AwardSpring vs SmarterSelect

AwardSpring is a paid platform for higher-education offices managing scholarships, donors, and funds through web and API access. Scholarship Management covers applications, review, scoring and rubrics, award decisions, notifications, disbursement scheduling, documentation, reviewer collaboration, applicant access, workflow automation, and reporting. A universal application can be matched automatically with funds a student qualifies for. Donor Management stores donor profiles, supports email campaigns and automated stewardship journeys, and provides reporting dashboards. Fund Management tracks gifts through awards, monitors balances, flags underused funds, and forecasts utilization; the product is marked Fall '26 on the platform page. Connections to Banner, Colleague, and Workday support enrollment verification, disbursement coordination, and financial reconciliation. A REST API uses an institution secret key. AwardSpring states that records are encrypted in transit and at rest, access points are logged, and its SOC 2 Type II audit is renewed annually. Pricing is by contacting sales; the listed plan has unlimited applicants, reviewers, and admins without per-seat Scholarship Management fees.

SmarterSelect is application-management software for scholarship, grant, award, and other programs. It helps organizations collect applications, manage applicants, evaluate submissions, and track awards. Forms support multiple question types and file attachments, with layouts for phones, tablets, and laptops. The platform can automate scoring and calculations, send email and text notifications and reminders, and track awards. Reviewers can use scoring and rubrics; administrators can create custom reports and export applicant or evaluation data as CSV or PDF files. Through Zapier, application data can be shared with more than 2,000 applications, including Salesforce and other CRM systems, without programming. Single sign-on lets users access the platform with credentials from a CRM or member-management system. Subscriptions include support, with hours of 8 AM to 6 PM Central US Monday through Friday. The no-credit-card trial has no time limit but is limited to ten users for testing. SmarterSelect says it does not sell or share personal information in providing its services and supports GDPR access, erasure, and portability requests. Plans start at $2,000 USD per year.