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Corporate/Employee Scholarships
Our team is working with a donor to establish a scholarship program for his employees. This is new to our foundation, and we want to ensure we set it up correctly. Is anyone willing to share their agreement language, criteria, scholarship committee makeup, process for working with HR to make sure you are meeting the…
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What's the best lesson you learned this year?
I don't know about you, but I can hardly believe 2022 is coming to an end. I always view the New Year as a time to reflect and set new goals. As I look back, I am reflecting on the lessons learned last year and how I might use those to help me become my best self in 2023. Lesson 1: Quality means much more to me than…
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What nonprofit applicants wish funders knew. Input for panel discussion with funders
Hi Everyone, Foundant is planning a panel discussion featuring experienced grantseekers (@LauraCochran, @StephanyHessler, and more!) talking about what makes grant application processes harder (and easier)! The audience will consist of funders who are looking to improve their grant processes and strengthen their…
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Spending Policy
Hi everyone, We are exploring options to offer underwater spending (eroding their principal balance) for our endowment funds. I was wondering if anyone has spending policy you are willing to share. There seems to be different limits on what percentage of their principal can be eroded etc. Thank you, Emma
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CSuite Promises (Recurring)
We've set up promises/commitments that have end dates, but is there any way in CSuite to set up an open ended promise for a set yearly amount? It would be really nice to have it so that we don't have to manually track an amount that the donor wants us to bill them for each year? Or are there other options that I'm not…
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Conflict of Interest - Board Members awarding grants other Non-Profits where they serve on a Board
Our auditors are asking us to compile a list of grants made by Board members (via their DAF or Designated Funds) to other non-profits where they sit on the Board. Has anyone done this and if so, how do you go about generating a report out of CSuite? Thanks.
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Board Member/Trustee Benefits
Hello! I want to make a benchmark comparison regarding Board Member/Trustee benefits. Our Foundation currently offers our Trustees $25,000 annual designations to any nonprofit organization of their choice. One of the Trustees has recently asked for an increase, and I'm curious what other Foundations do in terms of…
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Help Compass reach 4,000 members by the end of 2022!
We have 99 to go! Invite your colleagues, board members, and the volunteers in your community to join our community for philanthropy. Compass if for anyone supporting philanthropy! Ask them to mention your name as their “Reason for Joining” when they register so you can earn the Referral Rockstar badge, which is worth 30…
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Help Compass reach 4,000 members by the end of the year!
We have 99 to go! Invite your colleagues, friends, board members, and volunteers to join our community for philanthropy. They can be Foundant customers, or maybe they've never heard of Foundant and want to exchange best practices....Compass if for anyone supporting philanthropy! Ask them to mention your name as their…
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Outcomes
We are reevaluating how we collect anticipated outcomes in competitive grant applications. We currently just ask for them to be listed in a textbox, but notice many nonprofits struggle with this portion of the application. How does your organization collect anticipated outcomes in grant applications and what guidance do…
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Performance Measures, Grant Application and Follow-up Report Forms
Hello, I am new to Foundant and I am interested in learning how other foundations structure their application and final report questions pertaining to results/performance measures to facilitate ease of grant monitoring and evaluation. I am wondering how best to structure application questions and final report follow up…
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Impact reporting for donors
I am looking for examples of grant impact reporting to donors that contribute to area-of-interest funds. (not Fund Advisors.) We treat these donors like "shareholders" of the Funds to which they contribute and want to be able to present simple reports that help these donors know what impact they are having in our community…
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Hello from the Foundant Side!
Good morning everyone! My name is Marianne Plath and I'm a new Client Success Consultant here at Foundant Technologies. Prior to this role I spent many years working in the Finance Department at the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois and became very interested in the software side of the equation during a migration…
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Too much cuteness!
We lost our princess Lily this summer and our home has been very quiet without her very vocal presence--our other 2 Dachshunds have become quite deaf and are very quiet. We decided we needed a third little sausage. We intended to get an older dog, but through a series of events, we ended up with a puppy! She is a silky…
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Have you made any changes to your grant process(es) to make it easier for applicants?
Foundant facilitated a panel of grantseekers to hear what they 'wish funders knew'. Lots of great ideas for improvement. Have you made any changes based on this or other feedback you've received from your applicants / grantees? Please share. Access to the recorded webinar:
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Howdy from Bellingham WA!
My name is Mike Anker, and I just started at Foundant as a Client Support Intern! I am living in Bellingham, WA and am a Senior at Western Washington University studying Information Systems. I love snowboarding, motorcycles, and weightlifting. I heard about this position through @RioWofford and I am excited to get to know…
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Guidestar and Secretary of State corporation status not matching up
As part of our grant eligibility screen, I run the guidestar charity check before I move applications forward for review. Most all of the applicants checked out on Guidestar as "verified" but when I started building our grant agreements and sent them to our legal counsel for signature, legal counsel found two organizations…
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Congratulations to the November Top 10!!
Congrats to @CarolReynolds, @JesikaEllis, @MarshaStrauss, @JulieKlipp, @EmilyWilson, @MickeyBlymier, @PaulMaguire, @LisaDiehl , @JenniferSheahan, and @VanessaDoty!!! As a thank you for your contributions to our Compass community this past month, you will be entered into a random drawing for a surprise. The winner will be…
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Do you have a grant administrator to handle project management (financial & compliance)?
Looking for a job description I can tweak. We will be expanding our grants team of 2 grant writers and adding a grant administrator. Also would love to hear what your experience has been having someone in this role.
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Using Google translate
We have a large Spanish-speaking population of students, but our organization doesn't have the resources to have our entire scholarship application translated for this year's application cycle. We're thinking of promoting the Google translate feature to help reduce barriers for these students. Has anyone used Google…
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New Customer Service Intern
Hello everyone! My name is Hailey Wirtalla, and I am excited to be joining the team as a new Client Services Intern. I had the lovely privilege of meeting Jade during the career fair at the Jabs Business School here in Bozeman, MT. I look forward to being a part of such a well-versed and customer driven company. I have a…
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Third party payment processor
Hello! Does anyone use a 3rd party to process large amounts of payments for international scholarship recipients? We're looking to move the payment process for one of our larger scholarships from in house to an outsourced party. Any insight would be great!
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Allocation of investment earnings for large intra-month donation
We receive monthly statements from our investment custodian with the monthly earnings/losses/etc. that are then put into CSuite to be allocated to our various funds. CSuite calculates the average daily balance of the fund and then assigns that fund a percentage of that month’s investment activity. Hypothetically, if a fund…
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Who (platform) have you used to do a "text to donate" at your event/gala?
We're looking to keep things sweet and simple with this year's gala "ask" and would like to go the route of "text to donate." What platform have you used? How did it integrate with Stripe?
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Dispelling 5 Common Fundraising Myths (and webinar recording)
What have you found to be fact or fiction when it comes to fundraising? Watch the webinar, and share below!
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How/where to find and connect with new prospective major donors
Hello! My organization is relatively young (not yet 10 years) and we're just establishing a major gifts program. We want to connect with prospective HNW donors, especially in the NYC area, but struggling to figure out how to find them and land meetings. Any ideas, tips, tricks? Groups to join, events to attend, etc? Thanks!
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Joining the Foundant Team
Hello! My name is Gretta Kraus and I have recently joined Foundant as the Compass Intern. I am currently going into my senior year of college in La Crosse, WI at the local university. I have a double major in psychology and Spanish and a double minor in sociology and social justice. I am also a philanthropy fellow at the…
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Your New Foundant Friend
Hey everyone! My name is Shaheer and I am one of the new Client Services Intern here at Foundant Technologies. I became interested in working for Foundant after I learned that Foundant is providing its services to philanthropic partners and therefore helping various communities. I was born in Florida, but grew up in…
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Do You Have a (Caramel) Sweet Tooth?
Do you want to earn a box of Bozeman-made Bequet caramels??? All you have to do is post 25 responses to discussions or answers to questions! This is a LIMITED TIME badge to be earned in Compass! So far, 30 members have earned this badge!…
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Annual Nonprofit Endowment Fund Distributions
Each year at the start of Fall we calculate and process annual distributions from our nonprofit agency endowment funds. In the past we would simply cut a check for every endowment and if the nonprofit wanted to reinvest the distribution back into their endowment fund they would either send the check back, or they would…
