Introduction

Emergency funding may be provided in specific circumstances when project changes occur, such as:

  • Personnel
  • Timeline
  • Equipment

The goal is to provide enough assistance in the moment to keep the project on a successful trajectory, while simultaneously reserving the funds overall for teams that may need them in the future. 


Challenges

  • Monetary need may vary, based on the type of disruption.
  • The review process needs to be as quick as possible.
  • Any unused emergency funding should be tracked and returned to the overall fund for others' use.


Solutions

  • The Requirements page lets administrators build custom questions, which can then be added to the Data Grid to view similar requests all at one time.
  • Applicant- or department-driven routing steps can expedite the review process by sending requests automatically to the correct individuals.
  • Progress reports can be used to collect information on how the emergency funding ended up being used, including if not all of the award was used.


Tips

  • Collect reasoning for the emergency funding in two places: As a multiple choice question at the top of the application form, and as a longer explanation as either a text box or file upload. This way, administrators can quickly see high-level info in the Data Grid and reports later on, but reviewers have access to the full scope of the request.
  • Use an acknowledgment statement to set the expectation of returning unused funding.
  • Use Approve/Do Not Approve routing steps as the quickest option for reviewers to indicate their approval and provide reasoning within the comment box.
  • Customize Reviewer notifications to remind them of the quick turnaround time needed to process the request.
  • Use the Award notification to copy partners in other offices that will help distribute the funding to the correct account.
  • Immediately upon awarding, schedule progress report assignments and reminders. This ensures awardees will be notified at the correct times, without any administrator intervention. 

Have more questions about this topic? Go to the Community Forum to pose the question to other users or submit a support ticket to InfoReady.