above, character limits include spaces and characters. We recommend that you do use spellcheck and grammar in Microsoft Word, but do not use formatting tools because the formatting will likely not transfer to the response area when pasted into the online system. If you are drafting the application in Word, please be aware that the methodology used by Word to count characters does not exactly match the methodology used by the online grants management system, so occasionally you might find that editing is required to make the text fit within the character limits of the system. If your PDF upload file exceeds the maximum file size, consider using the Adobe Acrobat option to reduce the size of the file. To do this in Adobe, click on “File”, “Save As Other”, “Reduced Sized PDF”.
- Remember to click “Submit Form” when you are ready.
- Once the application has been submitted it is no longer available for editing.
- Please remember that the application is read by staff and Distribution Committee members. With this in mind, please use complete sentences. Also, please refrain from using ampersands, abbreviations, acronyms or capitalization of words, as these often disrupt the flow of reading.
For technical assistance with the online grants management system, please email kbrennan@fmscleveland.com.
