New York has recently transitioned grantmaking activities from the Grants Gateway to the Statewide Financial System (SFS). We have helped many non-profit clients register and prequalify on the Statewide Financial System online platform. This prequalification is highly suggested for New York non-profits to have as it is required for most of the grants offered by New York State.
For a small fee, we will take care of the registration for you, gathering the information and documents needed to become "Prequalified".
NY Statewide Financial System Support
-
Your username and password will be sent to you in a welcome email after filling out the paperwork for an SFS Vendor ID. The necessary form can be found here.
-
Once you have received your username and password, you will need to log into the SFS Vendor site and fill out your organization's basic information on the "Organizations" page such as number of employees and mission statement. Once this is done, you will be able to enter your Document Vault page.
-
The Document Vault has about 30 required questions for you to answer on forms in four different files found near the top of the page. These are mostly yes or no questions. You will be required to enter the names of separate organization members responsible for signing checks and contracts. You will be asked if your organization has certain required policies in place. If you answer incorrectly, your application will not be approved.
-
You now need to upload your organization's forms to the Document Vault. You will see the list of forms to upload in the "Required Documents" folder of the Document Vault page. Once you upload these forms and have answered the questions on the Required Forms, you are ready to submit your Document Vault for approval by NYS Department of State.
Once you are prequalified, you will be able to apply for all of the New York State grants that have this prequalification requirement. If your prequalification documentation on the Grant Gateways was up to date, your prequalification status has transferred automatically to the SFS system. If not, you will have to start the prequalification process from scratch. You will need to periodically update certain organizational documents (990 tax return and organizational budget) to remain prequalified. We help out clients with this as well.
-
Click the "Submit Document Vault" link on the Document Vault Page. Once you have successfully submitted your application, you will receive an email message stating that the Document Vault is being reviewed. In a few days you will get a second email message congratulating you on being “Prequalified” or informing you that you to make revisions to your Document Vault. You may make these revisions and submit your Document Vault for review as many times as needed.