CommunityForce vs OpenWater

CommunityForce is a web-based awards management platform for grants, scholarships, fellowships, and research funding. It supports programs from funding discovery and applications through review, awards, disbursement, compliance, reporting, and closeout. Application tools include conditional forms, eligibility screening, shared applications across opportunities, and applicant dashboards. Reviewers can collaborate using scoring and rubrics, while administrators can manage bulk awards, renewals, and post-award requirements. Phoenix searches Grants.gov, IRS Form 990 filings, and a curated list for opportunities matching an organisation’s funding profile. Its AI features can summarize applications, suggest reviewer scores, flag AI-written essays, and answer questions using live platform data. The platform provides ad hoc reports, dashboards, exports, and embedded Microsoft Power BI dashboards. Integrations include Salesforce, DocuSign, Stripe, Twilio, SendGrid, SMTP email, and Google Translate. The company says each organisation has a separate database and file storage in a private Microsoft Azure environment. It states that it is FedRAMP certified and SOC 2 Type II, and supports Section 508, FERPA, and PCI-DSS requirements. Pricing is available on request; the product pages direct prospective buyers to request a demo or speak with an expert.

OpenWater manages application and review workflows for abstracts, awards, scholarships, fellowships, and grants. Organizations can create submission forms with conditional logic and accept attachments in nearly any type, size, or format. Submissions can be routed to multiple reviewers, with scores collected in a dashboard and optional double-blind judging. Rubrics and reviewer collaboration support scoring, while an applicant portal and workflow automation cover other stages of the process. Users can configure dashboards and export reports in multiple file formats, and the platform can collect payments. OpenWater lists Android, iOS, and web access; mobile-responsive submission pages and its mobile app support applicants and team administrators. Security options include SSO, encryption, two-factor authentication, CAPTCHA, and password requirements, with GDPR-related consent and deletion options. It integrates with more than 65 AMS, CRM, directory, and payment systems, including iMIS, Salesforce, Higher Logic, Stripe, and PayPal. The paid subscription uses a custom quote based on usage needs, functionality, and backend user count. OpenWater does not support recommendation requests directly within the platform.