Progress Energy
By Kellan Chapin, as told to Kathy Krais

Progress Energy believes that there's nothing more powerful than strong communities. Because their success is wholly intertwined with that of the cities, towns and people they serve, the company takes an active role in building and supporting communities - identifying opportunities that will have a lasting impact and thoughtfully committing resources and time to them. Since becoming Progress Energy in 2000, the company has invested over $67 million in local communities through their grant programs focused on education, economic development, the environment and employee involvement. Their motivation is simple. Progress Energy may be an energy provider serving millions of people, but they're also a local company, and more importantly, a neighbor in every community where their employees and customers live and work.

Thousands of requests dictate the need for increased efficiency
Through regional, corporate and foundation giving programs, Progress Energy processes and funds approximately 3,000 grants per year throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida using the GIFTS® grants management system from MicroEdge. However, the organization receives at least twice the volume of requests. Originally, requests were made through a very informal process: potential grantees would call a dedicated staff member to discuss their project, and the staff member would field questions and assess whether the organization should submit an application. It was a time-consuming process, and in fact, about 95% of calls came from organizations that did not meet funding guidelines.

"A transition to online applications has been happening in our industry. We were seeing a lot of peer groups starting to move their applications process online in order to streamline operations in an increasingly resource-constrained industry," states Kellan Chapin, contributions specialist and the GIFTS grants administrator for Progress Energy. So to improve efficiencies within their own grantmaking operation, the company implemented IGAM internet grant application system. Chapin equates their shift to an online application process to that of the HR movement where candidates mostly apply online for jobs today. "Most job candidates today don't even consider sending an application by mail, because it's so much easier and faster to submit it online," asserts Kellan.

Multiple decision-makers and many points of entry
To avoid having a dedicated staff member on the phone to qualify every applicant, Progress Energy uses IGAM's customizable eligibility quiz feature to handle that task automatically. Applicants must meet a set of pre-defined requirements in order to submit a proposal. Additionally, there are 14 community relations managers throughout Progress Energy that make decisions about grants awarded in their communities. Before IGAM, requests had to be physically routed to the appropriate person. Now, the applicant selects their geographical location as part of the qualification process, taking them to one of the 13 online applications that the company has set up. When submitted, applications are automatically routed to the appropriate manager. Kellan emphasizes that "since there are many people making decisions about funding, we wanted to get applications to the appropriate decision makers without having a gatekeeper redirect every proposal. IGAM enables us to do that as efficiently as possible."

Online applications sustain accessibility
As a Fortune 250 company, potential grantees often ponder the best way to get a grant proposal considered at Progress Energy. The company addresses these concerns through their online process, which consistently communicates corporate and foundation program guidelines. And because proposals come into the company in the same manner and format, every applicant gets fair consideration. "We also like using IGAM because we can easily invite our partners to submit an application by sending them a link. Our partners can then go right in and fill it out, and we can link it to GIFTS right away," says Kellan. Once linked to GIFTS, the proposals can be routed through Progress Energy's standard internal review and processing workflow. "Plus," Kellan includes, "IGAM helps us get the information we need upfront, avoiding the typical back and forth associated with the paper process."

The right way to go
Kellan also feels that the support she receives from MicroEdge is first-rate. "The help line is fantastic-they all know me by name, and the support has been very dependable, which is so critical when you are implementing a new technology." She concludes, "It's the right way to go. It's the way companies will be moving in the future."