RandMorgan ✭✭✭

We have been concerned about the divisive nature of society, so we have been using our unrestricted grants specifically for things that build community and bring community together. One of my favorite things is the 7th inning stretch at a professional baseball game. In that brief moment in time, it doesn't matter which…

Calendar year. Much easier all around. Budget prepared in August/Sept/Oct., goes to Board for approval in November.

Yes, still here, and Lauren would be happy to speak with you.

We do ask if the grantee might be willing to accept partial funding and if so, what their priority for funding might be. It has been valuable to know when full funding could not be made and to know what they viewed as the greatest need in their proposal.

We use Engiven https://www.engiven.com/. They are set up for nonprofit donations, accept almost 100 different currencies, fees are reasonable, quick simple process. We, too, have had no crypto donations this year.

@CarolynSiegfried We just signed up for a demo and they assigned an employee to work with us. We are using the "free" version at the moment until we start receiving gifts on a more regular basis. Check them out at https://engiven.com/.

@MinalPatel The only field required when the donor makes a gift is their email address. In this case, we did receive the donor's info because they filled out all the fields that provided us that very helpful information!

Because Engiven converts it to USD, it comes to us as a cash donation. I'm not the expert, but it is my understanding that for the donor, depending on the amount, it could be a little more complicated since the IRS does not consider it a cash donation, rather similar to donating stock. The donor may be required to complete…

We received our first crypto donation in year-end giving. We use Engiven who charges a small fee to convert to USD. Happens within minutes but then takes a couple of days for the banking system to get their act together and is deposited directly into our account. Pretty seamless process.

We do host an annual luncheon. Several years ago we decided to forego bringing in the traditional keynote speaker. We brought in a comedian that first year who tied a nice, neat bow of philanthropy at the end. Attendees loved it. They "got the message" while being entertained. The next year we brought in a husband and wife…

Shouldn't they be called Kara-mels? :o) Thanks. Always look forward to these yummy goodies!

Although our CF has not received donations of digital currency, I have a personal wallet with Coinbase. When I am ready to sell some currency, for a small fee, it is quickly converted to USD and in my bank account within 24 to 48 hours. Very simple process.

We amended our gift acceptance policies about two years ago. Have as yet to receive a digital gift, but wanted to be prepared for them knowing they would be forthcoming at some point. Am attaching our policy if it might help.

Our evaluators receive the training. Among the things we encourage is to not be too strict on grammar, punctuation, and writing talent. In our experience, the best writers are not necessarily the ones with the most need . . . or the most grit.

Nice shot, @JasonKruger ! I have a family of amateur and professional photographers. Always appreciate seeing fine work! And hope your time at Foundant is rewarding. From our observation point, they're a find group of folks.

@jessicascites Great question, Jessica. I asked our Program Officer, Lauren Weber. Her short answer was that it was a somewhat complicated workaround. She suggested giving her a call, and she would be happy to explain what she did. (If it's okay to post phone numbers here, you can reach her at 970.304.9970).

Not a silly question at all. For example, we worked with C-Suite for a couple of years using another grant program before we moved over to their GLM application, and still using another program for scholarships (although we will probably be moving that to Foundant's module within the next year or so).

@jessicascites We use Foundant's GLM for our grant processes and currently still use SmarterSelect for scholarships.

We started this a number of years ago and later learned that it had a name. It started with the realization that our grant applications were too burdensome. Over the years -- with good intentions -- additional questions were added in order to make a "responsible funding decision." Problem was, no questions were ever taken…

My thanks to you all for brightening my day. Thank you for helping me see many, many things things all around us -- large and tiny -- for which we can be grateful. We're certainly surrounded by a fantastic community of colleagues, and we're so much more alike than we are different, no?

Great timing for this topic. I am just now getting back into the office from having lunch with my counterpart of another local funder where this came up. We're both interested in more trust-based philanthropy, coming alongside our nonprofits and making funding simpler and more of a partnership. We just talked about how we…

Leaning ever more toward Trust Based Philanthropy, operational funding

We offer annual Collaboration Grants where two or more nonprofits are working on a program together to address a specific issue. One such grant catalyzed a very successful merger where two organizations were serving the same population. Each organization's weaker areas were the other's strengths. Moving in to share the…

This is a decent meal option. Agreeing with Tom on a lot of his thoughts. The last few years we have been getting away from tedious applications and final reports that basically tell us what we want to hear, and which we really didn't use. We prefer no more information on applications and final reports than that which will…

Really? Wow! :o)

Hi, Laurie. We just re-tooled this scholarship fund and its criteria last year, and I guess it's fair to say that we really don't promote it much. It's basically a catcher's mitt for those who want to do something toward scholarships but don't have enough to meet the minimum required for a scholarship fund. I will attach…

Hi, @MarkBatten. We do have such a fund we call our P.I.E. (Partners In Education) Scholarship Fund where many smaller donors have a piece of the scholarship pie. It catches the kinds of donations you speak of, memorials for loved ones, etc. The criteria is fairly broad, but it accomplishes much of what sounds like you…

This is what we use for all of our staff, board, and committee members. We require that each sign a new conflict of interest form each year. Hope this helps! Best wishes.

We produce a local podcast if you want to listen in for ideas on how we use ours. It can be found at http://weldfound.podbean.com/. Probably helpful to start at Season 1 Episode 1 (or 2) to get an idea of what our purpose is. Let us know what you think. Rand E. Morgan Weld Community Foundation