Compass is a resource for anyone who works in or supports the philanthropic sector. Invite a friend or colleague to join the conversation, and add the Referral Badge to your profile!
Best Of
Reverse Scholarships
Good morning,
I am interested in starting a reverse scholarship program in our area. Reverse scholarships allow graduates to receive assistance with student loan debt.
Do any of you manage a program like this? If so, I have a few questions:
Did you get a legal opinion before starting the program?
Are you issuing 1099's?
Were donors receptive to the program?
Thank you!
Re: Fund Advisor Portal - What are your thoughts on the label "Available Cash" for Non Endowed Funds
Much better! Thanks, Holly!
Re: Fund Advisor Portal - What are your thoughts on the label "Available Cash" for Non Endowed Funds
Hi Holly - Available to Grant makes more sense to us. Thanks for asking!
Meghan
Re: Fund Advisor Portal - What are your thoughts on the label "Available Cash" for Non Endowed Funds
Yes please to updating this language! Thanks, @HollySpitz. We do not feel comfortable using the term "cash" with our donors as it's inaccurate. Available to Grant is much better.
Thanks!
Angela Farnquist
Fund Advisor Portal - What are your thoughts on the label "Available Cash" for Non Endowed Funds
Hi all,
On the Fund Advisor Portal, we are contemplating changing the label "Available Cash" when the show available cash option is enabled on a fund record. Does anyone have thoughts on this area? Would "Available to Grant" be a better option?
Unlike the tabs in the portal, this is a hard coded field and would need to be the same for all sites.
Please let me know your thoughts!
Holly Spitz
HollySpitz
Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
Good afternoon!
I am in the process of trying to define financial need for our scholarship program. I would like to target students that will not receive a Pell grant or any institutional aid. This is part of the formula I came up with "EFC greater than or equal to 6495 and less than 20000".
I am trying to target students that may incur a large amount of student loan debt.
Do any of you have thoughts on the EFC part of my formula?
Thank you!
Robin Cowles
Fremont Area Community Foundation, MI
Re: Program Officer vs Senior Program Officer?
Council on Foundations has some helpful guidance around the definition of Program Officer in their Glossary of Philanthropic Terms.
PROGRAM OFFICER:
Also referred to as a corporate affairs officer, program associate, public affairs officer, or community affairs officer, a program officer is a staff member of a foundation or corporate giving program who may do some or all of the following: recommend policy, review grant requests, manage the budget and process applications for the board of directors or contributions committee.
There is also a sample job description available for members on their site.
Best, Katie
Re: Pursuing Federal Grants
I will be answering questions from the training last week. Here is the first one. 1) It always seems to me that federal grants offer large grants to a small number of recipients. The odds of winning a federal grant seem to be very slim.
Answer:
1) Yes, the odds of winning a federal grant is slim. There are many people who write federal grants who are not every fully following the directions so program officers say that 1/3 of the grants submitted aren't really competitive.
2) But the more you write, the more likely you are to be funded. Success really does breed success. This is one of the reasons that you seems the same names over and over again. Once you figure out how to write them, you are more likely to write lots of them.
Re: Best Practices for using ACHs
We have been doing grant payments via ACH since last May 2020. We process approximately 200 payments in bulk twice a year so our system is pretty straight forward. We utilize DocuSign to obtain banking information (post board approval) which is ultimately pulled out and transferred to our online banking portal. There is no manual entry on our end. We find that most grantees respond quickly (within 5 days) and after a gentle nudge, all but a couple (out of 180 payments) have everything in a few days after. Those payments are delayed as to not hold up everyone elses. Email reminders and strong language are helpful. :) I utilize the bulk functionality of DocuSign and our banking portal to do the heavy lifting; which in many foundation's cases, bulk isn't possible as payments are on going. Happy to discuss further if someone is interested in learning more about our process and happy to share documents.
