Case Study: NFL Foundation

Purpose-Built Solutions Power the NFL’s Mission to Support Athletes, Youth, and Local Communities

Opportunity: Overcoming Manual Processes to Support Growing Community Programs

The NFL Foundation is the National Football League’s nonprofit organization, focused on strengthening communities and supporting athletes’ well-being at every level. Working alongside the league’s 32 clubs, the Foundation funds programs that expand access to youth football, improve playing facilities, promote player health and safety, and support community initiatives. Through grants and partnerships, it extends football’s impact beyond the field, creating opportunities for young people and helping communities across the country thrive.

The NFL Foundation needed a better way to manage grant applications, reviews, approvals, financial processing, and reporting. Its paper-based process required staff to handle submissions manually at multiple stages. They sought a custom nonprofit solution to centralize grant management, support multiple grant programs, and streamline operations.

Solution: Custom Software Connects NFL Foundation’s Grant Management, Education, and Youth Sports

For the NFL Foundation, strengthening communities takes more than awarding grants. It requires reviewing applications, equipping coaches with education, and helping youth sports programs run effectively. When its partnership with Orases began, the Foundation relied on paper applications, manual reviews, and staff coordination to maintain records and move approvals forward. As its grant programs expanded, those processes became increasingly difficult to sustain. The Foundation needed a digital foundation that could support both its growing funding commitments and the work required to turn those investments into community programs.

Working with Orases, the Foundation modernized grant administration through a centralized application management system, integration with the NFL’s financial infrastructure, and learning management capabilities that supported applicant education. The partnership also extended to related NFL initiatives, with platforms for youth league administration and nationwide competitions. Together, these systems supported the full path from funding and education to program delivery, giving staff and organizers the tools to manage their responsibilities and create opportunities for young athletes.

Grant Application Management System for the Full Grant Lifecycle

The NFL Foundation needed more than a digital application form. It needed a structured way to manage multiple grant programs, each with its own requirements, reviewers, and approval processes. The Grant Application Management System (GAMS) grew out of the original NFL Charities website. First developed in 2008, it has evolved through five major iterations and now supports approximately a dozen grant programs.

Orases developed GAMS as a centralized grant management software platform spanning application submission, review, approval, legal documentation, financial processing, and reporting. Role-based access gives applicants, administrators, and reviewers the tools they need to do their jobs. For the Foundation, this established a digital foundation for managing grant operations as its programs and needs changed.

Grant Application Workflow Automation That Keeps Funding Moving

Moving a grant application from submission to funding requires coordinated reviews, documented approvals, and clear communication. Each handoff creates an opportunity for delays when staff must manually track progress, follow up on outstanding tasks, or clarify an applicant’s status.

GAMS connects these steps in a shared workflow, allowing Foundation staff to organize submissions, route applications through multiple review levels, and communicate decisions. Automated notifications and status indicators make next steps clear, helping reviewers act and applicants stay informed. By bringing legal documentation, finance, check processing, and configurable reporting into the same platform, GAMS gives staff visibility across the grant lifecycle and reduces the manual coordination needed to move funding forward.

Oracle ERP Integration: Connecting Applications and Financial Operations

Grant administration requires accurate financial records, but applicants shouldn’t have to enter the same information across multiple systems. By integrating GAMS with the NFL’s financial infrastructure, the Foundation connected applicant registration directly to its financial operations. GAMS automatically created an Oracle profile from submitted information, eliminating a separate registration step and reducing duplicate data entry.

Originally built for PeopleSoft and later adapted for Oracle, the integration maintained that connection as the NFL’s enterprise technology evolved. This ERP integration simplified the applicant experience while ensuring the financial systems behind grant administration received the registration information they needed.

Learning Management System Integration Supporting Grant Readiness

The Foundation’s grant process required more than a completed application. Applicants also needed to meet educational requirements, and staff needed a reliable way to verify completion before moving applications forward. To support that process, Orases developed a Learning Management System that delivered training through the Foundation’s existing website. Built as a separate platform from GAMS, the LMS gave applicants online access to the education required for grant consideration.

Applicants could complete the Coach Smart safety course and take an assessment, while NFL staff could review scores to verify completion before advancing applications for review or funding. By making training accessible and completion verifiable, the LMS helped the Foundation connect grant eligibility with applicant preparation, extending its digital capabilities beyond application management to support safety education.

Online Training and Assessment Management

The LMS put NFL staff in control of training content and assessment standards. Staff could manage course materials, maintain question pools, and set passing requirements, with quizzes generated from selected questions. This reduced manual assessment preparation while ensuring the NFL retained oversight of what participants learned and how their knowledge was evaluated.

Built to integrate with the existing website or operate independently, the platform gave the NFL flexibility in delivering required training. Its eLearning portal capabilities also supported coach and official certifications within the NFL Flag Football platform, extending its role beyond grant-related education.

NFL Flag Football

One initiative, NFL Flag, is a nationwide youth flag football program that introduces children to the game through non-contact play. Wearing NFL team-branded jerseys, young athletes learn football fundamentals, build confidence, and develop teamwork and sportsmanship while staying active. Local leagues bring the experience to communities nationwide, giving kids an accessible way to learn, compete, and enjoy the game.

League Management Software Centralizes Operations

Bringing youth football to communities required more than funding and education. League organizers needed custom sports software to build teams, register players, and manage the requirements of running a program. For NFL Flag Football, Orases developed the Governing Body League Management System (GBLMS), bringing league creation, team administration, player registration, and certification activities into one coordinated platform.

Commissioners could establish leagues and assign coaches, players could register for teams, and coaches and officials could complete required certifications through the LMS. NFL employees could oversee program activities and provide visibility across participating leagues. Together, these capabilities gave local organizers the tools to manage their programs and helped the NFL support youth football at the community level.

Player Registration, Coach Certification, and Team Communications

Keeping a youth football league running means keeping commissioners, coaches, players, and families informed. GBLMS streamlined that coordination through automated team notifications and tools for sharing practice schedules, helping organizers manage day-to-day communication. The platform also met NFL requirements for security, protecting young participants’ information, and processing payments, including COPPA and PCI requirements.

NFL Punt, Pass & Kick

Another program, NFL Punt, Pass & Kick (PPK), is a nationwide youth football competition that lets boys and girls test their punting, passing, and kicking skills in a fun, non-contact setting. Established in 1961, the program introduced generations of young athletes to football, encouraging skill development, friendly competition, and sportsmanship through events in communities across the country.

Competition Management Software Supports Nationwide Participation

Running Punt, Pass & Kick across multiple locations required coordination between local competition hosts and NFL staff overseeing the broader program. Organizers needed to register participants, manage events, and record results, while administrators needed visibility across competitions. Orases developed a Competition Management System that brought season setup, registration, results tracking, and communications into one platform.

Designated access levels gave competition hosts, coordinators, and NFL administrators the tools to manage their respective responsibilities. By connecting local event administration with program oversight, the system helped organizers keep competition information organized and coordinate the work required to deliver events across participating locations.

Event Registration Portals Connect Families With Local Competitions

A dedicated public-facing website gave families and prospective hosts a clear path to participate in Punt, Pass & Kick. Visitors could search for competitions by location or ZIP code, create secure profiles, register participants, and apply to host an event, all in one accessible experience.

Behind the scenes, the administrative platform maintained participant and host information and supported competition coordination. Together, the website and management system connected registration with event administration, helping families find opportunities while giving organizers the information needed to deliver them.

Results: Integrated Solutions Reduce Administrative Work and Scale the NFL Foundation’s Impact

The NFL Foundation streamlined grant administration, reduced the number of staff needed to process grants, and made day-to-day work easier. Integrating with its enterprise accounting system connected grant management to financial operations, while improved coordination between applicants and staff supported a smoother application process. Positive feedback from grantee surveys reinforced the value of those improvements.

Those results were built on a partnership grounded in understanding the Foundation’s mission and operational challenges. Dedicated project managers, frequent communication, and responsive execution helped the Foundation introduce new capabilities and address evolving needs. The result was more than a modernized application management system. It was a stronger operational foundation for managing grants and supporting the communities those programs serve.