A grants management platform doesn't operate in isolation. It receives data from applicant portals, sends data to accounting systems, connects to payment processors, and increasingly feeds into business intelligence and reporting tools. The quality of a platform's integrations — and the availability of APIs for custom integration — has become a significant factor in platform selection.
This guide covers what integrations matter for grants management, what to look for in a connected platform, and what API capabilities modern grantmakers need.
The operational case for integration is straightforward: manual data transfer between systems is expensive, slow, and error-prone. When a grant officer has to manually enter payment data from the grants management system into the accounting system, they're doing work that software should do — and they're doing it with the risk of transcription errors.
Integration also enables better data quality and reporting. When grant outcome data, payment data, and programme data are connected, programme managers can see the full picture in one place rather than reconciling data from multiple disconnected sources.
The most important integration for most grantmakers is between the grants management platform and the accounting system. Key integration points:
Payment export. When a grant payment is approved, the payment details (payee, amount, reference, date) should flow automatically or near-automatically into the accounting system for payment processing — rather than being re-entered manually.
Grant ledger reconciliation. The total of approved grants in the grants management system should reconcile to the grants payable in the accounting system. Automated reconciliation catches discrepancies.
Budget tracking. Programme budgets in the grants management system should be linkable to budget lines in the accounting system, so that committed vs actioned payments can be tracked in real time.
Common accounting integrations for New Zealand and Australian grantmakers: Xero (the most common accounting platform for the charity sector), MYOB, Reckon, and for government agencies, SAP, Technology One, and Oracle.
Many grantmakers manage relationships with funded organisations, sector stakeholders, and donors (for community foundations) in a CRM. Integration between the grants management platform and the CRM enables:
Unified organisation view. When someone at a funded organisation contacts the funder, the contact centre sees both the CRM relationship history and the grants history in one place.
Segmented communications. CRM segmentation — which organisations are in which programme, which are active grantees, which are major donors — can drive targeted communications.
Donor-advised fund integration. For community foundations managing DAFs, donor interests and granting histories need to connect to the grants made through those funds.
Common CRM integrations: Salesforce (common for larger foundations), HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, Keela (sector-specific NZ/AU CRM).
For grantmakers making direct electronic payments, integration with payment processing infrastructure can streamline disbursement:
Bank file generation. Generating a bank-compatible payment file (BECS Direct Entry in Australia, Direct Credit in NZ) from approved payments in the grants management system, ready for upload to online banking.
Payment confirmation. Receipt of payment confirmation back into the grants management system — confirming that payment was processed successfully and updating the grant record accordingly.
Fraud controls. Two-factor confirmation for payment file generation, payee bank account verification, and change-of-bank-account alerts to reduce payment fraud risk.
Programme managers and boards increasingly want interactive dashboards and advanced analytics beyond what the grants management system provides natively. Integration with BI tools enables this:
Data warehouse export. Regular export of grant data — applications, assessments, payments, outcomes — to a data warehouse or analytical database.
Dashboard tools. Integration with Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Google Looker, or similar BI tools, enabling custom reporting dashboards on grant portfolio data.
Government reporting. For government agencies, integration with whole-of-government reporting systems (e.g., PMIS in New Zealand, GovCMS or agency-specific systems in Australia).
For government and enterprise grantmakers, SSO integration:
Single Sign-On. Integration with organisational identity providers (Microsoft Entra ID / Azure AD, Okta, Google Workspace) so that staff can access the grants management system with their organisational login without maintaining a separate password.
Multi-factor authentication. MFA enforcement through the organisational identity provider, meeting government security requirements.
Automated lookup of charity registration details reduces manual data entry and improves data quality:
Charities Register (NZ). Integration with the New Zealand Charities Register API to look up charity registration status, registration number, and registered purpose for NZ applicants.
ACNC Register (AU). Integration with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission register for Australian charity verification.
Companies Office (NZ). Lookup of incorporated society and company registration details for NZ applicants who aren't registered charities.
When evaluating a grants management platform's API:
REST API with comprehensive coverage. A well-designed REST API that covers the main data entities (applications, grants, organisations, payments, reports) enables custom integrations.
Webhooks. Real-time event notifications — when an application is submitted, when a grant is approved, when a payment is made — enable integration patterns that don't require polling.
Authentication. API key or OAuth 2.0 authentication. Both are standard; OAuth is preferable for production integrations.
Rate limits and documentation. Clearly documented rate limits and comprehensive API documentation (ideally with an OpenAPI/Swagger spec) are indicators of a well-maintained API.
Sandbox environment. A sandbox or test environment for building and testing integrations without touching production data.
CSV email exports. Some platforms "integrate" by having staff download a CSV and email it to the accounting team. This isn't integration — it's manual transfer with extra steps. It's slow, error-prone, and adds no value over direct data entry.
Point-in-time snapshots. Integration that syncs data once a day (or on demand) rather than in real time misses the operational benefit of connected systems. For financial data, real-time or near-real-time sync is important.
One-way only. Integration that pushes data from grants management to accounting but can't receive confirmation back means the grants system doesn't know if payment actually happened.
Tahua provides REST API access, Xero integration for payments, and SSO support for government and enterprise customers.