"Matchmaking" between Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) and nonprofits
Hi all,
Our community foundation is moving into a more proactive space of serving our DAF holders, including presenting "matchmaking" opportunities to them with current needs in the community and/or in their grantmaking interest areas (which we've been slowly recording in Raisers Edge over the past few years).
We do not yet have CSuite, but we do have GLM. I've seen a few posts about using GLM for a type of "grant catalogue", having nonprofit organizations submit their requests/current needs that way. From a few responses it sounds like it could become a labor-intensive pursuit - both on the side of the nonprofit as well as for the foundation staff.
What are your processes for providing current needs from nonprofits to DAF holders? What system do you use to capture the information for donors? What details or collateral do you request of the nonprofit? What system do you use to showcase the opportunities?
Would love to have further conversation with anyone who is currently offering these proactive services for donors.
Thank you!
Elizabeth Messerli
Philanthropic Services Officer
Community Foundation of Northern Colorado
970-488-1986
elizabeth@nocofoundation.org
Comments
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I can't speak to GLM because we do not use it.
With CSuite, you can create a list of funds for nonprofits that you would like your dafers to donate to.
That's a challenging situation if you are directing them to outside groups. We primarily direct our DAF owners to fill in gaps with groups that we directly support and that hold funds with us.
Sounds like you are trying to do some sort of Investment House style work for your dafers. Doing this without CSuite/Salesforce/insert non-Blackbaud software will be difficult.
You'll probably have to link them to profiles on Good Nonprofits/Candid, which should have all their financials there, including tax info. If the nonprofit is not there, I would not share their information.
Good CRM will have the ability to run checks on potential grantees automatically. Csuite has this feature, as do most competent CRMs.
Don't know if Razer Edge has this feature.
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In the past we have advised our DAFs to give additional or matching funding to grants we awarded from our discretionary spending pool. That way, the information about the program is already in our Foundant GLM from when the organization applied to us. The nonprofit is also already obligated to submit a final report through Foundant follow ups, so it's easy enough to format nicely and pass on to the DAF client.
I think in the future we will be collecting data from our DAF fundholders about what amounts, age group and fields of interest they would like to support. Throughout the year we can contact them if we hear about a funding opportunity from a well-known or vetted local nonprofit. We use GuideStar's seals of Transparency as one way to vet an organization. It's easier for us to track our DAFs and not nonprofits because we already have data stored based on individual DAF giving history. Also, if a nonprofit that doesn't usually ask for funding suddenly has a capital campaign, it is easier to locate an interested DAF than to track the nonprofit through inactive grantseeking years.
Great question, looking forward to hearing how other Foundations handle their "matchmaking" as well.
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We do this on a limited basis through a google form. If an organization's project does not align with any of our current funding opportunities, we direct them to a very simple Grant Interest Form where they can give a brief description of what they are looking to fund and the $ amount. We review the entries every week and if we feel a DAF may align or be interested in supporting it, then we do additional outreach to the organization to get a better proposal/more info. We then share that info with the DAF holder to see if they want to provide a grant. Everything is tracked in a separate spreadsheet and kept outside of Foundant GLM. If we award a grant, then we put it into GLM.
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We developed a "Giving Store". We maintain a list of urgent funding opportunities from local nonprofits that have been vetted by the programming staff. It's become a really popular way for donors to fund urgent needs. We send the list every other month to those DAFers who have requested, and they grant directly to the nonprofit with that partiular need defined.
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