Scholarship Commons vs SmarterSelect

Scholarship Commons is a web-based service for managing scholarship processes online, from discovery and applications through evaluation and selection. It connects students, scholarship operating organizations, reviewers, and recommenders. The service automates sorting and compiling submitted documents, as well as online entry and delivery of evaluation work. Scholarship information is organized into six types, each with standardized workflows. The maker says scholarship work data is stored in the cloud for reuse and that digitized, standardized information can support big data analysis. Intended organizational customers include universities, scholarship foundations, local governments, public and nonprofit organizations, companies, and asset owners. Students, reviewers, and recommenders have a free membership plan with all features listed. Operating organizations must contact Scholarship Commons to register; their paid membership pricing is available by inquiry and can include customized scholarship posting and management. The service is optimized for Chrome. The site provides a contact form and lists [email protected] as its representative email address.

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.