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• 3 Schools, 1 Grants SystemGrants for three schools and multiple grant collaborators, all in one place.
• Reconnected with Past FundersFoundations that last gave to Lyon about a decade ago, surfaced in Funder Intelligence and are being cultivated again.
• Grant Overview for Advancement LeadershipGrant activity for the VP of Advancement, the President, and the College at large.

About

Founded in 1872, Lyon College is the oldest independent college in Arkansas - a private liberal arts institution recognized by U.S. News, the Princeton Review, and Washington Monthly. Lyon is growing, enrollment is climbing, and for the first time in its history, the College has expanded beyond its original campus into professional education. They now have a School of Dental Medicine in Little Rock and a School of Veterinary Medicine, currently under construction in Cabot, which will welcome its first class in 2027, pending accreditation.

Grant funding helps support that growth and the programs already active, and Lyon College manages its grant work in Grant Frog. Grants are part of the College’s institutional advancement team, which raises the philanthropic and grant funding behind Lyon’s programs.

Grants Specialist Mirranda Sprayberry manages the grants program, alongside the VP of Advancement and staff at each school: identifying federal and private funding opportunities, supporting proposal development and submission, coordinating internal approvals, and handling post-award tracking, compliance, and reporting. A significant part of her work has been developing a more centralized, consistent grant process across the institution.

Overview

Lyon’s three schools each run their own programs, with their own funding needs and their own timelines. Grant activity had historically been managed across different areas of the College.

When Mirranda stepped into the role, one of her first priorities was creating greater consistency and visibility around grant activity institution-wide - a single place for all grant opportunities, deadlines, tasks, funder information, proposals, awards, and compliance and reporting requirements, rather than information living in several different places.

“My position is the central point for grants across the institution. With three schools in different locations, and approvals, and needs, Grant Frog has allowed me to centralize where all that information is housed - to manage deadlines, and the needs, and who’s involved with those specific grants.”

Mirranda Sprayberry, Grants Specialist, Lyon College

She needed a platform that could support both grant research and grant management without adding complexity to an already complex operation. She partnered with Grant Frog, grants management software for colleges and universities, to bring funder research, proposals, deadlines, team collaboration, and reporting together in one system built for a grants program that reaches every campus.

Challenge

Lyon College opened a School of Dental Medicine and will soon be opening a School of Veterinary Medicine, and the grants program needed to be ready for all three schools at once. The established campus in Batesville was still running the programs grant funding had always supported, and none of that could slow down while two new schools began.

Each school has its own programs, funding needs, and campus. Mirranda came into the role with a clear picture of what a coordinated institutional grants process should look like, and she needed a grants system built for it.

“Grant activity had historically been managed across different areas of the College. With different programs, locations, and funding needs, I needed a central place to track opportunities, deadlines, tasks, funder information, proposals, awards, and reporting requirements, rather than relying on information housed in different places.”

Mirranda Sprayberry, Grants Specialist, Lyon College

That system had to cover everything her role spans: identifying funding opportunities, proposal development and submission, internal approvals, and post-award tracking and reporting. It had to handle both grant research and grant management, and be simple enough to use across three campuses. And with two of those schools writing their first proposals, what she set up now would shape how they approach grant funding for years.

What they needed:

• One place to track grant activity across the College — Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, and the new Veterinary Medicine school each needed their grant opportunities, proposals, deadlines, and awards tracked the same way and visible in one place.
• Grant activity reporting for the President and VP of Advancement — Mirranda needed to report grant activity to leadership and provide an institution-wide view of grants.
• Prospect for new funders and grant opportunities - Find potential new funders who could support the institution.
• A way to find and reconnect with funders who had supported Lyon before — Past grant funders were scattered through years of decentralized records. The team wanted to find those relationships again and pick them back up.
• The same institutional language in every proposal — With Dental Medicine and Veterinary Medicine writing their first proposals, Mirranda wanted the institutional narrative and facts consistent from the start.
• Shared access for grant writers at each school — Everyone working on grants needed to see the grants and organizational grants language.

Solution — Grant Frog, Grants Management Software for Higher Education

Grant Frog gave Lyon College a system to build the grants program around. Mirranda is able to manage Lyon's grant lifecycle and process so that grant activity for every school is tracked consistently in one place and is visible to the team.

• Grant Frog is becoming Lyon's central grant system for grant activity - Grant opportunities, proposals, deadlines, awards, and reporting requirements are being centralized in Grant Frog, tagged by school and program. Anyone on the team can look up which grants and grant reports are due for any school, and Mirranda has the institution-wide view her role depends on.
• Past funders reconnected through Funder Intelligence - Prospecting by subject area and specific funding interest surfaced foundations that had given to Lyon before, some as far back as a decade. The team confirmed the history against the College’s records, is rebuilding those relationships, and they are pursuing new grant opportunities with them.
• Grants activity reporting for leadership - The VP of Advancement and the President can get a current picture of grant activity across all three schools, and the team pulls it in minutes rather than building it by hand.
• Institutional messaging in one Content Library - Reusable narratives and institutional facts live in one place, so a grant writer at the dental or veterinary school works from the same core message as everyone else. It saves time on every proposal, and a submission from Dental Medicine and one from Liberal Arts use the same institutional language while still speaking to each school’s programs.

For a College growing into three schools at once, Grant Frog gave Mirranda a foundation to build the grants program on and one she’s continuing to build out school by school.

“With three schools in different locations, a grant writer working on a proposal may not know the core institutional message we’re sending out on grant applications. Having that available has not only saved time, but helps ensure consistency throughout our grant submissions.”

Mirranda Sprayberry, Grants Specialist, Lyon College

Why Lyon College Recommends Grant Frog for Higher Education

Lyon College is building a more centralized grant management process through Grant Frog: funding opportunities, proposals, deadlines, awards, and compliance and reporting requirements tracked the same way for each location. Foundations that supported the College years ago are back in the grants pipeline, leadership can see grant activity whenever they ask for it, and every proposal uses the same institutional message.

Mirranda has aligned the grants program with the College’s strategic initiatives, so the grant funding the team pursues supports where Lyon is going.

Mirranda chose Grant Frog for several reasons: it lets her actively manage Lyon's grants program across three schools, the customer support team is responsive and friendly, and the platform is built around what grant professionals truly need.

“Grant Frog is practical and easy to use, which is especially important when supporting grant activity across three schools in three locations with very different programs and funding needs. It gives me a clearer picture of where things stand and helps me stay organized as we continue strengthening our institutional grant process.

Beyond the platform itself, I genuinely appreciate the responsiveness of the team. Whenever I have had a question, I have received quick and helpful support. I also appreciate seeing the platform continue to evolve based on the needs of grant professionals. That combination of a useful platform, continued development, and personal support has been incredibly valuable to me.”

Mirranda Sprayberry, Grants Specialist, Lyon College