Karen Smith is a Client Support Analyst at Altum. She works with research funders daily to help them get the most out of ProposalCentral. Her passion for non-profits and scientific grant making was born out of her three decades working for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, most recently as the Director of Grants Management.
When MDA was looking for a new platform for grants management, they went with ProposalCentral because of the administrative time savings it would provide from program set-up to post award. Additionally, MDA found it helpful that Altum provides a steady stream of updates to the ProposalCentral platform, with no upgrades required.
While Karen’s familiarity with ProposalCentral spans the full product, her expertise is deepest on the post-award side. The post-award capabilities of the system “allow you to track award dollars years past their closing date to see the impact of the funding,” Karen said. “This was key at MDA and I know it’s key for all of Altum’s clients.”
“I encourage my clients to take full advantage of the web-based forms on the post-award side, to ensure they have the data needed to measure the impact of their funding on their awardees and on science.”
Karen enjoys working at Altum because she’s able to bring in ideas from clients that turn into solutions that help everyone on the platform. “It’s fulfilling to work on ProposalCentral, because you know that in the end it’s going to help every client.”
When not supporting Altum’s customers, Karen enjoys working on her farm where she cares for her menagerie of seven (7!) horses and multiple cows & pigs. They take a lot of work – but keep her grounded.
