Business Grants Program Fuels Recovery

Challenge

A state legislature appropriated over $400 million funding to the Executive Branch to create and administer a grant program to support businesses across the state. The grant program details specified eligible businesses could receive a grant to hire additional staff to fill open positions, renovate or expand their business, or improve operations as they emerged out of the pandemic. The state needed a partner to provide the full combination of strategic advice, program development, technology advisory, grant adjudication, and customer service.

Solution

Guidehouse partnered with the state to design a program and implement a low code Salesforce grants management solution that met state requirements and accompanying policies and procedures. This Salesforce solution included secure application intake web portals, approval workflows, executive dashboards, and audit capabilities.

The Guidehouse team provided comprehensive support in the development, execution and user training of the grants program;

• Developed a full-service contact center which handled over 60,000 emails and 10,000 calls
• Hosted a series of webinars with a combined audience of over 3,700 viewers
• Reviewed and quality checked over 8,000 applications
• Implemented a robust quality assurance program including ongoing compliance and monitoring of the grants review process
• Led all reporting activities, including federal expenditure reporting and creation of a final legislative report

Impact

Nearly $120 million was awarded to thousands of eligible businesses to help overcome pandemic-related loss and empower business recovery across the state. Applicants navigated the customer platform seamlessly and feedback about the experience, customer service, and attention to detail was overwhelmingly positive.