Publishing a Program

Contents

Are you ready to publish your program?

Take this quick quiz. If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, you’re ready to publish!

Have you finalized your application content, including your questions, program information, document requests, and tables and budget setup?

Application content must be finalized before your program opens. Changes made in open programs may affect applicant data.

Have you verified your program settings, including open and deadline dates, applicant settings, and which features you’d like to use?

Program settings should be finalized prior to the open-to-apply date so that all applicants receive the same treatment during the application period.

Have you submitted a test application?

Submitting a test application is the best way to be sure that your content is as it should be and your settings work as you want them to. It also helps you get familiar with what your applicants will see - bonus!

Has your program been paid for?

Unpaid programs cannot go live. Contact us to request an invoice if you have not already received one.

Do you have the correct link to give to your applicants?

To maintain your control of access to your program, we do not share or post your program link anywhere on our website. You get to decide where and how your applicants access your program. You can find default links or create friendly URLs for your program in Program Setup, in the Settings tab.

How It Works

Once you’ve set up the application content, tweaked the settings to your liking, and double checked everything (you can even submit a test application!) your program is ready to start accepting applications. Now you just need to give your applicants access to the program!

Program Setup > Settings Tab

From Program Setup, navigate to the Settings tab.

You Provide Access to Your Programs

Access to your programs is completely controlled by you. Do not send applicants to the ZoomGrants homepage to create their applications. ZoomGrants does not post or link to your programs on our homepage or ZGU, and our tech support folks are not authorized to share your links with applicants. Applicants must go through you or your website to access your programs.

Start by inputting your Availability Settings, then choose how you’d like to share your program with your applicants.

Choose your Availability Settings

Program Setup > Settings Tab > Availability Settings

Deadline

Your program will ‘Close’ and stop accepting applications at midnight (Pacific) at the end of this day.

Open To Apply Date

Your program will ‘Open’ and start accepting applications at midnight (Pacific) at the beginning of this day.

Availability Status

Determines whether a program is open or closed, based on the open and deadline dates.

Waiting to Open – This is the default setting. When you are finished setting up your program and you’re ready for it go live when your open date arrives, change this to “Open”.
Open – On this setting, your program will go live when the open date arrives and will close automatically when the deadline passes.

By changing the Availability Status to “Open”, you indicate that you have reviewed all of your settings and content and that the setup is exactly as you want it to be.
Closed – On this setting, your program will close immediately. If your program has not yet opened, choosing “Closed” will prevent it from opening. This setting can also be used to manually close a program at a specific time.

In order to receive applications....

In order to receive applications, the Availability Status must be set to Open, the date must be between the Open Date and the Deadline, and the program must show a balance due of zero.

Friendly URL

Provide Access to your Program

Program Setup > Settings Tab > Publishing/Sharing Settings

In addition to the friendly URL, there are several other options available to use to share a program with applicants.

Embedded iFrame – Put the application on your website and allow applicants to create and submit their apps without ever leaving your page.
Apply Button – Drop an apply button on your website to take applicants directly to the application.
Direct Link – Provide the link to send applicants right to the application. This link can be shared in an email or posted on your site.

For all of these options, admins can choose to provide access to Just THIS application only, THIS time or ALL available applications.

These links and HTML code are specific to this program, this time. If you choose to use these links and you run a similar program in subsequent years, you will need to update the link to apply for the new program in subsequent years. You can find the link to the new program in Program Setup, in the Settings tab of the new program.

If you want to be able to use the same link every year, consider creating a Friendly URL to share with your applicants or provide the link that shows ALL available programs.

Tagged: Jun20 Program Setup