Best Of
Percentage of applications funded
I was having a philosophical conversation with a grant administrator and we were chatting about the average approval rate for grant processes. What would you consider a 'normal' approval rate (partial or full funding) for your competitive grants?
Ending grantee relationships, shifting strategies
Hi folks, I'm looking to connect with other community foundation colleagues who have undergone strategy shifts that made significant changes to grant processes (e.g., decreased grant amounts, sunsetting previous grantee relationships that no longer are strategy aligned). We are shifting discretionary resources to 'upstream' policy and systems solutions, and this will have a significant impact on many 'legacy' direct service partners. Would love to hear any lessons learned or intel you might have on these topics!
Teamwork, Training, and a Touch of Seattle Magic!
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us at the Seattle Regional Training! The event was an incredible success, and we are truly grateful to work alongside such dedicated, intelligent, and passionate clients.
Our training team was inspired by your engagement, energy, and the meaningful conversations that took place throughout the day. There’s nothing quite like stepping away from the screen and connecting with you in person—hearing your stories, learning about the impactful work you're doing in your communities, and celebrating your successes.
To those who attended: we’d love to see the event through your eyes! Feel free to share any photos or reflections from your experience—we always appreciate seeing your perspectives and memories.
We can’t wait for the next opportunity to gather, learn, and grow together. If you couldn’t make it this time, we hope to see you at a future training!
Has this happened to you? Deceased a profile record and now Community Suite is haunted?
I set a profile record to 'deceased' and suddenly all the text in our Community Suite instance started bleeding - I assume our instance in haunted now?
I tried Goo-ghoul to find a techxorcist, but that turned up nothing.
Has anyone else experienced this before?
Thanks,
Mitch Hollberg
PS - For reference, the donor name is Elles, April Foux (profile id 620617)
Searching for Nonprofit Surveys from Community Foundations
Hello,
Our Community Foundation is expanding our Nonprofit Capacity Building. We would like to survey our nonprofits to determine: nonprofit size in our community, staff, budgets, role (arts, animal welfare, etc), board demographics/need, facility needs, current funding streams, desired funding streams, nonprofit collaborative efforts, desired nonprofit collaborative efforts, short term outcomes, long term outcomes, volunteer needs, educational needs (board assistance, leadership/management assistance, financial management assistance, donor cultivation, grant writing, grant search tool assistance, etc).
Does anyone have a Survey that you can share? What did you like about your survey? What would you change? How has the Survey helped your Community Foundation improve your relationship with nonprofits?
Any information would be appreciated! Thank you!!
Florida Regional Training!
We are excited to announce Foundant is coming to St. Pete Beach, Florirda for a Regional Training November 18-19!
Register here to connect with your Foundant peers at our 2-day software training and networking event.
We hope to see you there!
Scholarship Thank You
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 year with this procedure. We had one complaint this year as they felt it was not personal enough and because it was emailed. I believe this works quite well, we are not chasing down thank you notes/letters from students and holding up scholarship payments. I would love any feedback! Thank you!
Re: Washington D.C Regional Training
Do you have dates/locations of other regional trainings offered in 2024?
Bequest Scam Warning
Hello all,
We wanted to make everyone aware of this scam that was attempted on our Community Foundation. Please share this! We received an email (copied at the bottom of this post) from someone stating his mother, Julia Sadler, had recently passed away and indicated in her trust that she would like donations made to certain charities including ours. We had no record of his mother ever making a donation to the Wichita Falls Area Community Foundation. We googled her obituary and she did not live in or near Wichita Falls, which was also odd.
A few days later, we received a cashier's check via Fedex from Frank Financial in NYC for $191, 250 in memory of Julia Sadler. That same day we received another email from the son, John Heathman stating he had given instructions for the check to be sent and he wanted to discuss how we could memorialize his mother. He gave a phone number and stated he lived in Hong Kong. I contacted the cashier's check issuing bank to verify the check. There was a fraud marker and stop payment placed on the check. At this point, we contacted our local police department financial crimes unit. He said we were correct to suspect a scam.
On another organization's exchange I am on, yesterday I saw the same scam posted that happened to another nonprofit. The names were different, but the check amount and scenario were the exact same. This has apparently been attempted at multiple nonprofits and colleges across the country. The scam was that after the nonprofit deposits the check, the son would contact the organization stating that a junior accoutant had issued the check for the wrong amount. The amount should have been $100,000 and the organization would need to refund the balance.
From: The Julia Sadler Trust <jsadlertrust@outlook.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2024 11:00 AM
To: Leslie Schaffner <lschaffner@wfacf.org>
Subject: Giving
Hello,
My name is John Heathman. My mother, Julia Sadler In her will indicated that she would like to make donations from her trust to certain charities, including yours.
I am contacting you to notify you of her intentions as well as inquire about the best way to make a monetary donation from her trust. I would like to confirm where to mail a check for this donation to be utilized in a way that honors my late mother's wishes.
Could you please advise me on who I should coordinate this donation with at your charity? I'm also interested in learning about any commemorative giving programs you may offer to recognize my mother and her donation.
Please let me know the best contact information for who I should discuss these donations with.
Thank you for your guidance on this matter. I look forward to connecting further to fulfill my late mother's philanthropic plans.
Sincerely,
John Heathman
![2025-04-01 11_25_59-Elles, Ms. April Foux [profile] - Brave.png](https://community.foundant.com/api/v2/media/download-by-url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fus.v-cdn.net%2F6032133%2Fuploads%2FBGOX9SU40SFF%2F2025-04-01-11-25-59-elles-2c-ms-april-foux-5bprofile-5d-brave.png){kind=link}
