Impala Digital is a networking and fundraising platform that can help you connect with the right funders, but what about when it comes time to actually apply for a specific grant?
If you’re looking for an end-to-end grant prospecting and management solution, you’ll want to explore this list of top Impala alternatives:
Instrumentl
Foundation Directory Online
RelSci
Eleo
GrantWatch
We will evaluate each based on their features, types of funders listed, user-friendliness, and more so that you can determine which tool is right for you and your nonprofit.
Sound good? Let’s jump in!
Why You Might Look for an Impala Digital Alternative
Impala Digital is a great entry-point to fundraising software, with many taking advantage of its free resources before looking to transition to its premium offerings. However, it has some gaps that may cause nonprofits to look for alternatives.
Lack of Comprehensive Features
Impala is essentially a research and networking tool that offers free and premium insights into the philanthropic landscape. While it provides access to curated 990 data for different foundations, it lacks comprehensive features to manage the entire grant lifecycle from start to finish.
For example, with a subscription to Impala, you won’t get any access to active RFPs. Instead, they’ll just connect you with funders and tell you about the grants they have given in the past.
There are also no built-in collaboration or grant management tools. This means users have to invest in other tools and resources for the post-award phase of the funding process.
High Pricing
Impala offers some access to their grantmaker profiles for free. Other features, including most matches, contact mapping analysis, and ecosystem analysis remain behind a $5000 paywall.
Impala is a big investment for nonprofits—especially when it only covers part of the grant lifecycle. It’s a hefty price tag for limited resources.
Few Integrations
As a newer platform, there aren’t many integrations available with Impala. You won’t be able to merge calendars like you can on Instrumentl and other grant management software alternatives, nor will you be able to integrate with other popular software to streamline workflow.
You’ll have to manually interact with multiple tools and platforms, which can take more time. This can also impact your ability to manage your funding and collaborate seamlessly with your team.
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Here are five of the best Impala Digital alternatives to explore.
1. Instrumentl
Features
Like Impala, Instrumentl helps connect users with relevant funders based on their mission and funding needs. However, we take it a step further by providing solutions to streamline the entire grants process from start to finish.
Here are some of our top features:
Smart Matching: Instrumentl will automatically connect you with a curated list of active RFPs based on your specific organization’s location, mission, funding needs, and more.
Advanced Funder Insights: Instrumentl makes it easier to prioritize grants with the highest ROI by providing insights into a funder’s previous giving history, geographic preference, openness to new grantees, and more.
Grant Tracking and Management: Instrumentl provides tools to help you actually manage your grants, including task management, calendar tracking, awards dashboards, and more.
Integrations: Instrumentl integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, Raiser's Edge NXT, Virtuous, and calendar integrations to keep grant info in sync.
Weekly Emails: Instrumentl will email you each week with new grant opportunities that fit your criteria, any upcoming deadlines you have, and more to help you stay on track.
Instrumentl’s suite of tools touches the entire grant lifecycle. From prospecting to post-award management, you can do it all in Instrumentl. Our tracking and management solutions are designed to help you win more funding and achieve more impact.
Types of Funders Listed
Instrumentl has a comprehensive database of more than400,000 funders and 15,000 live RFPs from all different types of funders. This includes:
Public foundations
Private foundations
Federal, state, and local governments
Corporations
The database is constantly updated based on those accepting applications, with more than 150 new grants added each week.
User Friendliness
Instrumentl is incredibly easy to navigate. With a few clicks of a button, you’ll be set up to receive new matches, explore potential opportunities, and learn more about funders to win your next grant.
If you have questions, there are robust training and support documentation available, including video tutorials that can walk you through common questions.
Popularity
Instrumentl is trusted by thousands of nonprofits and grant professionals. Users love our deep funder and grants database, which helps them discover new opportunities that they’re uniquely qualified for. Once they have landed a grant, they can easily track and organize all their important deadlines and documents in one place.
Instrumentl has different pricing tiers to meet your nonprofit’s needs:
Basic: $179/month
Standard: $299/month
Pro: $499/month
This premium tool is an investment in your organization, helping to cover the end-to-end grant lifecycle within a single platform.
2. Candid’s Foundation Directory Online
Features
Foundation Directory Online offers an impressive funder database to help users identify and prioritize funders.
However, FDO’s emphasis is on its funder search, not necessarily active grants. While they do list some RFPs, users have to manually search for them—unlike other tools that offer advanced matching to good-fit grants.
Their grant management features are also quite limited, meaning users will also need to invest in other solutions to manage awarded grants.
Types of Funders Listed
FDO’s funder database includes private, independent, and corporate foundations, government funders, public charities, and international foundations.
User Friendliness
While FDO’s platform is designed to be user-friendly, featuring intuitive search functions and a simple-to-use interface, we did find that some users have complained that funder profiles have not been updated and that the search algorithm can result in conflated search terms.
Popularity
A major selling point of Foundation Directory Online is its extensive database and comprehensive funder profiles, making it popular among both first time grant writers and seasoned professionals.
Pricing
FDO offers two pricing tiers:
Essential: $37/month
Professional: $133+/month
Select features are unavailable or limited at the various price points, including the number of funders available, types of funder insights, and more.
3. RelSci
Features
RelSci is a relationship management tool that’s focused on identifying high-impact donors. Select features include:
Donor profiles, with detailed career history, education, memberships, interest, affiliations, and more.
Contact syncs to streamline networking.
Relationship mapping to help you make connections with individuals, not foundations.
While there are many exciting features available, RelSci lacks the grant prospecting tools, leaving you to search for opportunities and come back to the database to learn insights about key players within the foundation. There are no active grant opportunities listed, so if you are looking for a comprehensive tool, this won’t be the solution for you.
Types of Funders Listed
RelSci offers a database with millions of profiles for individuals and organizations across business, law, politics, and nonprofits. These profiles can be leveraged to identify connections within your nonprofit, but there are no funders or grants listed.
User Friendliness
RelSci is easy to use and navigate. Additionally, many users report that it’s easy to visually see the connections within organizations, which is an added bonus.
Popularity
With its focus on networking and leveraging connections, RelSci is growing in popularity with nonprofits looking to land major donors. It helps to save time during prospect research, but some users question the validity of the information available.
Pricing
There is no publicly available information on how much RelSci costs. You will need to contact customer support to learn more.
4. Eleo
Features
Eleo is primarily a donor management software that helps you strengthen relationships with new donors. Features include:
Donor database and contact management to track your communications
Gift tracking and task management
Reports and analytics
Eleo does provide some functionality for grants management, allowing you to track funders, activities, and deadlines once the grant has been acquired. However, Eleo does not list active grant opportunities, so it cannot help you actually find and identify funding.
Types of Funders Listed
There are no funders listed within Eleo. You will need to research funders and identify grant opportunities with a different tool.
User Friendliness
Many customers report that Eleo is easy to use and has many features that are useful for overall donor management. However, there aren’t reviews available that speak to its grant management capabilities as this is not their primary focus.
Popularity
Eleo is a popular solution for smaller nonprofits who are looking to improve their donor management. It is not popular for those looking for end-to-end grant prospecting and management.
Pricing
Pricing ranges from $39 to $159 per month based on the number of donor records you want to keep. All features are included.
5. GrantWatch
Features
GrantWatch is another grants database designed to help nonprofits discover active funding opportunities.
GrantWatch’s main feature is its extensive database, with each funding opportunity including:
Grant eligibility information
Geographic focus
Pre-application and workshop information
Description of grant program
Links to grant applications and documents
While its database is large, GrantWatch does not have robust features to support full end-to-end grant management, including recipient profiles, intelligent matching, task management, spend down tracking, integrations, and more.
Types of Funders Listed
The funding opportunities listed in GrantWatch’s database include grants from private and public foundations, corporations, charities, and government sources.
User Friendliness
Many users report that GrantWatch is easy to use, especially when it comes to finding new opportunities. However, its lack of management features causes some nonprofits to explore alternatives.
Popularity
GrantWatch is an affordable and popular entry point for many looking to streamline the grant prospecting process, including nonprofits, municipalities, libraries, small businesses, and individuals across the United States and internationally.
Is Instrumentl the Best Impala Digital Alternative? There's Only One Way To Find Out
We think Instrumentl is the best Impala Digital alternative on the market today. There’s no match when you look at the entire grant management suite of tools we offer. Here are some things that set us apart:
Automagical Deadline Reminders
Instrumentl automatically sends reminders directly to your inbox about upcoming deadlines. From funder deadlines to task reminders, you never have to worry about missing another when you use Instrumentl.
Integrated Information From IRS 990 Forms
Instrumentl pulls information from the IRS Form 990 directly into funding opportunities, providing unparalleled funder insights. You can learn about past funders, their average grants, and so much more to see how you stack up. You don’t have to search various sources for information—it’s all available in one easy-to-reference location on Instrumentl.
Intelligent Matching to RFPs and Funders
You’re in control of what matches you get on Instrumentl. You set up projects based on criteria that meet your nonprofit’s or project’s needs. Instrumentl’s intelligent matching algorithm does the rest, bringing your best-fit matches right to you.
Easy Collaboration and Task Management
You can create a clear workflow on Instrumentl, assigning tasks to members of your team, sharing opportunities, and more. With all of your grant management in the same place, you can streamline processes to drive efficiencies and better collaborate with your team.
Find Foundations Open To New Grantees
Instrumentl makes it easy to find foundations that are open to new grantees, with insights about how many of their past awardees were new vs. repeat.
Generate Reports in a Flash
Export your current grants pipeline, your open projects, and so much more with the click of a button. These reports are generated quickly, so you can easily share updates with leadership as needed.
Impala Digital is a good fundraising software, but there are many reasons users may search for a different option:
You want access to active RFPs.
You want grant management capabilities.
You need a more affordable solution for premium features.
You want to collaborate with your team.
You’re ready to integrate with other tools.
Whatever the reason, we’re confident that Instrumentl is the only all-in-one grant prospecting and management platform that you need. It goes so much further than simple relationship management.
From identifying new funding opportunities to adding tasks to help you execute the grant’s requirements, Instrumentl empowers you to do it all.
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