Best Of
Re: West Coast Clients Represent!
Hello Fellow West-Coasters and WELCOME to Foundant! You'll find a ton of discussions here in Compass on every topic you could want. If you don't see it, you can create it.
To connect specifically with your pacific time zone colleagues, this is a great place to start.
![[Deleted User]](https://wa.vanillicon.com/v2/a9bca99ef8bf9bbc51dde0d0fb64c068.svg)
Re: West Coast Clients Represent!
Hello Left Coasters! Hope everyone is staying healthy and safe! I am in LA working at Dan Murphy Foundation. Looking forward to the discussion here in Compass!
Cathy Heutmaker
Grants Administrator
Danmurphyfoundation.org
Community Indicator Reports
Hi all!
I received lots of good help and feedback on my last post, so I thought I'd post again.
We are looking in to conducting a community indicator report/needs assessment for our region. I know a lot of other foundations have engaged in this area, so I would love to hear any thoughts on best practices!
Any information on logistics, obstacles, or outcomes would be very helpful. I am curious if other organizations are doing their own reports or contracting with outside firms?
I appreciate your help! Thank you!
Eliana
Re: Community Indicator Reports
Hi Eliana,
During the pandemic The Pasadena Community Foundation (PCF) conducted a survey of nonprofits and asked a specific question about perceived needs in the community. It was a very useful data point at the time. We combined survey responses with in-depth interviews of community leaders to inform our grant priorities. I am interested in this thread and can provide our survey and interview questions if you would like. Kate
Re: How do you stay connected with your Board of Directors and committees?
Hi @KateClavijo! Mikayla's questions are some that were discussed during last week's Coffee Talk. We're using this space in Compass to keep that conversation going! We'd love to hear your experience on any one of these topics if you're willing to share, and hopefully others will chime in as well.
Kara
Community Manager
Re: Incentivizing Fund Adviser Portal Use?
Triangle Community Foundation continues to increase the % of fund advisors that have successfully logged into the donor portal by uplifting additional functionality that is offered online. At first, we did this by emphasizing its ease of use and accurate grants processing, then we released fund statements online (prior to CSuite we printed them and it took a while for donors to receive them) and emphasized the annual spendable allocation data available in the donor portal when we did that calculation. We haven't offered any prizes but generally continued to emphasize that it works better, reduces errors, and speeds up the grants processing time. We've tracked our donor's engagement with the portal by exporting the fund advisor CSV and analyzing which fund advisors have a password (or not).
Nov. 2020 - 47.3% of donors logged in
July 2021 - 64.9% of donors logged in
Nov. 2021- 68% of donors logged in
Feb. 2022 - 70% of donors logged in
We believe the barriers to using the portal include the donor's age and technology literacy, which includes tech issues that we are not prepared to troubleshoot such as settings on personal computers related to passwords.
Here are our materials for our donors to answer questions about using the portal: https://trianglecf.org/individuals-families/manage-your-fund/
Here is how we publicized the donor portal during our migration: https://trianglecf.org/individuals-families/manage-your-fund/new-donor-portal/
Re: Scholarships for Job Skills Retraining for Adults
We offer a nontraditional scholarship that is open each year until the funds are depleted. It is a restricted process in SLM. Students reach out to our education officer to explain their needs and if she thinks they fit, she provides the code. These awards can be used for certifications, full university tuition, or anything in between. We have several funds that are specifically for nontraditional students and we use one application, that is light on questions and heavy on interviews, to determine which scholarship is appropriate for the student. We work hand-in-hand with a nonprofit in our county that specializes in helping this population navigate higher education. They do the follow-up work to be sure the student has the tools they need to complete their training or degree.
