--- title: SmarterSelect Reviews meta_title: 'SmarterSelect Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 106 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how SmarterSelect works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.2 review_count: 106 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-06-22' parent_category: name: Vertical Industry url: https://www.g2.com/categories/vertical-industry --- # SmarterSelect Reviews **Vendor:** SmarterSelect **Category:** [Grant Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/grant-management) **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 106 ## About SmarterSelect SmarterSelect makes managing scholarships, grants, and awards a breeze. Our easy-to-use online platform helps you create applications, review submissions, and pick recipients – all in one place. Whether you're a small non-profit or a large foundation, we've got you covered. With features like custom forms, automated workflows, and team review tools, you'll save time and make better decisions. Over 2 million users trust us to keep things fair and transparent. Plus, our friendly support team is always ready to help. Want to focus more on making a difference and less on paperwork? That's what we're here for! ## SmarterSelect Reviews ### 1. Just completed a successful scholarship season! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kelley D. | Scholarship Coordinator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** As the Scholarship Coordinator for a Public Schools Foundation, we worked with the experts at SmarterSelect to build a robust scholarship application process incorporating 95 unique scholarship programs through one common application. It worked just like it was supposed to, and students, parents, teachers, recommenders, evaluators, and the administrator of the overall program (me!) all found it easy to use. In addition, customer support was highly responsive to questions or issues through the chat and would gladly hop on a Zoom call if necessary. Everyone I have worked with has been very knowledgeable about the functionality of the platform and super friendly and patient with their guidance. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** No complaints. Our Foundation is now using SmarterSelect for a couple different grant programs and our massive scholarship program and have had no issues. Satisfied customer! **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our public schools foundation had been using another platform for our scholarship program but were experiencing a lot of issues and had a number of complaints about how it was not very user-friendly. Two colleagues started using SmarterSelect last year and have enjoyed it for their smaller grant programs, so we decided not to renew with our previous scholarship program and move everything to SmarterSelect. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Kelley, thanks for your review and feedback! ### 2. Highly recommend **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lori M. | Development Associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 14, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I have nothing but good things to say about SmarterSelect, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who asks. We are a smaller community foundation, so we appreciate that the software can be as simple or complex as needed. Charlotte gave us a clear overview of the product, and answered our questions efficiently and professionally. When we started asking questions that were beyond her expertise, she referred us to Ever. Ever was able to answer more in depth questions about the product, and built a basic program that I was easily able to build on. Once we committed to purchasing the software, Josten was a valuable source of information when going into the details of building our program. We were very pleased with the cost of the software, which tipped the scale in favor of SmarterSelect over an add on to our current accounting and donor software. I personally am very happy that I can utilize this one product for scholarships, grants, and even a board survey. I am confident that I will find other uses for it as well. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** There is a learning curve, but really not hard to pick up. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** As our scholarship program grows, it was getting harder to go through the mountain of paper applications. This will streamline that process and save a lot of time. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Lori, many thanks for your expansive review and feedback! ### 3. Easy and user-friendly **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Olga Z. | Community Relations Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** We’ve been using SmarterSelect to manage two different programs, and it’s been incredibly efficient. From collecting applications to facilitating evaluations, everything is streamlined and easy to navigate. The platform is user-friendly, quick, and accessible — making the whole process smooth for both administrators and applicants. Highly recommend it for any organization looking to manage grants or application-based programs. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Nothing, everything is working well for us **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** SmarterSelect helps us manage and streamline our entire grant process—from collecting applications to organizing reviewer evaluations. It solves the problem of time-consuming manual tracking and communication by putting everything in one easy-to-navigate platform. It’s a huge time-saver and makes the whole process more transparent and efficient for both our team and applicants. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Olga, thanks for taking the time to provide a review. Your feedback is very helpful for us! ### 4. SmarterSelect has completely changed the way we manage our scholarship applications. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura K. | Endowment Director, Non-Profit Organization Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect is a ready-to-use, user-friendly, and streamlined platform. We were able to create and prepare 24 scholarship applications in a matter of days to be ready for the scholarship application season. We are able to share with the primary stake holders in order to build efficiencies and provide better follow up with students. The automation of tasks is a complete game changer - we have received positive feedback from both students and families. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** For us, because we are small, the price is a little higher than we would like. We will be moving toward a multi-year plan next year in hopes to save some money. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have moved from paper applications to online applications with a common application, making the process more more accessible and streamlined. On the admin side, SmarterSelect is saving us time and clerical work for multiple people. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Laura, thanks for your review! I'm glad your onboarding experience was a good one! ### 5. Smarter Select has been great to manage. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marisol S. | Administrative Assistant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 13, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The most helpful with Smarter Select is it's easier way to organize things. Customer Support is always super helpful as well. I often use it for all our applications for scholarships that we have available. The implementation always makes it easier to manage. Also, integrating most of the information that I need to add to all of the documents needed. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** So far there is nothing I dislike about having SmarterSelect. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** The organization has solved the way I can get to all of the applications for review and adjustments. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Marisol, many thanks for your feedback! ### 6. Streamlining the our application process **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrew L. | Development Coordinator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 17, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** As a new Foundation awarding scholarship, we quickly learned that an application management program was necessary – from processing applications to reviews. SmarterSelect offered what we needed, can be customized, and expandable for growth. The sales representative was helpful and patient as we went through the process. Though live training is limited, there are multiple resources and quick responses from the help desk. Like many new applications, there are many features to learn. The Enhance version has allowed us to streamline our application process – applications can be segmented; auto-tasks allow for consistent communication; and evaluation process can be adapted. Organizations that provide scholarships need an application management program. I would recommend SmarterSelect. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** As noted, live training is limited. But there are multiple resources online and quick responses from the help desk. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Streamline process flow. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Andrew, many thanks for your review! Your feedback is very helpful to us. ### 7. Easy Platform to Navigate **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 29, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** What I like best about SmarterSelect is how easy it makes managing applications. The platform is simple to use and saves me a lot of time. I really like how I can customize forms and set up logic so that people only see the questions that apply to them. It also helps keep everything organized and makes it easy to communicate with applicants. Overall, it takes a lot of stress out of the process and helps things run smoothly. If you're handling scholarships, grants, or awards, I definitely recommend giving it a try. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** The only thing I don't like is how challenging it can be to pull reports. Wish I could be more customizable. Customer support is helpful. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** What I like best about SmarterSelect is how easy it makes managing applications. The platform is simple to use and saves me a lot of time. I really like how I can customize forms and set up logic so that people only see the questions that apply to them. It also helps keep everything organized and makes it easy to communicate with applicants. Overall, it takes a lot of stress out of the process and helps things run smoothly. If you're handling scholarships, grants, or awards, I definitely recommend giving it a try. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hello! Many thanks for your review and feedback. ### 8. Happy SmarterSelect Administrator **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Allison C. | Sr. Administrator, HR Programs, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect is fairly easy to learn how to use without prior experience. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I don't like the fact that there isn't the option to have the survey toggle from English to another language. Also, you can't lock down a program to specified admins. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use it to manage our scholarship program and for employee surveys. It helps capture info in one place and easily run a report to download needed details. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Allison, thanks for your review and feedback. Re: survey language, you can setup a survey in another language or have the user use Google Translate in Chrome to translate the page. Also, we're considering how to address admin permissions for specific programs. ### 9. Smarter Select Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Caroline S. | Senior Grant & Contract Analyst, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I like that you can pull all of the data out. I also think it's extremely user-friendly on the front end, and the back end. It is extremely easy to implement and use for many different purposes. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** We did have to reach out to support, although they responded quickly. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is one system that we can use for applications for all sorts of programs throughout our university. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Caroline, thanks for your review and feedback! ### 10. Makes us so much more efficient! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Casey S. | Project Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The ability to run multiple programs and assign multiple reviewers. We run a quarterly grant program at the foundation, and allowing our board members to review applications remotely makes the process so much more efficient. And scholarship season would be a complete nightmare without SmarterSelect! **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Sometimes the UX is not intuitive. For example: sending messages. When we notify families that they've won a camp scholarship, it shows that they were approved and sends them an email. In order to tell them what amount they're approved for, we have to send them a separate email from messages. This is really annoying, and I wish messages could be sent directly from the "applicants" window when you change a status. Something like: >change app status to awarded >a pop-up window comes up asking if you'd like to send a custom email notification >select template from drop-down. I'm aware that you can click into each app and send a message directly from the individual application. It just took several review cycles before I stumbled upon this. Also in the "applicants" screen: when you select an app, the header menu that comes up doesn't look clickable (there are no radio buttons or otherwise). I imagine this confuses a lot of users who are not familiar with SS. Overall, I'd like things to be a little more intuitive. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1. Scholarship season. We're a non-profit community foundation with several disparate scholarship funds with different review committees. I cannot imagine the nightmare of facilitating so many scholarships and reviewers without SmarterSelect. https://unioncountyfoundation.org/2024-scholarship-recipient-list/ 2. We also use it for our Quarterly Grant Program, and reviewing applications with our committee and board. 3. Camps - We work with the Union County Board of Developmental Disabilities to award scholarships to children with disabilities. SmarterSelect makes this collaboration a much simpler process. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Casey, thanks for your review and feedback! Good suggestions. ### 11. Awesome Program **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jenny S. | Auxiliary National Secretary, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 28, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The SmarterSelect program is the best option we could find to create an application to input all of our needs. It is the easiest program to change and re-arrange if needed. There aren't many questions from the applicants on how to fill out the application so that is awesome. I can control what sections need an answer no matter what and the others to be optional. The cutt-off date and times have never failed. Can assign the applications easily to the people that wll score them for an award. I can run reports at any time to make sure the applications are getting completed in a timely fashion. Love I can email all of the applicants at once in one section. Has helped tremendously to get more applications completed before the deadline. The help team for any questions is awesome! You create a ticket with your questions and they will respond back quickly and even give you supporting documents where to find it on your own. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Very few quirks that I cannot have on the program. For example, I cannot change the fonts to any section. Sometimes I want to make sure something stands out and I cannot do that at this time. I have made what we can and cannot do work by emphasizing where it is needed. I can do different colors within my typing so that has helped and can bold so there are work arounds. To find some of the information on your own on what you can and cannot do is a little fuzzy. If you don't know the correct wording you need to do what you need. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Before we did everything over an excel worksheet that was shared amongst 55 people that are scoring them. Multiple emails of information going to each of the individuals and was all manually done. Now we have 1 place the applicants can log into and fill out the information and all stays contained within the website. I can look at all of the applications, assigned applications, who are my evaluators to score, etc in one place. The fear of all missing information doing it all manually was insane. This saves everyone so much time and confusion. Absoutely love this program and what it all does for us. So much easier and to change things is another easy task and have it all in the same spot. Adding anything to the system for our needs is done with ease. Still learning new things on SmarterSelect. Although it is hard to find the exact problem I may be facing within SmarterSelect, there is always the support team getting back to me right away with an answer. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Jenny! Wow! Thanks for your detailed review. Your thoughts on text formatting is very helpful for our product team. Stay tuned for a new, better organized support portal. We appreciate your business. ### 12. Smarter Select provides easy access for our volunteers to review scholarship applications **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Diana H. | Executive Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The best part of Smarter Select is it's Ease of Use! **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** The only thing I dislike is that attachments have to be downloaded separately and merged with the application files for safekeeping. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It provides our volunteers with easy access to read and review applications which is the main benefit for us. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Thanks Diana for your review and feedback regarding downloads. I'll share that with our Product Manager. ### 13. Overall great product and sit, super east to use and very interactive **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I like how versatile it is and how easy it was to set up **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I don't think I have anything I disliked about smarterselect **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** The overall organization and management of different tools. Making it easy to reach numerous people at once. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hello! Many thanks for your review and feedback regarding setup. We appreciate your comments. ### 14. Wonderful program, easy to use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The system is easy to use and straightforward. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** There's a lot of moving parts that are dependent of each other making it harder to do last minute changes **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Streamlining all the required pieces for a scholarship application. All the deliverables and such. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Thanks for your review and feedback. Please let our support team help guide you with any changes you need! ### 15. User friendly **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ciarra J. | Executive Assistant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** It was user-friendly. I love the sorting options. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Application completion time could be faster. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have a large number of applicants applying for awards and we are able to process them in a timely manner. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Ciarra! Thanks for your review and feedback! ### 16. Excellent grants management system **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Help us track and build our grants comprehensively. Easily customizable. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Users would appreciate the abolity to jump back and forth in their applications. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helps us keep track of complicated research grants. We ahve found it user freindly, even for non-"tech" users. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hello. Thanks for your review and feedback. If the user needs to jump around within their app, they can click on the app "tree" navigation on the right side of the page. Stay tuned for an improved applicant and evaluator experience later this year! ### 17. Decent platform for a good price **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kimi M. | CEO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 15, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** This platform has made our grant application process much less time-consuming and more accesible. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** There have been a few glitches - where I click on something normal and it says "You are not authorized" - to do average tasks. There are a few more customizations that I would like, particularly in customizing the page for my evaluators. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** managing applications quickly. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Kimi, many thanks for your review! We'd love to hear your ideas about customizations. Please send to our support team and they will forward to our product manager. Robert ### 18. Promote effective communication among members of the committee **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tolga E. | Compensation and Benefits Manager, Higher Education, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** We have found custom forms and automated workflow used in SmarterSelect as useful tools for managing applications for a scholarship. As such, we can be able to modify the application process to fit our needs well and also provide a good experience for applicants. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I feel that granularity of data provided is not sufficient enough to be analyzed in much detail. For instance, it is nearly impossible to look at a particular demographic or an application segment and determine trends/biases. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** With the assistance of SmarterSelect, the scholarship application is much easier for our organization and candidates. Easy to use and the application of the workflow tool that helps to save time to review the applications and assess the candidates. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Tolga, thanks for your review and feedback! I've provided a link regarding building Reports. And, of course, you can export all application data at anytime for analysis in Excel. Reach out to Support for further assistance. ### 19. SmarterSelect has been a lifesaver! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jill P. | Education Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2025 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I like the ease of use after getting acquainted to the program. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** It is a very expensive tool that makes its justification difficult. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** SmarterSelect offered the ability to easily manage applications for either grants or program applications. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Jill, thanks for your review and feedback! ### 20. SmarterSelect is a really good tool to use for setting up scholarship applications! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Carl B. | Education Chair, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 22, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I really like the ease of setting up a scholarship application for the next year. When I have an issue, the customer support responds quickly to help me remedy the problem. I really like that we have all the past years information still available to access. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** If I leave the application open too long, I need to logoff then log back in again. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can track each scholarship application and each scholarship applicant using SmarterSelect. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Carl, many thanks for your review and feedback! ### 21. Great For Board Applications **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jordan E. | Business Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 01, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The backend is easy to navigate as well as train others to use the portal. Very simple to use! **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I wish I could see the applications submitted on the application review page in a pdf form rather than see it in a list view. Besides that its wonderful **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its keeping us organized with the various applications we do throughout the year. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thank you for the review and the feedback (we'll share it with our product team). And thank your for choosing SmarterSelect, Jordan! ### 22. Scholarship Applications **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 22, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** It is nice to have all of our scholarship information in one program. Easy access for our applicants, administrators and evaluators. The customer support is great. Very helpful and patient. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** When communicating with applicants, I would just want to send a text, but the options where to send only an email or both an email and a text. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to store all scholarship applicants information in one place. They are able to download their picture, transcripts, financials all in one place. It's easy to extract this data from SmarterSelect. ### 23. Short learning curve, easy to use! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jamie P. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect has met all of our needs for application collection and evaluation, and we are about to launch report collection within the system as well. As an organization new to grantmaking, the SmarterSelect team was beyond helpful in identifying where it could meet our needs. In addition, their ongoing support portal has answered all questions in a timely and easy to understand manner. We are grateful for such a great tool to help us manage our grantmaking. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** There have been one or two things we wish we could change. Example: the button that says "apply..." we'd love to have that text be modifiable. Relatively small concern. Otherwise we are quite happy. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to streamline data and document collection - and it's the document collection that is key here. To have everything together in one place - with links for our end users to access forms, places to upload completed forms... this was a major win with Smarter Select. ### 24. SmarterSelect allows students to apply to our programs and it's easy for me to access the info. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kim W. | Health Education Admissions Coordinator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** If I have a question, the customer support is quick and very helpful. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** The inability to put my own formulas in the form. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allowed us to use SmarterSelect for applications and move from paper applications. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Kim, thanks for your review and feedback! I've included a link to our Calculations feature that should help you with your formulas. If not, feel free to contact Support for assistance. ### 25. Seemless, simple, efficient! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Sports | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Honestly, pulling reports was a breeze, and the system to send e-mails to specific groups such as those who hadn't finished their applications was so easy! **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** It was a bit of a learning curve at first, it's not a super intuitive system, but after two training sessions I got it! **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Efficiency and ease, compared to using EmailMe forms it's so easy to grade essays and pull reports, I love it. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hello, thanks for your review and feedback! ### 26. Our experience has been consistent **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stacie S. | Administrative Assistant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 03, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The integrations. You can easily share application data with many popular software applications, including Salesforce and other CRM systems, without requiring a programmer. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** It did not seem to mesh well with our old grant management software. That has been rectified. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** This product makes scholarship management seemless. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Stacie, thanks for your review and feedback! ### 27. Great for Scholarship Applications **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 01, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** We have been using SmarterSelect for a few years now and our scholarship review committee finds it really easy to access and evaluate our candidates. It's also very easy for our students to create an account, complete an online application, save and come back to their application as often as they need to before submitting it. As the program administrator, I appreciate that everything we need is in one tool, application, evaluation and selection/notification. The customer support and training have been very helpful, as well. We can always reach out with one-off questions and know we will be responded to very quickly. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** It has been a high learning curve for me and also takes a bit of time and patience to ensure you're setting everything up the way you want from the beginning. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping the scholarship process all in one place- application, review, interview, evaluation, and selection. ### 28. Great managing platform **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 10, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I like how user friendly the platform is and how can you filter the platform easily. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I think something creatimg form can be a little overwhelming. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has helps us receive massive applications manage them faster. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hello! Thanks for your review and feedback. Stay tuned for an improved form builder later this year. ### 29. SmarterSelect - Makes Life Easier **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Erin H. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** It enables us to manage our scholarship process so easily. We recieve almost 1,000 applications yearly. The online reviewing as been amazing for our committee. We always get quick repsonses to our questions/issues from the support staff. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** We have some issues with the short hand view - would like to see a specific field and have never been able to make it happen. So always need to download the full report - not a huge deal. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to have 1,000 applicants easily apply and having 13 committee members easily review applicalcations. Without needing to use paper! ### 30. Grant tracking software recommendation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Customization of midterm and final grantee reporting fields **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** There are no negatives that I'm aware of **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Consolidated reporting from grantees; able to extract management reports into a single Word document. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Wow thanks for this feedback! And thanks for choosing SmarterSelect. ### 31. Great Tool for Colleges and Universities! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 06, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I am a recent hire at a large university and one of my main tasks is running a program that requires the collection of student applications. SmarterSelect made it so easy to step into my new role and begin the work for my program ASAP. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** We had an issue where a student's professor was unable to receive the emailed reccomendation request for whatever reason, so the professor had to email me the document directly. While I was able to go into the application and mark it as received, I didn't see that I was able to upload the document to the application, which would have been helpful in keeping all of the materials/information together. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** SmarterSelect is an easy and efficient way for us to distribute our program and fellowship applications to our students. It is also easy to use, which helps encourage students to apply. ### 32. User Friendly **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Krista F. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The software is very easy to navigate. If you ever have any trouble tech support is there to help walk you through and tell you step by step. They take the time to make sure you know how to use it. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** It would be nice to be able to make the forms a little more personalized and be able to change styles of the apperance of what the applicant sees. Being able to change up the apperance would be able to ensure the applicant is using a more current version of the form. Also, being able to have folders for each cycle to be able to put the forms in there from each year to make the page where all the active programs are to make it a little cleaner. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** They have helped us take out another part of how the evaluators review the applications. Our old software the evaluator needed to create a unique login each time they did an evaluation. This is nice and easy that they just log in and see the applications they need to review. It makes my life easier and it makes it easy for them to see all the documents they need to see and be able to have a smooth evaluation. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback, Krista. Glad to hear that our tech support has been able to help you with the product. Regarding your feedback, we will pass this on to our product team. Thanks again for choosing SmarterSelect! ### 33. Great platform, easy to use. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marshall S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Easy to use and great (and responsive) support when I have questions. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I wish the platform supported tables for the input of certain information we'd like to gather from applicants. There is a work around to accomplish this, but native support of tables would be really helpful (at least for our organization) **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Streamlining the collection and evaluation of applicant data. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thanks for the review Marshall and thank you for the feedback on the native support of tables. ### 34. Great Platform! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Maycee J. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 31, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** I really enjoy the features and abilities to collect a range of information for applications. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I wish it was easier to dowload the collected data instead of getting a link and downloading the CSV. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** collecting a wide range of applications ### 35. Dynamic review system **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Honna G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 03, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect has allowed me to address a wide variety of needs for program and funding applications and easily involve key stakeholders in the review process. The permission sets allows me to easily define who can see what to ensure overall privacy. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** There is a bit of a learning curve to develop programs and creating forms but I've found SmarterSelect customer service folks to be very responsive in addressing my questions and helping me **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allowing multiple awards and grant programs to exist in one core system. It also gives us the ability to allow folks to use a single system to review applications and the ability to export data, if needed, for external review. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thanks for the review Honna! And thank you for choosing SmarterSelect. ### 36. 9/10 for SmarterSelect **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sonny D. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect is extremely helpful when gathering application data and sorting it in one place. Using SmarterSelect, we are able to run multiple campaigns at the same time and collect clean application data for future exports conveniently. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect is somewhat harder to train employees on. The program allows for tons of unique processes and tricks, but they do not come intuitively. Changing how you maneuver the website while keeping current features would be my only suggestion. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** SmarterSelect helps us collect data and distribute multiple scholarship opportunities throughout the year to a number of different audiences. Without SmarterSelect, we would be hard-pressed to find a another program that can accomplish the same things SmarterSelect can. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > This is great feedback Sonny! Thank you so much for providing us with this insight and detail. We have shared this feedback with our product time. In the future (and if convenient), we'd love to hear your feedback at support@smarterselect.com or via the linked form. Thank you for choosing SmarterSelect! ### 37. The Clear Choice for Application Process **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Julie A. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 11, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The level of customer service provided is stellar. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** The price! As a nonprofit, cost is important. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** For the most part, SmarterSelect provides efficient housing for our scholarship and grant applications. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thank you for the review Julie and thanks for choosing SmarterSelect! ### 38. SmarterSelect for Scholarship Applications **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Application process is smooth and I can communicate with applicants through the system with ease. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I do not like the new dual authentication and sometimes the systems loads very slowly. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Managing applications and allowing for ease in sorting for unique awards. ### 39. Accessible and Easily Navigated **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The most helpful part for my team and I, are the report builders. I can use them to easily mail merge and see all of the information I need in one place. I really enjoy SmarterSelect. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** The only least helpful thing is when we send the applications off to the evaluators. For some reason, there is ALWAYS an issue for them. Between logging in and actually getting to what they need, it is difficult for the committee. However, I am not on their end so I don't know how helpful this is. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** SmarterSelect is solving the report issue. Other platforms haven't been as accessible. I think my team is more productive when it comes to this. It is easier for the students to navigate as well. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thank you for the review and feedback. Glad to hear that the report builder is making an impact for you and your team! Also if you continue to experience challenges with your evaluators accessing the applications, be sure to reach out to our support team. You can reach them at support@smarterselect.com, or via the provided link (submit a ticket). We'd love to help out! ### 40. Great Program for Scholarship Management **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 06, 2024 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The ease of creating the programs I need and the ease of managing my programs. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I find the search engine doesn't work all the time. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Scholarship management. ### 41. Smarter Select makes my life easier **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dee M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The automation and capabities. I love that you can assign things to people, but also create your own customized review process. SmarterSelect is a great tool for tracking. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I wish it was a little more user friendly for the review process. Sometimes our volunteers get confused how to submit or review applications. I do appeciate the export features. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** SmarterSelect helps us to keep track of our submissions for not only awards and scholraships, but for our poster competition / collegiate competition submissions as well. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thanks for choosing SmarterSelect, Dee! If you need help in the future, we have a highly-rated customer service team that would love to help you with the submission and review process. ### 42. SMARTER Select was an excellent purchase for our application needs! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tracie S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Training and getting started was seamless. I have had excellent support when I've had issues. Appreciate that I can develop so many programs under our account. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I do not like that if I provide access to a team member that they can see all programs. It would be more effective for me to be able to share only what they need as we have confidential information that I don't want everyone on our team to have access to. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Application process for multiple programs **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi Tracie, many thanks for your kind review and feedback! We've heard from others regarding your suggestion to limit access to programs to their respective program managers (e.g. grant managers see only their grant programs, scholarship managers see only their scholarship programs). It's on our Features List for consideration and future development. ### 43. Nice tool with great support **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** The thing I like best is how responsive the support desk is. I've had several questions throughout the application and evaluation cycle, and each time I submit one they answer within 0.5 business days. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** It does not have all of the bells and whistles of some application platforms. But for my purposes, that is actually a benefit. It is not as complex, and we do not need a ton of different features. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We need a platform that allows students to apply for our program, and for evaluators to assess them. It works well for both parts of the cycle. Setting up the application form takes minutes, whereas other programs I have used have taken hours. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > We're so glad you are having a good experience with our support desk! Glad to hear that you find the simplicity of the features as a benefit. Thanks for choosing SmarterSelect! ### 44. AOII Foundation - SmarterSelect **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** User-friendly; offers more than dropbox which we were using for past programs **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** would like to be able to clean up past applications and past evaluator groups; would like to be able to edit parts of the application without sending in a support ticket **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** They are continuing to update the features and the Q&A sessions help with the explanations of the updates. ### 45. SmarterSelect Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 28, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect helped us to streamline our program admissions, making it easier to build in logic, evaluate and assign applicants, and collect data that helps us run our programs. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** There are some quirks to building the application - like being unable to make copies of program applications if there is a logo/image uploaded. It can also be challening to figure out how to set up a reviewing system with multiple evaluators. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** SmarterSelect helps us streamline our application systems throughout all of our programs, and from year to year. It is easy to find and copy the same program year over year, making sure data stays consistent. **Official Response from Robert Davis:** > Hi! Many thanks for your feedback! Our developers are actively working on the copy program issue you describe and you should see a fix shortly. Please drop a note to our support team and see if they can give you some suggestions for your evaluators. Thanks for your business! ### 46. Very easy to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** It is super easy to use & the customer service is great! If you have an issue and need support they respond super quickly & will make a virtual appt with you very quickly. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** I am still figuring out to handle a large volume of applications on a rolling deadline but I did go to an open question & answer and they gave me some ideas on how to handle it. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** A centralized location to hold all our applications & a better way to review applications with multiple reviewers - including both application & applicant interviewers; a central way to pull that information. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thank you for the kind words about our customer service! Also glad you were able to use our Community Forum to get some help from your peers. Thanks for choosing SmarterSelect! ### 47. Best System for the Money! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Karen S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Ease of account set up; price cannot be beat; thorough reports **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Our choice, but only a single user system **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Less paper, happier teachers with simple form **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thanks for choosing SmarterSelect, Karen! And thanks for taking the time to provide a review. ### 48. Flexible, Easy Scholarship Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 03, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** SmarterSelect is easy to use. Our programs do not change much year to year so we appreciate being able to copy programs in less than a minute. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Sometimes, I'd like the option to add existing applicants to a new program on the administrator side. **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** Accepting and managing national applications to a small program. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thanks for the review and for choosing SmarterSelect! ### 49. Cool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Pretty convenient to use in terms of collecting and grading scholarships. **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** The software could be more intuitive (regarding UX) **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's very easy to share the scholarship portal with students and schools, and also other scholarship evaluators. It really shortened the time it took to fairly grade all scholarships. **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thanks for the review! We'd love to hear more about your UX feedback. If convenient for you, can you submit a support ticket at the resource URL and select "I have a comment or feature suggestion from the picklist?" Thanks again for choosing SmarterSelect! ### 50. Great software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jessica S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2023 **What do you like best about SmarterSelect?** Going from collecting applciations by Excel to an automated system is amazing! **What do you dislike about SmarterSelect?** Little more training when you first purchase, however you can reach out and set up additonal training sessions when ever needed **What problems is SmarterSelect solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used excel before and now everything is automated and will match applciations to qualifing scholarships **Official Response from James Bogroff:** > Thanks Jessica! Glad to hear that this has been a good experience for you and that you were able to find the additional training sessions valuable. Thanks for choosing SmarterSelect! ## SmarterSelect Discussions - [What is SmarterSelect used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-smarterselect-used-for) - [View SmarterSelect pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/smarterselect/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=5&open_modal_url=%2Fes%2Fproducts%2Fsmarterselect%2Fwishlists%3Fhost_path%3D%252Fproducts%252Fsmarterselect%252Freviews%253Ffilters%25255Bnps_score%25255D%25255B%25255D%253D5%26source%3Dpdp_avatar§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-23+18%3A52%3A28+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=80806f01-d7f0-495a-ba5a-c4a38998b8fa&secure%5Btoken%5D=75198d87772f7df5dfbe56c369f188b48bd771949843a5800e127ed5e6be1c5d&format=llm_user) ## SmarterSelect Features **Application Collection** - Custom Application Forms - Attachments - Scholarship Matching - Application Tracking **Proposal Management** - Form Building - Review Tools - Grantee Portal - Attachments - Task Management **Submission Management** - Form Builders - Countdown Timers - Landing Pages - Applicant Portal **Application Review** - Automated Review Assignments - Scoring Tools - Review Portal - Review Comments - Messaging **Fund Tracking** - Disbursements - Grant Allocations - Email Notifications **Judging Management** - Judge Assignments - Multiround Scoring - Scoring and Voting - Submission Dashboards **Administration and Integrations** - Administrative Dashboard - Reports - Integrations **Impact & Outcomes** - Program Evaluation - Data Analytics - Ad Hoc Reporting - Dashboards **Awards Administration** - Event Support - Applicant Communications - CRM - Reporting **Grant Prospecting** - Funder Lists - Automated Responses **Compliance** - Eligibility Screening - Auditing **Integrations** - Fund Accounting - Donor Management ## Top SmarterSelect Alternatives - [Bloomerang CRM](https://www.g2.com/products/bloomerang-crm/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (882 reviews) - [Award Force](https://www.g2.com/products/award-force/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (288 reviews) - [Submittable](https://www.g2.com/products/submittable/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (167 reviews)