About Cache County, Utah
Situated north of Salt Lake City, Cache County, Utah has over 140,000 residents. Known statewide as a farming and manufacturing hub, it also serves as an outdoor-lover’s paradise, boasting several scenic ski areas and national parks within its lush borders.
The County and its subrecipients receive their fair share of federal grants, and they’re all managed by one person: Alma Burgess, who serves as Grants Administrator for the County. Whether it’s funding for fire services, the Sheriff’s office, public works, or other departments, Burgess keeps track of where it’s coming from and where it’s going.
Challenge: Helping Streamline a Fractured Grants Process
Like many other public agencies, Cache County’s approach to grants management was somewhat fractured. When it came to searching out and pursuing grants, many departments within the County felt unsure of where to look or how to start, oftentimes chasing down grants they had only heard about from colleagues.
“It was mostly word of mouth or ‘hey, we’ve heard about this grant and we’re going to apply for it’”, explains Burgess.
When it came time to apply, the process felt incredibly siloed. Many departments applied for grants without one another’s knowledge, not to mention Burgess and the Finance Department, who were often not informed until much later in the process.
“It seemed like some departments had several accounts with different organizations,” he explains. “Each department was doing their own thing, and the Finance Office wasn’t aware of the grants that were being applied for or received.”
According to Burgess, some oversight occurred through paper-based processes or legacy technology, such as spreadsheets. “Before Euna Grants, we used a spreadsheet here or a Word doc or Google doc there” is how he remembers it.
This scattered approach also sometimes resulted in missing documentation for subrecipient awards, which could have posed a serious problem when it came to audits and compliance.
“When we made awards to other municipalities and non-profits, it was all done by paper”, Burgess explains. “And when you’re dealing with paper, things can get lost.”
When subrecipients began asking when Burgess would make the switch to digital grants management, he knew it was time to change things up.
Solution: Leaner, More Efficient Grants Management
Alma and the Finance Department decided to integrate Euna Grants’ full grants lifecycle management into their grants processes, providing a much-needed solution for the County’s current challenges.
Leveraging the advanced search and filtering capability of Euna Grants’ extensive Grants Network, County departments looking for the right funding opportunities now have effective tools at their disposal to take charge of their own discovery process.
“We can easily search and find different grants to apply for”, says Burgess. “If I want to look for something in recreation, I can get that. If I want to look for something with law enforcement or fire services, I can go specifically to those areas. I don’t have to spend so much time going to different sites to do the research, so it’s great. My time is more effectively spent.”
Euna Grants’ organization dashboard has also made it easier to keep track of which grants different departments may be working on, keeping the Finance Department fully in the loop. With bi-directional financial integration, grants expenditure data is easily included in the Finance Department’s records, further ensuring transparency for key internal stakeholders.
“I can go to one single place to find out all of the grants that that we’re considering applying for” he says. “That’s a nice thing. Rather than having to contact different departments to find out which grants they’re applying for and which ones are in progress, it’s all centralized through Euna Grants.”
Using Euna Grants, Burgess can identify grants to apply for and quickly understand what supporting documentation is required. “We get all the documents ready to submit for the application, and it’s all done through one system instead of paper workflows and emails back and forth.”
The switch to Euna Grants has also improved Cache County’s once-patchwork awarding process through the Subrecipient Management tool, making Burgess’ job a lot easier.
“I just set up the notice of funding for people to apply, then we open it up” he explains. “I didn’t have to sit at my desk and wait for all these applications. They just automatically come in, which is a great process.”
And as for the County’s subrecipients using Euna Grants, many have told Burgess that they’re grateful for the change.
“Subrecipients are really excited to be able to apply online and not have to worry about forgetting anything, because the tool provides a checklist of the documents required to submit. To be able to handle those electronically has been really nice. The feedback we’ve received has been ‘hey, we’ve wanted this for a long time, we finally got it, and it’s a really good, streamlined product.’ And it’s because of Euna Grants that it’s come about.”
Optimizing both the grantee and grantor processes through Euna Grants has led to Cache County being a leaner, more organized operation, Burgess says. Plus, with compliance-standard guidelines integrated into the system and transparent monitoring of subrecipient activity, he can worry less about audits and focus on the big picture.
“It’s just more streamlined being online” he says. “It’s a cleaner process. It makes it so that we can be more compliant.”
Results: Increased Grants Funding, Community Project Development, and More Subrecipient Awards
As a result of implementing Euna Grants’ purpose-built grants management system, Burgess and the community of Cache County have managed a total of $24.9M in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which fueled development of 73 different projects for the community.
And for subrecipients, 77 applications were received by Burgess and the Finance Department via the Euna Grants platform, resulting in 72 awards totalling $5.1M.
For Burgess, seeing funds go towards much-loved community initiatives like sports facilities, playgrounds, and theatre makes him proud.
“The results of our grants initiatives are great to see as I drive around the community” he says. “To see that a city asked for funding and these projects have come about. It’s nice. It really is.”
And what would he tell another public agency thinking about making the jump to Euna Grants?
