The Challenge
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) program staff and leadership realized that their grant management process required an extensive expense in time and effort regarding the amount of paper, redundant data entry, and manual error checking associated with thousands of grant applications. Historical data was maintained mostly in paper form in filing cabinets. Additionally, the system was a burden for schools and school districts trying to manage their grant reporting requirements. New requirements and changes in federal and state law required a more efficient and effective system to meet the demands of education leaders in Michigan.

The Solution
The Michigan Electronic Grants System (MEGS) has created a seamless and transparent grant submission and management process for the MDE. Educators and school district administrators now can apply for grants, receive funding for almost every state and federal grant program (both competitive and formula), generate reports and budgets, and manage programs using the Internet. The MDE staff now spends more time working to improve student achievement in schools and less time managing the process surrounding grants administration.

The Benefits

• Facilitating better organization of grants
• Automating the grant application process
• Streamlining work load of grant processors and consultants
• Reducing turn-around time for grant funding
• Improving reliability of the grants that are being submitted by including grant error checking
• Automatically calculating the amount of state and/or federal funds available to grantees
• Creating flexible financial and progress reports
• Enabling program staff and consultants to manage more grants with fewer resources
  in less time
• Enabling grant advisors to retrieve grant information quickly for reports or updates

The Feedback
Grant program staff has praised the new system saying that MEGS has reduced their work load and their stress levels. The system automatically checks the majority of their applications for them and helps distribute grant funds more quickly.