OpenWater vs Foundation Grant Management

SurveyMonkey Apply

Award Force

Instrumentl

Evalato

ProposalCentral

WebGrants

Compare OpenWater and Foundation Grant Management based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

Award Force is an awards management software offering users tools for entry management, payment gateway integration, judging management, promotion, and more.

SurveyMonkey Apply helps organizations to collect, manage and review any type of application or submission from one secure online portal.

Evalato helps you run effective awards programs and grow your community.


OpenWater streamlines program management with its end-to-end solution for accepting and reviewing applications, awards, grants, scholarships, proposals, and abstracts.

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Dashboard

Activity Tracking

Administrative Reporting

Alerts/Notifications

Applicant Portal

Applicant Tracking

Application Management

Approval Process Control

Awards Management

Blind Judging

Budget Control

Categorization/Grouping

Collaboration Tools

Commenting/Notes

Compliance Management

Configurable Workflow

Contact Management

Customizable Branding

Customizable Fields

Customizable Forms

Customizable Questions

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Data Import/Export

Deadline Management

Document Management

Document Review

Due Date Tracking

Electronic Payments

Electronic Submission

Email Reminders

Email Templates

Entrant Management

Entry Fee Processing

Entry Management

Financial Reporting

For Grantmakers

Forms Management

Fraud Detection

Grant Application Management

Grant Award Tracking

Grant Management

Impact Measurement

Interview Management

Judging Management

Labeling

Monitoring

Payment Tracking

Polls/Voting

Progress Tracking

Promotions Management

Recommendations

Reminders

Reporting & Statistics

Reviewer Management

Role-Based Permissions

Scoring

Search/Filter

Single Sign On

Skills Contests (Photo, Essay, Design, etc)

Social Media Integration

Social Promotion

SSL Security

Status Tracking

Third-Party Integrations

Web Forms

White Label

Workflow Management

OpenWater

Web-based

Account Manager

The customer service [sensitive content hidden] is AMAZING. She answers all my questions within like 5 minutes, it is impressive.

Editor

Their self-help guides are useful and when they're not, customer service is available (see caveat below). I have had several different dedicated service advisors; all have been uniformly excellent.

We have been using OpenWater for the last 2 years to manage our annual marketing awards competition and have been very pleased with the results.

Technology Manager/Awards Administrator

The training videos and knowledge base are extensive and easy to use. The support team is superb - always available and willing to help.

Coordinator of Association Services

My organization has been using OpenWater for a little over a year and it has been a life-saver for our company.

Special Projects Coordinator - MI SBDC Lead Center

The cost-benefit of OpenWater is outstanding, far exceeding expectations.

The system is extremely straight forward and easy to administer and develop programs. The customer support is also some of the best I have ever encountered.

Undergraduate Research and Training Programs Manager

I really appreciate having one dedicated support person[sensitive content hidden.

Partner

Sometimes the UI/UX is a little weird (Settings vs Manage? I still don't understand the difference). Eventually, with enough use, you can intuit how the system works.

Awards and Scholarship Coordinator

Virtually effortless to maintain and copy to the next year award cycle.

Director, Membership & Public Relations

I like that we CAN integrate this software into our database and have our users log in using their credentials used in our site and have some fields pre-populated.

Internship and Work Study Coordinator

Not only that, but creating the applications and procedures on OpenWater is clear, straightforward, and efficient. On the user side, we've been told that the software is easy to navigate.

Professor

It slowed me down, was cumbersome and had no option to get a printout of the application to review off line.

I love that integration was not a long drawn out process either. The team at OpenWater worked well with our integration team and got us up and running in no time.

IT PM

OpenWater has saved my organization money and time.

Program Manager, Research Programs and Evaluations

And there is no testing feature- in order to test the application portal you must open the submission round. We also had to switch which staff would have super-user status since only two are allowed.

Manager, IT

After managing the Open Water platform as the primary admin over the course of nearly two years, I have no serious complaints.

Assistant Director

It's very easy to use and works intuitively in a lot of ways. When I took over administering the contest, I had to learn how to manage it on my own and it didn't take a lot of work to do that.

OpenWater screenshot: Streamlines application management.

OpenWater screenshot: Customize and scale with ease.

OpenWater screenshot: Enhance user experiences.

OpenWater screenshot: Leverage robust reporting and analytics.

OpenWater screenshot: Integrate, seamlessly.

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Non Profit

Small Business

Instrumentl is the only complete grant solution that empowers grant-seeking organizations to discover best-fit grants, craft winning proposals faster with AI, and manage their entire grant lifecycle—all in one place

Operating since 2001, WebGrants provides a comprehensive full lifecycle grant management system for federal, state, local and nonprofit grant making and monitoring activities.

ProposalCentral is a cloud-based software designed to help research and funding institutions automate the entire grants management lifecycle, from application processing to fund allocation. Supervisors can configure approval workflows and gain visibility into the potential outcomes of applicants.

Foundation Grant Management from Systems for Good is a Salesforce-based grant management solution for foundations and nonprofit organizations which is designed to assist in the administration and automation of grant processes, including collaboration with grantees and impact reporting

Contract/License Management

Grant Discovery

Foundation Grant Management

Android

iPad

iPhone

Foundation Grant Management screenshot: Systems for Good provides a Salesforce-based grant management solution

Foundation Grant Management screenshot: Users can manage all of their grant application activities

OpenWater vs Foundation Grant Management Comparison (2026)

OpenWater vs Foundation Grant Management Comparison (2026)

OpenWater

Foundation Grant Management

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives