GEMS: Grant Evaluation & Management System

Mosaic’s flagship product is a Grant Evaluation and Management Solution called GEMS. This software enables social programs to track clients, services, and outcomes for self-evaluation and to share this data with funding staff and evaluators. Funders use GEMS to manage administrative and fiscal information about their programs to meet contractual obligations, do evaluation, and determine impacts. In short, GEMS enables programs to answer, “Is this working?” and “What should we change?”

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"At Mosaic, our goal is to make software that fits your environment. This way you get results without having to change how you work."
- Joe Turner, Ph.D.

Meet the team.

The GEMS grant evaluation and management system is the most advanced data system for outcomes-based, program evaluation and administration available. By combining data from across multiple programs, GEMS allows communities to answer a variety of questions about the social services they are providing, including:

• What services are we providing?
• How severe are the issues?
• Who have we helped?
• What outcomes have been achieved?
• How much does it cost?
• What is having the most impact?
• What have we done and what should we change?

At its most basic, GEMS is a comprehensive, web-based software system used to track, manage, and analyze complex funding and data collection efforts. Designed specifically for community-based programs, GEMS is simple to use and requires very little training. Yet it is extremely powerful, collecting data from hundreds of different programs and integrating it into meaningful reports within an instant.

Coming from an evaluation background, the Mosaic team knows evaluation plans change frequently and must benefit multiple audiences. GEMS has been designed to enable unparalleled flexibility, customization, and ease-of-use. GEMS can seamlessly adapt to changes ranging from shifts in strategic plans, to changes in evaluation design, and maturing of program evaluation needs. GEMS can even be customized for each specific user and the way they work.

Information collection in GEMS

GEMS improves data collection and management with:

• Increased precision: data entry validations, linked databases, and pre-defined report templates result in better data entry, tracking, management, and transfer requirements.
• Connection to other databases: to avoid duplicate data entry, GEMS can be integrated with existing data systems, often called "legacy systems."
• Maximized flexibility: GEMS allows Commission staff to easily customize service and outcomes definitions for programs.
• Confidentiality with unique identifiers: GEMS incorporates data procedures that allow programs to maintain local control of their data, thus allowing input of confidential identifiers like names and addresses, while protecting this data from transfer to the server.

Information retrieval through GEMS

GEMS reduces the time and energy needed to create, interpret and report data for multiple audiences (e.g., state, community, families, media) by:

• Tracking key data: GEMS collects key information such as countywide indicators and produces reports on these data.
• Automating time consuming tasks: Commission staff members produce reports from programs data by the simple click of a button.
• Tracking key outcomes: GEMS produces data documenting the actual impact of program services.
• Answering key questions: GEMS produces customized reports that address evaluation questions at the local and state level. This data can then be used to address future needs for initiatives and guide the funding decision-making process.