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A History of eGRANT
In 1994, a team of students from the Master
of Arts Management Program and the
Master of Science (MSPPM) Program at the
H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at
Carnegie Mellon University proposed a year-long management project
to investigate the feasibility and usefulness of the emerging World
Wide Web as a resource and services tool for arts managers. During
that process, ArtsNet
was created, one of the first sophisticated Web sites to deal
with management challenges and opportunities in arts and culture organizations.
The ArtsNet project was successful beyond all expectations. The website attracted the attention of a national audience in both the arts and information technology communities. Soon after presenting the project's final report, members of the team were approached by Philip Horn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA), about the possibility of a team of students, alumni and/or faculty assisting the PCA in reorganizing and restructuring its data collection, management and distribution systems, and developing an "electronic" grant application form. A grant of $20,000 was awarded to the MAM program for the data management/application project in the summer of 1995. A key component of the project was the facilitation of easy access to public funding data; the project undertaken by the MAM Program included a system for exporting funding data to a searchable database on the PCA web site. MAM Program faculty demonstrated alpha versions of the data management/application project to state arts agency representatives at an annual meeting of the National Association of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) in November, 1995, and approximately a dozen agencies expressed interest in participating in future undertakings related to these tools.
In late 1996, The Center for Arts Management and Technology (CAMT) was established to provide the proper organizational foundation on which to build current and future research and service projects. CAMT developed the first online, Web-based grants application system -- eGrantsm -- which is used today by over two dozen state and local arts agencies and private foundations. For many funders and cultural organizations, eGrantsm demonstrated the value and importance of technology as a data management, decision-making and communications tool. CAMT continues to work on and improve eGRANTsm, improving functionality and scalability.
CAMT continues its applied research on eGrantsm and other data management systems, including on-line course registration programs for performing and visual arts organizations, artist registries and job banks, as it continually seeks new ways to bring effective and efficient technology solutions to the cultural field. In order to ensure that eGRANTsm users receive the best possible service and support for this prodcut, CAMT has engaged in an innovative non-profit / for-profit partnership with Bromelkamp Company, a company with outstanding customer service, as well as expertise in the funding sector.
Read Bromelkamp's announcement
of this partnership.