Recent Discussions

Please read below to see a note from Chris Dahl, CEO of Foundant Technologies: "The decision to merge is rooted in our shared philosophy of prioritizing our clients and teams and our commitment to living our missions, which is reflected in the services and solutions we provide. With a combined 40 years of experience…

Hello all, Our Foundation currently runs 1 grant cycle per year (4 different Grants), with applications opening in Feb to March. Then April/May are adjudications, decisions etc. and payments are in June. The funding usually targets projects for the summer and remainder of the year, but they can also use the funding up to…

Our CF has typically not considered grant requests from nonprofits for capital campaigns for a couple of reasons, one being lack of unrestricted dollars to make such significant grants. Over the years, our unrestricted pot of grantmaking money has grown and recently we recently considered and awarded a large grant…

We're excited to bring back "Furry Fridays" with the Pets of Foundant - a beloved tradition in our community! Share photos of your pets this upcoming Friday in this new category—cats, dogs, hamsters, etc. - all are welcome! Here is my sleepy kitty, named Penny! Can't wait to see your furry friends again! 📸🐶🐱

Hello all, We plan to host a donor education event in the fall and are looking for topics and speaker ideas. We had three of these events pre-covid. The topics were ESG investing, how to engage the next generation/family philanthropy, and the importance of capacity-building support. We are open to any topics and speaker…

As we all strive to effectively manage and grow our funds to support our mission and community, I’m interested in learning more about best practices for creating and forecasting a managed funds budget. Specifically, I’d like to hear from you on the following points: Revenue Projections: How do you estimate investment…

Hello, I'm researching how other Community Foundations manage keeping CSuite profiles updated, do you have a dedicated team member? We are looking to hire a dedicated person to do all of our data entry/profile updates + pulling reports and lists and managing campaigns etc. I'm wondering the following Do you have a…

We are looking into other platforms that are similar to but not DeceaseFinderRecord (Blackbaud). Do you use a platform to search for deceased information for records in your database? If so what do you use? Are the results reliable?

Wondering if anyone else has worked out the mechanics behind this kind of a transaction. Essentially we have an 'Operating Reserve' and each year the Net Income (with a few adjustments for fixed asset acquisitions and depreciation) is intended to be rolled into that Operating Reserve. The way we are set up now we have the…

Congrats to @BelarminoCastellanos, @RachelScott, @hankdrew, @KellyScott, @MicheleBenavidez, @glendatowns, @TracyEads, @CaroleTarrant, @KellyMartinka, and @SamMueller for being on the top 10 leaderboard for July! As a token of our appreciation, each of you will be entered into a draw for a special surprise. Stay tuned to…

Hi everyone! My name is Callie and I recently joined the Foundant Product team as the Product Owner for GLM & SLM. I have more than 8 years of experience in the scholarship industry supporting non-profits, community foundations, corporations and colleges and universities with their scholarship and emergency grant programs…

Hello! Our grants teams is looking to enhance our data visualization and reporting. I have begun researching various tools and platforms to analyze and automate some reporting functions. Curious if there are any folks who are actively using any BI or Automated Reporting tools? Perhaps any tie-ins with Foundant and best…

Hello everyone, We often get students (or their parents) coming to us to ask what's happening with their scholarships once it has been to sent to a particular school. While I don't mind following up with the school to ensure the funding was received, I often feel like I am being asked to navigate each school's method from…

Greetings! I am working with our power users on materials that we want to develop for training of our executive-level leadership team members whom we want to engage on the key aspects on how to use and even run our donor-driven grant program via Foundant. Do you have any step-by-step materials that are easy to consume and…

Do any of your community foundation's do a post-scholarship grant award press release? If so, what kind of information do you share and more importantly does it get published? 😂 Any examples are appreciated!

We require the students to write their "thank you to the donors" on the follow-up form when they claim their scholarship. If they received more than one scholarship, they write one thank you. I attach the letter and email it to the donors/fund advisors. I'm curious on how others handle thank you letters. This is our second…

Hello! I am the new Community Investment Officer at the Hamilton Community Foundation. I'm curious how other foundations evaluate Final Reports from nonprofit and government agency grantees? We currently ask for the following: Project Goals and Anticipated Outcomes, Attainment of Goals and Lessons Learned, and Measurement…

We have a donation posted to a Profile which is actually from several Donors. We need to reverse the original donation and post the correct donations. (We have posted a negative donation amount and this works, but we've found you can't edit a negative amount in the Donation record.) How do you post a reversal of a donation?

Congratulations to @LenoraLaVictoire, @JesikaEllis, @MollyCerroni, @glendatowns, @AlexQuesada, @PhillipTran, @DeniseGonzales, @NikkiHilchey, @SusieLotreck, and @JenniferMeckling for being June's top leaders! As a token of our appreciation, each of you will be entered into a draw for a special surprise. Stay tuned to see…

Aside from working at Foundant, I am also involved with small local nonprofit. We are looking for inexpensive way to collect electronic signatures for our Volunteer agreements and Harassment policy forms. Any great suggestions?

Hey everyone! I am Arseniy Marshak, one of the new Client Services Interns starting at Foundant. I am from Redmond, WA (though I was born in Moscow, Russia) and currently I am finishing up my 3rd year at Western Washington University as a Business Administration Management Information Systems student. I found out about…

Hello, I recently had great training regarding fundraising prospecting and cold calling. My background is programs and customer service and my feedback was that I sounded like a recording and I could be more commanding. I was giving energy that said "you can get rid of me." It was a great lesson because I realize I need a…

Follow up thread from GLM/SLM Expert Webinar | Unique Workflows with an Advanced License.

Congratulations to @StuartReid, @BroganOBrien, @BelarminoCastellanos, @LisaAPickerman, @SydneyMurrell, @JoleneWillis, @MollyCerroni, @EleniZulia, @GeoffreyOConnell, and @DawnGrundeman for being May's top leaders! As a token of our appreciation, each of you will be entered into a draw for a special surprise. Stay tuned to…

Does anyone use Stripe to process recurring ACH donations? Is there a way to link these donations to a promise or pledge?

Can anyone share any information they have or sample fund agreements for their Field of Interest funds? We are wanting to fine tune our policies around these types of funds as well as update our fund agreement to align. Thank you in advance.

Our foundation transitioned to Foundant around 2015, and since then, it has continued to file requests, follow-up submissions and communications processed through Foundant on our network drives as a backup. Any information collected or generated outside of Foundant is saved in our "efile" for the organization, and a copy…

We're new to CSuite and coming from an "undocumented" FIMS environment. Wondering if anyone has a New Fund checklist you'd be willing to share...

Are funders including clauses in their grant agreements regarding grantees use of artificial intelligence in their grant-related work, data collection/analysis, etc.?

Please visit this link to apply to this job posting. About the Foundation For almost 60 years, the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga has strengthened the community by transforming generosity into lasting change. It exists to connect donors’ passions and their values with purpose, so that they can have a…