Case study: managing scholarship applications

How GravityView enables nonprofits to manage scholarship applications

Written by Casey Burridge Marketing Coordinator at GravityKit since 2021, Casey is an expert on Gravity Forms, WordPress, and marketing.

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GravityView provides nonprofits with an affordable solution for managing all aspects of their online processes. With GravityView’s user-friendly interface and intuitive design, nonprofit organizations can maximize the impact of their work while minimizing time spent managing data.

In this case study, we chat with Nile Flores, a web designer and WordPress veteran, who has spoken at over 50 WordCamps! She recently used Gravity Forms and GravityView to build a scholarship application system for the AAPA (American Academy of Physician Assistants) Veterans Caucus.

The AAPA Veterans Caucus is a nonprofit organization that issues scholarships to Physician Assistants in training. Since its inception, the Veterans Caucus Scholarship program has provided more than $550,000.00 for eligible PA students!

The Veterans Caucus’s previous site was built on Joomla and Nile was tasked with rebuilding it on WordPress. After assessing the needs of the organization, Nile decided that Gravity Forms and GravityView were the perfect plugins for the job. She was impressed with GravityView’s drag-and-drop functionality and found our documentation to be comprehensive and well-written.

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Rebuilding a scholarship application management system on WordPress

The Veterans Caucus website

Nile built the scholarship application form using Gravity Forms, making use of advanced field types to capture the required data. This includes the applicant’s bio, contact information, and a place to upload their DD-214 (proof of their military service and status), and photo.

When new applications are submitted, the Veterans Caucus board members review and grade each one. Using GravityView, Nile built a front end dashboard allowing board members to view and score each application.

GravityView removed the need for members to have backend access to the site, increasing security and simplifying the review process.

“When board members log in, they can privately view each application from the front-end. These members don’t have access to the backend. GravityView Helped with that.”

“With GravityView, on the front side, the board members on the scholarship committee can see a table of the approved applicants, with the ability to view and grade each one. When they would submit a grade, that table has a column to let them know that they have already reviewed and graded that scholarship applicant.”

Certain members of the organization needed the ability to view all the applications and grades associated with them. Nile achieved this by creating different user roles, with access to different information. 

“Board members can only see the applicants and submit a grade. However, the executive board member designated as the chair of scholarships, the president-elect, and president of AAPA Veterans Caucus, has access to all grades.”

Applicants then have their own dashboard for seeing the status of their current application (also powered by GravityView). All in all, a very impressive system!

💡 Pro tip: Check out our live demos to see what you can build with GravityView.

Interview with web developer Nile Flores

Nile is a mother and professional web designer/developer, based in Centralia, Illinois. She’s worked at top WordPress companies (including Yoast and WP Fix It) and spoken at more than 50 WordCamps around the US! It was a pleasure chatting with Nile and learning more about her latest project involving Gravity Forms and GravityView!

Nile Flores, WordPress developer

Can you tell us more about your latest project involving GravityView?

I rebuilt the AAPA (American Academy of Physician Assistants) Veterans Caucus site on WordPress (it was previously on Joomla). They are a non-profit for veterans that support and award scholarships for Physician Assistants in the military. Their website is complex, and they needed some form-based functionalities, so I chose to use Gravity Forms and GravityView!

How did you hear about GravityView?

I found out about GravityView by searching for solutions online. When I realized the kind of functionality that was needed, I did some research—and GravityView came up as a top result on Google!

Why was GravityView your preferred plugin for the job?

GravityView was necessary to be able to display and organize information regarding scholarship applications. Additionally, we needed a voting system, and the ability to only allow specific user roles to view specific information. For example, the committee would need to grade each scholarship entrant, while the chairperson of the committee would need the ability to view and export all the entries.

Veterans Caucus of the American Academy of Physician Assistants

Would you recommend GravityView to other web designers?

I would definitely recommend GravityView to other web designers. I believe it’s a powerful tool that allows you to extend Gravity Forms without needing to write code. 

What did you like most about GravityView and what can we improve?

I liked that I could drag and drop fields to build how I wish the form’s input would look like on a page. There’s nothing I can really say off the top of my head for improving. I think GravityKit has done a good job with documentation that’s helpful even for people less tech-savvy.

Nonprofits, maximize your impact with GravityView!

In this case study, we interviewed Nile Flores about her experience using GravityView to build a scholarship application management system for the AAPA Veterans Caucus. To hear more from Nile, make sure to follow her on Twitter at @nilefloresmedia.

Our flagship Gravity Forms add-on, GravityView, is well-suited to nonprofits looking to develop their online infrastructure while saving on costs. If you’re interested in giving GravityView a try, sign up for a free demo site!