TrustRadius Insights for Submittable are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Efficient Communication Management: Users have consistently praised the platform for its efficient management of communications. They appreciate the seamless handling of emails, notes sections, and the convenient feature that allows them to access reviews during calls while attaching necessary documents.
User-Friendly Interface: Reviewers find the platform's user-friendly interface intuitive and easy to navigate. The ability to view all relevant documents on a single screen without opening multiple windows has been highlighted as a significant advantage by users.
Effective Organization Tools: Users value the platform's effective organization tools for submissions, reviewer assignments, and process tracking. The segmentation of data by project is particularly commended for streamlining the review process efficiently.
We use Submittable for our CSR programs, including grants management and employee volunteerism. Our national grants program launched in Fall 2023, and it was seamless to set it up on Submittable. We also host an open employee relief application that works well for our users. We began using the employee volunteer platform in Spring 2024, and have been happy with it as well.
Pros
Easy to use as a grant reviewer and as a grant applicant.
Strong reporting capabilities.
Excellent support team.
Cons
We are some of the earliest users of employee volunteerism, so there have been some things to work out. However, because of that, we've gotten a lot of one-on-one support to help make minor tweaks to the system in a way that works for us.
Likelihood to Recommend
Submittable is well-suited to a program like ours, which wanted the capability to host a national grants program for a specific period of time (in our case, 6 weeks) as well as an internal employee-specific program with rolling applications.
We use Submittable for online grant application review and processing and workflow automation. We used to have applicants fill out Application Forms in MS Word templates, circulate them to review committees via email and gather feedback and approvals by email. Submittable has allowed us to automate a variety of processes, including i) centralizing all application processing online in a single site using customizable logic-based form templates, ii) making it easier to manage workflows like assigning applications to review team members, recording interactions, and following up queries externally with applicants, as well as internally with review team members) communicating application decisions, and iv) managing additional or follow-up forms processing (e.g., collecting bank wire info for approved disbursements), etc. It also acts as a central repository for past/archived applications for easy reference or learning retention to help with new application decisions.
Pros
Form-logic: Allows application forms to adjust based on answers to crucial questions (if-then-else) so that all applications don't have to see extended questions that may not apply to them or their situation.
Messaging Platform: This platform allows interactions with applicants or internal review teams to be associated with the specific submission, allowing for an easier, complete view of an application being considered and as an audit trail.
Good Voting/Polling Management: It makes it easier to record the latest vote/feedback from assigned team members and allows customization of the vote/feedback review as a form. It also summarizes the votes for easy review in a submissions dashboard view.
Cons
Subscribe to Types of Activity Alerts: It would make tracking of key activity or status of each submission a lot easier if all assigned review team members could subscribe to key actions taken on a submission (e.g., updates/edits by the applicant, responses to queries over the messaging platform, etc.) As the central workflow coordinator, I only get alerts or notifications if an applicant has submitted a new application or updated their submission or if I have been directly messaged. I then have to triage all activities and decide if I need to notify review team members of significant activity on a relevant submission that might require their attention (e.g., an answer by the applicant to a query that might alter a review team member's vote/feedback). Think of it like online discussion boards where you might want to sign up for alerts if there have been responses to a question you posed or a topic you expressed an interest in.
More User-Friendly Reporting Features: The ability to rename Report Column Headers. Right now, report field names are based on question text in the submission form. For example, instead of a Report Field being called "New Applicant," the default reporting tool labels the Report Field "Is this your first time submitting a Grant Application to XYZ?"
More Granular Access/Permissions Control: It would be great to allow auditors read-only access without having to add them to the Review Team.
Likelihood to Recommend
The best solution we found for Grant Application Processing is where applicants can submit their grant request, make updates in response to queries, get updates on status, and submit follow-up progress reports if approved.
We use Submittable for all of our grants and scholarship needs each year. It has helped us shorten processes and track our applicants better. We process 300 applications a year and the program participants find it very user friendly. The customer support is also great for us and for the applicants.
Pros
Efficiency
Program and Process Management
Quick turnaround
Cons
More options in the form building
More options for the emailing
Unlock the pre-set emails instead of click to edit
Likelihood to Recommend
Submittable is great for grant management, grantmaking, and scholarship awards. It's a very useful tool also when there are multiple reviewers and committees involved in the assessment of the application. The table feature is helpful, but to download the information in a usable report is a pain. Overall a very useful tool for funding.
We use it for multiple things: grant application submissions, our state film incentive applications, and reporting needs. There are multiple grants opportunities and it keeps track of them in different folders, so it's easy to keep up with what we have going on and how many people have jumped in.
Pros
Storing video files
Integrating existing applications to an online process
Storing past and present project data for reporting purposes
Cons
Reporting can be a bit clunky
Personalized graphics on submissions
Requires all users to create an account...can be a bit annoying
Likelihood to Recommend
Fantastic customer service during the entire onboarding phase, as well as monthly checkups to ensure user satisfaction. When a question has arisen they are always quick to respond. The reps know the product really well and any issues are resolved within a short timeframe.
The best feature for our film incentive folks has been the ability to come back to the application at a later date for editing. In the past, it's taken multiple submissions for some productions to get it right...Submittable makes it so they can get me the info I need to make a decision on the first try.
We use Submittable for submission and review for our grant programs, board nominations and committee organization, as well as workshop volunteers. Submittable provides a very simple platform that's easy to use and navigate while providing security, flexibility and decent reporting features. Our previous vendor was stagnate and not flexible whatsoever.
Pros
allows a one-stop-shop for reviewers
allows for blinding of documents and review comments
is very easy to change and adapt for basic forms
Cons
The reporting features are basic and although they work well, the output options are flat.
I wish there was an option to set a report up for not only to download the raw data but also to set to a presentation mode. As it currently stands, no one on my committees can read the data we pull from reports unless we create a new document that just displays the data.
I wish there were different sub levels within the security settings for users.
Likelihood to Recommend
It's very easy to learn and use and very flexible so you can make changes as you go. We appreciate the blinding of documents and reviewers and also being able to communicate with submitters within the tool. Although we do not currently use the financial features, for a smaller organization, this would be a huge benefit.
Our Foundation uses Submittable to manage our grant administration processes for two external grant programs (and one internal program for our employees). Before using Submittable, our application process was manual, with a high administrative and IT support burden. Since making the switch to this platform, our efficiency has increased significantly.
Pros
Easy to use! Resulting in confidence and independence when using platform.
Exporting reports to Excel files makes internal data sharing a breeze.
Tech support for grantees frees administrators from resolving issues on their own.
Automatic and customizable communications with applicants and grantees.
Cons
I'd like to see applications that are in process but not complete.
Likelihood to Recommend
Submittable has been so helpful on an application requiring a photo. Before using this platform, all my grantees had to email me their photos individually and then save them in a file. Now, the needed file is required to complete an application, and I no longer have to continuously follow up with applicants requesting more info.
We use Submittable to administer two award programs. It allows us to combine the entries in a streamlined way and then conduct judging for the award winners. It’s all done digitally, and it saves lots of time. Our award program was not affected during the pandemic because we had already done the online judging. It’s been an invaluable tool.
Pros
Maintain archive of all entries over the history of your account.
Stream lines the collection of documents.
Cons
It used to be easier to download submission files from the submissions screen; now, you have to run a report and request a download.
Giving access to reviewers could be easier. It would be nice if we could create the email account and password and then give that to the reviewer. Right now, the invites are often junk, spam, or quarantine.
Likelihood to Recommend
Submittable is a great platform for collecting entries for review in various settings. Whether it’s grants, awards, contests, or such events, It offers security, vetting of people to a high degree, and a non-destructive history, which can be essential if you are audited. The platform is easy to set up and can be used in simple or complex ways for judging and reviews. I am unsure in what cases the platform would be unsuitable; it just works.
I use it to manage submissions for the literary journal I run, and also entries for writing competitions. I receive on average about 2-3000 submissions each year and it makes managing the submissions, assigning them to readers and judges, and notifying submitters easy and efficient. It has saved me many hours of work compared to when I managed everything via email submissions.
Pros
Accepting submissions on my behalf
The review process is easy, efficient and I can swap judges out for different competitions
Contacting submitters and notifying them of status.
Cons
They removed the ability to easily see who had paid for extras in the submissions list for each project. I now have to generate income reports which isn’t as quick and easy. Despite repeated requests for this update to be reverted I’ve had no response.
Likelihood to Recommend
It works well for my needs to manage submissions and that is all I need it to do.
Submittable has been helpful in implementing educator grants and scholarships for the college students within our program. A challenge that our organization faces is not being able to directly pay educators due to our partnership with the District. This means we have to go through their financial system and because of this Submittable has been instrumental in allowing us to communicate vital information in a professional, efficient and productive manner.
Pros
Response Templates
Tutorial videos
Reports
Cons
More fields in the eligibility form would be helpful. Such as including a text box for applicants.
More 1:1 training without it being cost prohibitive.
I'd love to be able to move the initial forms like I'm able to do for the live projects.
Likelihood to Recommend
Submittable is extremely helpful when it comes to communicating grant decisions to a group of applicants due to the response templates. It also allows applications to go through several review stages which gives the organization the opportunity to have different sets of people provide input.
Submittable is a good basic grant application intake and processing tool. The forms builder is excellent and easy to use with drag and drop functionality. You first build your form and then a "project" that it will be part of. The forms support branching logic and you can customize the confirmation messages for different types of forms. Once you have an application submitted, you can reopen it for editing so that the applicant can make corrections. There is also a good messaging tool built into the submission review process that allows you to keep communications about a particular submission connected to that submission and not in a separate silo in Outlook. There are some good basic reporting and filtering tools too. Where Submittable comes up short is in acknowledging and fixing software bugs. The reflexive response from customer service seems to be that everything is fine, so you have to be persistent to get them to see why a malfunctioning date filter is a big problem when you need accurate data in your reports for payments or to analyze your data. New features roll out regularly but fixes for ongoing issues are much slower. Submittable is slowing becoming a better platform for foundations but new features (such as linking submissions to an agency UEI/EIN) don't apply to previously submitted forms and applications, so you will always have an incomplete picture of the relationship in Submittable. Advanced reporting looked promising but in actual use it's a kludge with data field labels that require so much manual work that it's usually just easier to download your data to Excel on work on it there. If you are a small foundation with a simple process flow that is just getting started with an online grant application system, Submittable could be a good starting point and is much better than just using Microsoft/Google Forms. You can upgrade to something more advanced and purpose built later if needed. We've outgrown Submittable and its limitations but it helped us clarify what we need in a grants management system.
Pros
Online forms
Cons
Data reporting
Customer support
Implementing software fixes
Likelihood to Recommend
Good if you are just getting started with online application forms for grants. Not so good if you have more advanced needs for data reporting. Also not great to be a fairly long term customer who can't take advantage of recent changes, because they provide no automatic or even manual way to link older submissions to the new grantee profiles based on an applicant's UEI/EIN.
VU
Verified User
Program Manager in Professional Services (1-10 employees)
