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Scholarship Criteria
Good morning, We are in the process of reviewing scholarship fund agreements. We have several scholarships that list criteria like high moral character, worthy citizen, constructive attitude, potential for future success, etc. Our scholarship process is blind (student names are redacted from the application) and we have a…
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Ranked Choice Scholarship Scoring
Our organization utilizes a ranked scoring system for our Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program, and we are struggling to translate that system effectively into the evaluation tools in SLM. For this process, our evaluators are evaluating a pool of 10 finalists (one representing each eligible high school in the…
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Gender versus Pronouns??
Good afternoon!! I am new to the Foundant/Compass Community, and am looking forward to getting some great feedback!! Reviewing our scholarship application and wondering if everyone is using the term Gender on their applications or using Pronouns instead? What is best practice? Thank you so much! Kasey
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"Chosen Name" or "Preferred Name" field for scholarship applicants?
Hello! My organization is considering adding a "chosen name" or "preferred name" field to our scholarship applications after we discovered the need for such a field during our recent scholarship cycle. Do other organizations use a field like this in their applications? If so, could you please share the language that you…
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Funding for religious organizations
I am interested in gathering sample language about foundation support for religious organizations. Our guidelines currently indicate that we will not make grants to organizations that engage in proselytizing as part of their mission or programs, but we feel that we need better clarification on that. I would appreciate any…
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Bridging the gap - Grants and vouchers having special handling instructions
We are having a disconnect where a donor has asked to have a grant check sent to them rather than to the nonprofit (they want to present the check or include a note with the check before mailing it to the nonprofit) or sent to a 3rd party address for processing (for example, the donor has requested we send the check to the…
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GED & Gap Year Questions in SLM Application
Hi all. Just winding up our first year using SLM. Looking back we need to do a better job building the application to represent GED and/or gap year/not currently enrolled students. Curious what info. others gather and how they ask. Thanks in advance for any input.
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3rd Party Grant Management Fee
One of our partners (the city where we are located) has asked us about managing one of their grant programs. Now that we have GLM (just went live last month) this is a much easier concept and I’m wondering if anyone has any experience doing that in their city? Does anyone have experience in charging a fee for service, by…
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Shameless request for Compass votes! Check approval notifications
It would be so wonderful if the system had a setting that could be turned on to be notified when a check/batch has been approved. We have 2nd approvers for checks over $1500 on two different accounts. Sometimes it might take a day or two for them to get to them. The only way I know if I can print checks is to continually…
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WE'RE HIRING! Kitsap Community Foundation
Accounting Manager To succeed in this role, the right candidate will be to love variety, work independently, communicate well, and be super organized. We are looking for a motivated individual with a proven track record in both bookkeeping and office administration. The right candidate will be flexible and able to thrive…
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COI Tracking in Csuite
Hello- We are wondering if anyone uses CSuite to track conflict of interest for boards and committee. We have been looking at using the Org Roles to identify conflicts AND easily export that information for meetings and 990 prep. Example: a profile would be connected to ABC Organization with the role type "COI- Board…
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Position Filled
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GIFTVII Matching Gift procedures for CSuite
This topic came up in a Foundant meet-up discussion yesterday. If anyone has any procedures for how they processed the match in CSuite for GIFT 7 that might be useful for people to utilize for GIFT 8, please share! I have procedures I can share once I'm able to review and clean them up a bit.
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Anniversary year
Hi all, Next year is our 35th anniversary and we're trying to think of fun and impactful "gifts" to our various constituents - grantees, scholarship recipients, donors, and the broader community. Has anyone done anything like this? Other anniversary ideas you would like to share? We are likely not doing a big event but…
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New Opening for Finance Director in San Diego
What We Do For over 40 years, Rancho Santa Fe Foundation (RSFF) has provided a high level of service by developing personal relationships with our donors and providing exceptional stewardship of the funds invested with us to ensure great community impact for North County San Diego. With nearly $150 million in assets under…
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Let Us Get to Know You link
Hi, We're a new foundation and want to begin communicating with the nonprofit leaders/grant writers throughout our region. Because our website isn't ready, we'd like to use Foundant and a Let Us Get to Know You form to capture contact information. We'd then be able to send emails about our launch and other important…
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Staff on Selection Committees
We are having a conversation about including staff members on our scholarship selection committee to review applications and make recipient selections. Are there other community foundations out there that do this? What are the benefits and challenges? Are there any best practice guidelines about this?
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Using third party to obtain financial information
Currently on our UA application we ask students to provide their financial information, as reported on their last tax form, either as a dependent reporting their parents information, or as an independent reporting their own financial information. We have been considering using the third party option to have parents…
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How long is your scholarship application open?
For years, our organization's annual scholarship application has opened on January 15 and closed two months later on March 15. We're considering moving up the deadline and having the application open for a shorter period of time, possibly 6 weeks. What are the open & close dates for your scholarship program? What factors…
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EFC to SAI Changes
Hello, Can anyone provide on information transition process from EFC to SAI changes. My organization typically uses EFC chart, as well as institutional aid to determine unmet need. Does somebody have an example or template for estimated conversions for SAI.. They have developed and/or plan to implement? Thank you, Kaylin
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Who is using Foundant in Indiana?
They can't tell us specifically who is using Foundant in Indiana, but I can ask within the Compass Community. I would like to know who is using Foundant in our area so that I can reach out with questions. Thanks
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Congrats to the September Top 10!
Congratulations to @JackieLaw, @KathleenPomerantz, @NancySherritt, @rebekahthomas, @MeganDeHoog, @JulieKlipp, @LaurenRennie, @LanceEskelund, @CaitlinCluck, and @FatimaPalermo for being on September's Top 10 Leaderboard!🏆️🏆️🏆️ As a thank you for your contributions to our Compass community this past month, you will be…
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Charging a Fee vs. Spreading Expenses out amongst the funds
Hello, We are a Community Foundation with roughly 130 funds. Some are unrestricted, some managed and some are temporarily restricted. We do not charge any fees to manage these funds, rather we just pass on expenses from our Financial Advisor and operating costs to the funds on a percentage basis. Can I ask the pros and…
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What does programming mean to your CF?
Hello! Our CF is making some strategic plans and have recently decided we were going to do more programming. I have been tasked with figuring out what a "program" is for our organization. In the past we have run a scholarship cycle, grant cycle, and a couple initiatives as our programs. However, we would really like to…
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endowment examples
Would others in the community foundation world be willing to share draft endowment agreement language with me? We are considering opening an endowed fund for a rural hospital foundation. My community foundation wants to review the current draft agreement and is looking for examples to review as part of this process. My…
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Scholarship rubric scales for activities, community service, and work
We are working to update our evaluation questions for our selection committees as they review scholarship applications. We are trying to create a scale to measure the quality of students' extra-curricular activities, community service, and work. We want to offer clear guidance to evaluators for why they should give…
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Agency Fund Third-Party Donations
Hi am interested to see how you are treating your third-party donations to agency funds. Are you setting up a separate designated fund for these donations or are you including them in the original agency fund? Additionally, if you are including them in the original agency fund are you keeping track of what donations are…
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Tuesday Tip: Summit 2024 Badge!
Do you want to earn more points for your profile? Or, do you want to connect with others also attending Summit 2024? Show off your registration by requesting the Summit 2024 badge! Foundant is so excited to see all the new registrants roll in and we cannot wait to have everyone come together. Before and after Summit,…
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Grants Distributions Forms: How to Set Up for Irregular Distributions?
We're considering using the follow up process to build a form for distribution requests, but distributions vary from grant to grant, and can be very irregular. Has anyone found an especially creative or useful way to make the follow up forms work for grant distributions better than grantees simply emailing the info to us…
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Embracing New Connections and Exciting Conversations!
Hey everyone! My name is Sam Bennett and I am one of the new Client Services Interns here at Foundant Technologies. I became interested in working for Foundant after speaking with Rio Wofford directly about the company and all it has to offer. I am originally from the Jersey Shore, yes that Jersey Shore, and have a…
