Online Grant Platform improves user experience for assessors

Determining how grant funding is distributed involves reviewing multiple applications, evaluating each against grant criteria, as well as meeting and discussing as a panel before making final decisions. New updates to SaskCulture’s Online Grant Platform (OGP) were made this year to make this process much easier and accessible for volunteer assessors.

The updates to the Assessor Portal of the OGP were identified from feedback collected from past assessors hoping to improve their experience. New features included tools to keep tabs on application scores and to increase access to relevant documents and different parts of the application.

“The goal was for clear, intuitive access to information,” says Catherine Folstad, supervisor, Granting and Technology, SaskCulture. “The OGP is already fairly user friendly, but when using the system for grant applications that have large amounts of data and information, we wanted to use technology as a meaningful resource.”

Increasing the efficiency of the portal and decreasing the time needed to learn how to use the system is a priority. Volunteering as a peer assessor can be a significant time commitment, so the system needs to support rather hinder the work.

“Volunteers are busy. So anything we can do to help them with the process helps to ensure volunteers are satisfied and have a positive experience with SaskCulture,” says Folstad, “And, help ensure that they will want to come back and volunteer again in the future.”

Another recent addition to the OGP is an accessibility widget that lets all users change the display features to change font, size, spacing, contrast and more. This feature makes it possible for users to address their individual needs and preferences. This addition is one step towards enhancing accessibility on the OGP.

As for future updates to the platform, Folstad says that there are many priorities for the year ahead, including continuing to add more flexibility into the system to help support different formats of funding delivery, such as use in participatory grant-making. As for the Assessor Portal, SaskCulture will continue to adapt to make sure technology is an asset for all volunteers. “Volunteers are important to SaskCulture and the peer assessor process is pretty special — assessors are volunteers, giving back to the community by being part of the funding process.”