When Laura Clark joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the Associate Director of Foundation Relations, she quickly encountered a familiar challenge: managing complex foundation relationships and grant opportunities without an efficient tracking system.

Her team's CRM didn’t meet her needs for grant management-specific tasks. For that reason, she started looking for a solution that would streamline her processes and foster collaboration.

Instrumentl’s user-friendly interface, task management, and centralized document storage transformed her workflow, allowing her team to communicate more seamlessly and stay on top of grant opportunities.

See how Laura’s team used Instrumentl to operate more effectively and setting the stage for future growth.

Challenge: Managing Complex Grants with Limited Tools

Upon joining the University of Illinois, Laura found herself in charge of a large portfolio of foundation relationships and grant opportunities, yet working within a small team. The university’s CRM system, while helpful for broad communications, lacked the depth for managing intricate grant details and relationships. Laura spent significant time searching through emails, spreadsheets, and databases to track and share critical updates, limiting her team’s efficiency.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘There’s gotta be an easier way to do this,’” Laura recalls, highlighting the frustration of a fragmented process that slowed her team’s productivity.

Solution: Streamlined Grant Management with Instrumentl

Drawing from her nonprofit background, Laura began exploring tools that could centralize grant information, streamline workflows, and support team collaboration. She discovered Instrumentl, and its intuitive design, task management, and document-sharing capabilities immediately caught her attention.

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During her trial, Laura leveraged Instrumentl’s Tasks feature to document grant details and manage assignments, storing more information about funders and specific grants in Instrumentl than she typically would in the CRM.

While this level of detail might have bogged down the CRM, Instrumentl’s structure allowed her to include comprehensive information that team members could easily access. This improved transparency and collaboration without disrupting other systems.

“I utilize the tasks very similarly to interactions in our CRM,” Laura explains. “I put more in Instrumentl than our CRM because we don’t want to bog it down with stuff that maybe doesn’t need to be in there.”

At first, Laura used Instrumentl mainly for her own workflow, but she soon saw its potential as a department-wide tool. By demonstrating Instrumentl’s value in team meetings and sharing reports, she sparked interest among her colleagues, turning an individual tool into a collaborative resource.

Related: For the full story on Laura's grant management transformation, check out our article, Transforming Grant Management at the University of Illinois with Instrumentl.

Impact: Enhanced Efficiency and Team Collaboration

Instrumentl quickly became essential to Laura’s team, transforming how they managed grants and shared information. By consolidating tasks and documents in one platform, Laura minimized time spent on manual follow-ups and streamlined her workflow. Instrumentl’s task management and document-sharing features allowed colleagues to assign tasks and access key documents with ease, improving collaboration and accountability.

Today, Laura provides data-driven updates to her supervisor and other stakeholders in real time, using Instrumentl’s reporting tools.

She no longer needs to prepare extensive materials for each meeting, as she can quickly access organized, up-to-date information directly in Instrumentl.

In short, Laura's saving time. She's also empowering her team to work together seamlessly, making grant management efficient and collaborative.

"I don’t know what I would do without Instrumentl. It’s the only place I go to manage grants.”

If you're a grant manager seeking to streamline processes or a leader aiming to increase team efficiency, get started like Laura did. Start a free trial with Instrumentl today.