Salesforce Grants Management: What Nonprofits Should Know

Salesforce recently announced end-of-sale for Grants Management, meaning the product is no longer available for new purchase. However, existing customers remain unaffected and can continue to renew their contracts and use the product as usual. Let’s dive into what this means for new and existing customers, and the future of Salesforce grant management tools.

What is grants management?

Grants management covers all activities tied to grant applications, awards, and compliance. It includes both inbound processes—receiving funds—and outbound processes, such as distributing funds. The grants management process includes the following key phases:

Pre-Award Phase: This phase includes planning and announcing the grant program, receiving submissions, and reviewing grant applications.

Award Phase: Grant application decisions are issued. Grant terms are negotiated and contracts are signed.

Post-Award Phase: Grant payments are distributed, and the grantee spends funds as intended. The grantee completes required reports, which are then approved upon submission. Finally, grant outcomes are tracked to ensure effective management.

Salesforce’s Grants Management is built on the Outbound Funds Module and is designed specifically for grantmakers. It offers features to support the grant management phases such as an applicant portal, guidance tracking, task management, and due diligence processes.

Does Salesforce have other grant management tools?

Salesforce has additional tools to support the grants management process. You may have seen or are using foundationConnect. FoundationConnect is an older grants management solution from Salesforce.org designed to help grantmakers and foundations manage grant applications, reviews, awards, payments, and reporting. However, foundationConnect has been retired and is slated for full deactivation on January 31, 2026.

Another Salesforce grants management tool is the Outbound Funds Module. This module is a free open source product that is downloaded from Salesforce AppExchange. It’s a solution for foundations and nonprofits who disburse awards and grants. This tool tracks funding programs and requests, provides insights on financial commitments and manages disbursements.

Lastly, the future of grants management for Salesforce is Nonprofit Cloud for Grantmaking. It’s Salesforce’s newest and now primary offering for outbound grants management. It’s built directly into the Salesforce platform, often referred to as “Core”, unlike the above solutions. It includes robust and scalable solutions for managing the entire grantmaking lifecycle, including funding opportunities, applications, grantee portal, budgets, reviews, approvals, and outcomes management.

My organization uses Salesforce Grant Management, how do we prepare for the future?

At present, there is no specified end-of-life or deactivation date for the Salesforce Grants Management product; however, future updates are expected to become less frequent, and the introduction of new features may be discontinued. It’s never too early to start planning for the future and assess if Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for Grantmaking will support your organization’s goals. Feel free to reach out to us! We can help audit your current Salesforce instance, assess your grant management needs, and support your team with a transition.