Case Study: Ohio Arts Council achieves sustainable, future-ready grants management with SmartSimple Cloud

Moving the Ohio Arts Council to a sustainable, future-ready grants management solution

The Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that funds arts across Ohio, was running a dated custom grants system that required costly upgrades and outside programmers and could no longer keep pace with changing practices. Managing roughly 1,000–1,200 active awards (and reviewing about 1,000 new applications annually), the Council sought a future-ready platform offering complete operational transparency, robust reporting, strong security, and ease of use, and selected SmartSimple Cloud for Grants Management.

SmartSimple Cloud implemented a fully configurable grants management solution, helped the Council rework processes, and trained staff to self-administer the system so they no longer rely on programmers. The result: an easier, more secure applicant experience, faster reporting and operational transparency, and a more cost-effective pay-for-use model — with the Council managing millions in awards (about $13 million granted since 2015) and gaining the agility to execute new initiatives thanks to SmartSimple Cloud.

Ohio Arts Council

Dan Katona

Deputy Director