Organisation & background
Grant Lifecycle Manager was founded in 2006 in Bozeman, Montana, by Mark Larimer. It received growth investment from private-equity firm L Squared Capital Partners in 2023, then merged with SmartSimple Software in 2024 under shared L Squared ownership.
Functionality
Grant Lifecycle Manager is grantmaking software for foundations and other funders. Each grant programme is set up as a process, and requests move through its statuses from application to award, payment and follow-up reporting. Application forms support branching logic, auto-save, reuse of earlier answers and anonymous third-party references, and applicants see their applications and reports on one dashboard with automated reminders. Reviewers are assigned and score online, with an option to anonymise applicants, AI can summarise long submissions, and dashboards support board reporting. Each organisation has separate Sandbox and Live sites for testing changes.
Localised features
Built for UK grantmakers.
Implementation model
Delivered directly by the vendor, with structured, stage-by-stage ‘Fundamentals’ training courses and a separate implementation service.
Hosting
Cloud-hosted by the vendor, with parallel Sandbox and Live cloud environments provided for every organisation. It doesn’t yet appear to support UK Charity Commission/OFSI compliance features.
Last full research
August 2026