Driving Transparency Through Real-Time Grants Access
The Melanoma Research Alliance (MRA) is the largest nonprofit funder of melanoma research, committed to accelerating scientific breakthroughs through global grantmaking. With over $131 million awarded to date, MRA plays a pivotal role in the scientific community’s understanding of melanoma prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
As part of a broader digital modernization effort, MRA aimed to make its portfolio of funded research projects more accessible and up-to-date for researchers, donors, and the public. Fíonta partnered with MRA to replace its outdated batch-sync grants display with a real-time Salesforce integration, fully embedded into the organization’s redesigned Webflow website. The result is a dynamic, user-friendly resource reinforcing MRA’s commitment to transparency and impact.
Following the launch of its new website, MRA needed a more modern and accurate way to showcase its research grants. The existing overnight sync between Salesforce and the public website created lags that limited visibility into current funding activity. Users also struggled with a lack of advanced filtering and an interface that no longer reflected MRA’s updated brand.
The overnight refresh process created discrepancies between what was in Salesforce and what appeared online, limiting transparency and responsiveness.
Researchers had difficulty locating grants of interest due to limited filter options and no keyword search across grant descriptions, institutions, or investigators.
The legacy grants display did not align with the new Webflow design, creating a fragmented user experience and reducing overall engagement.
Fíonta collaborated closely with MRA to replace the legacy grants display with a custom, real-time integration built using Salesforce Lightning Web Components and Lightning Out. The approach emphasized visual consistency, data accuracy, and usability, ensuring the new experience was technically sound and intuitive for users.
Implemented Lightning Out to embed a custom Lightning Web Component directly into the Webflow site, which eliminated the batch process and allowed newly awarded or updated grants to appear immediately on the website.
Updated the existing Salesforce component to match Webflow’s design system. This included restyling layouts, fonts, and interactions to ensure a unified visual experience.
Introduced client-side filtering by grant type, year, institution, country, state, investigator, and keyword. Also added a CSV export option to support grant reviewers and internal reporting needs.
Guided MRA through a validation phase that included internal testing, stakeholder walkthroughs, and post-feedback adjustments to ensure a successful launch.
With the new grants database live, MRA delivers an accurate, searchable, and visually consistent view of its research investments. Internal teams no longer manage manual updates or worry about data mismatches. Researchers, funders, and the general public can easily and confidently explore MRA’s global grantmaking activity.
- 100% real-time data display, synced directly from Salesforce
- 65% faster search experience, thanks to robust filtering tools
- Improved engagement, with users spending more time exploring grants
- Strengthened brand presence, with design alignment across the site
Steering all project facets like budget, schedule, scope, and risk management while collaborating with technical leads on risk handling, our project managers serve as the primary liaison with clients, offering frequent updates on project progress.
Salesforce developers specialize in crafting and tailoring applications beyond what is available out-of-the-box using Salesforce-specific tools like Apex, Visualforce, and the Lightning Component Framework, and integrating with various systems through Salesforce APIs.
Leading project solution implementation and coordinating technical processes, our technical leads manage the design, build, internal QA, user acceptance testing, and deployment activities, thus ensuring timely, quality deliverables. Sometimes doubling as solution architects, they work closely with project managers to manage risks and serve as primary client contacts.
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