Best Of
Re: Scholarships for Job Skills Retraining for Adults
We are in the process of setting up a scholarship program for current or former foster youth interested in pursuing Career and Technical Education (CTE) at select community colleges. Knowing the path is not as straight and there are likely to be some times when students take time off, we are also trying to figure out how often to open the application for new students. We have a draft application in SLM and scoring guide that is being reviewed and validated by a panel of experts. Send me a message l if you would like to see a draft.
Re: Scholarships for Job Skills Retraining for Adults
We have a scholarship that is for adult learners or non traditional students who are not interested in a four year degree. ($5000) suitable for people wanting to be cosmetologists, truck drivers, dental or medical assistants, technicians, linemen or women, auto mechanics etc. This was a very difficult group to find and I advertised everywhere including posters in stores, reached out to non profits servicing the low income group (still feel I should get someone to apply from this group) the newspaper and I talked to everyone I interacted with outside of the office, with little response.
What I found was that non traditional are found applying to the local trade or community schools. Fortunately this scholarship allows for students attending for-profit colleges e.g. Intellitec and while I find them very expensive, I have come to terms that you must meet this population where they are. I have a relationship with the administration/finance people at these colleges and they recommend people to apply. It took over 2 years for this scholarship to find its people.
If you are wanting people to become plumbers or electricians, that would be a different conversation.
Happy to speak with you further on this matter as I feel this particular population really benefit from any assistance they get.
Deirdre McLoughlin
Re: How has your foundation managed database functions / jobs internally?
Hi there.
My response is from a small Foundation ($18M in assets, 100 funds, 2.5 staff). We moved to CSuite from FIMS in October 2020.
How has your foundation managed internal database work? Are the roles and responsbilities spread out across multiple staff or concentreated within 1 or a few? All 3 staff went through training on CSuite, however, the Finance Director (myself) is considered the in-house "expert" - I managed the conversion, I am tasked with keeping up with updates, attending webinars and sharing them with the other two staff as necessary. I am the go-to for CSuite questions. I lead most the trainings for the Fund Portal. If we identify special projects/clean up work - I am the person who oversees it (and handles most of the actual changes in CSuite). I have a lot of shortcut/cheat sheets I reference and share with other staff as needed.
If concentrated within 1 role, would you be open to sharing that job description? Who does that role report to?
Here is the part of my job description (Finance Director) that describes the database management part: Database Management & Project Support
- Manage the CSuite database including on-going projects and upkeep/updates, and provide internal training
- Develop and make recommendations for the use of the database to capitalize on functions and tools
- Manages lists and is able to conduct queries from the database to pull groups for mailings or reports as needed
- Reviews and posts monthly statements from investment managers and assists in the accurate production of quarterly statements to donors
- Assists other staff in management of team projects or events as needed
Our admin/communications person is tasked with being the "profile" expert and go-to person. I know that area but I try to empower her to own that part of CSuite as much as possible.
Did any new roles appear after transition to new systems?
Standard procedures are very necessary if you have a large staff and several people doing the same things so that things are inputted consistently. Good data in = good data out. CSuite is always willing to assist me with things - however, they only GUIDE, they do not DO anything for us. But they are very helpful as many things I do are one-off so I shouldn't have to know how to do it - just know how to find the resource to figure out how to do it!
You may also have to consider capacity. If you are simply not able to maximize all tools in CSuite due to skills and staffing capacity, you may have to choose to not use certain things. Example - we do not actively use profile types or links quite yet because we could spend a lot of time on it and we don't see the benefit. As we grow, I'm sure our interest and need for additional tools in CSuite will too.
If you want to chat more just to brainstorm what you might need - you can email me directly and we can set up a time to chat! I love database and project management "shop" talk! :)
Mandi molson@winonacf.org
