Grant Assistant Simplifies and Accelerates
Every Stage of the Proposal Process, Including Evaluation, Design,
Drafting, Budget, and Compliance Review
WASHINGTON, April 23,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Grant Assistant today
launched an AI-enhanced toolkit to simplify and streamline the
complicated and time-consuming process of responding to
solicitations. Grant Assistant provides a simple and structured
workflow for preparing proposals for international grant and
cooperative agreement funding opportunities, including evaluation,
design, drafting, budget, and compliance review.
Grant Assistant's leadership team includes two former Chiefs of
Staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), who
have seen the challenges of the current grant process up close.
Sean Carroll, USAID Chief of Staff
in the Obama administration, is the Chairman of Grant Assistant,
while Dr. William Steiger, USAID
Chief of Staff in the Trump administration, serves as an advisor to
the company and a member of its Board.
"My first time seeing Grant Assistant in action was a
revelation," said Carroll. "For decades, we've known that the
grantmaking process is too difficult, intimidating, time-consuming,
and costly. These issues have reduced the number and diversity of
applicants, rewarded technical accuracy over impact in proposals,
and taken time and money away from the vital programs run by grant
recipients. Grant Assistant modernizes the application process with
a simple, elegant, and powerful tool for organizations of all
sizes, from single-person consultancies to global development
institutions."
Grant Assistant is built for ease-of-use and customization with
key features that include:
- Solicitation Summaries: Grant Assistant uses a
custom AI to analyze complex book-length grant solicitations and
turn them into clear and actionable one-page summaries on the
opportunities and requirements of the grant, so organizations can
make fast and informed "go" or "no-go" decisions.
- Guided Program Design: Instead of starting from a
blank page, Grant Assistant provides a guided design toolkit that
uses the requirements of a solicitation, integrated templates, and
tailored questions to help users create a proposal structure
aligned with their objectives and capabilities.
- AI-Enhanced Drafting Support: Grant Assistant's
custom generative AI uses uploaded content, such as past proposals,
relevant studies and evaluations, published technical and
scientific literature, funders' strategy and policy documents, and
other organizational materials, to expand a program design into a
robust draft proposal.
- Suggestion Engine: Grant Assistant's unique
suggestion engine enriches a proposal by surfacing key relevant
information, like proof points, charts, and data, from uploaded
documents and referenced sources.
- Integrated Accuracy: Grant Assistant's integrated
AI does not use any data sources or suggest any factual content
outside of the sources provided by the user, nor does it share
users' content with any external party. The tool creates an initial
draft solely out of the language of a solicitation the RFP and the
ideas and input provided by users during the program design phase.
Once a user has completed a draft proposal, the context engine
surfaces additional content suggestions from materials uploaded by
the user during the program-design phase.
- Collaboration Tools: Grant Assistant offers a
comprehensive suite of tools to manage proposal stages, deadlines,
and collaboration across a team.
- Compliance Check: Grant Assistant's custom AI
follows funder-focused writing rules (including the USAID Style
Guide) to ensure accuracy in tone and language. It reviews a
draft proposal section-by-section to ensure it meets all of a
funder's solicitation and compliance requirements, while flagging
potential issues and omissions.
"Anyone who has drafted an application for a grant or
cooperative agreement knows the tremendous stress involved, as you
race the clock to finish a book-length proposal that meets
complicated solicitation requirements while clearly explaining the
scope and elements of your plan," said Mustafa Hasnain, CEO of Grant Assistant. "Now
there's an easier way. Grant Assistant walks an applicant through
every stage of the process using a simple, step-by-step tool. In a
fraction of the time, Grant Assistant helps identify the right
solicitation, create the ideal program design, use custom
generative AI to draft and enhance the content, and check the
proposal against compliance requirements. Grant Assistant also
levels the playing field for smaller players and local
organizations that don't have the same drafting experience,
English-language expertise, knowledge of proposal design, or
faculty with funders' terminology."
Designed to meet the needs of applicants for grants and
cooperative agreements in the international development space,
Grant Assistant has undergone rigorous, real-world testing and
improvement over the past eight months through partnerships with
grant applicants of all sizes.
Grant Assistant beta testers ranged from small consultancies to
some of the world's leading international development
organizations, including five of the top ten largest USAID
implementers. Among Grant Assistant's testing partners are Cliniva,
Creative, Catholic Relief Services, DT Institute, Engender Health,
Humentum, Jhpiego, MSI, Reingold, TechChange, URC, and World
Learning.
One of those beta testers, TechChange CEO Nick Martin, described its impact for his
organization. "A huge, game-changing bid dropped just before the
holidays, due in mid-January," said Martin. "We thought we were
going to have to pass in order to respect our company's holiday
shutdown. But in came Grant Assistant with its AI magic, and we
were able to submit a great proposal during the toughest time of
the year."
Earl Gast, President of URC,
another Grant Assistant beta tester, added, "This AI tool
democratizes the proposal process, empowering local organizations
with great ideas and local solutions to meet USAID's requirements
effectively."
Beyond Hasnain, Carroll, and Steiger, Grant Assistant's founding
team includes:
- President Hans Miller, a former
executive at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and
Co-Founder/CEO of Airside Mobile, which runs the popular Mobile
Passport app;
- Chief Revenue Officer Rob
Russell, who has deep experience in leading business
development and sales in the government sector, including for
Thomson Reuters;
- Chief Operating Officer Syed Murtaza, an ex-corporate
banker and entrepreneur with a background in content creation,
animation, and technology; and
- Director of Research Dr. Gilberto Lopez, an academic
educated at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Southern Methodist Universities
with deep experience in the grantmaking process.
"Grant Assistant has the power to turbocharge the localization
efforts of USAID and other funders," said Steiger. "The tool can
perform tasks in a few hours that have traditionally taken weeks or
even months. This means Grant Assistant can transform the great
ideas and on-the-ground knowledge of smaller organizations into
world-class applications that can compete on the merits with
proposals drafted by the largest players in international
development."
For more information on Grant Assistant, visit
GrantAssistant.ai.
Media Contact:
Andrew Weinstein
703-597-6175
376621@email4pr.com
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