Elevate your community management: why Foundant is still the best choice

October 9, 2024

Foundant Technologies

Since our recent merger, Foundant and SmartSimple have been busy integrating our teams, learning from one another, and investigating areas where we can better serve you. We look forward to sharing our enhanced capabilities as we work to meet you where you need us to be.

In that same time frame, we’ve heard our competitors have been busy, too. From time to time, we get word from a partner, client, or team member that some information has been shared about Foundant’s software and services that isn’t completely accurate.

It’s an easy tactic to claim we are getting too big. But our sustained growth over the last 15+ years allows us to outshine our competition in customer service.

⭐⭐⭐⭐Britta F. | Grants and Operations manager

“The customer service is always top notch. When I have questions, I am always met with help by friendly kind people who walk me through the specifics.”

⭐⭐⭐⭐Patty F. | Finance and Operations Director

“I found it was easy to navigate when learning, and there are great tutorials to help you get familiar with the software. The support during integration was amazing. As the software goes through upgrades, Foundant provides easy-to-follow webinars.”

We learn from our clients, and we promise to always prioritize your success.

40% of Foundant team members have worked in the philanthropic sector

455 Idea Lab ideas (ideas submitted from clients) implemented in 2023

98% satisfaction with support resolution

This dedication to service is why Foundant and SmartSimple joined—not to grow for the sake of growth but for the good of our collective communities. This is a shared passion among people who care about you and your work.

We know that growth is the key to innovation. As you continue to face new challenges, we’ll continue to meet you where you need us. We will listen, we will learn, and we will act.

Imagine this new partnership's potential for the sector and consider some of the facts about community management software and how Foundant’s CommunitySuite compares to competitors like akoyaGO.

The right core system for your organization

Selecting the right community management software is pivotal for your organizational success. Particularly for organizations in the social good sector, the choice of software can profoundly impact operational efficiency and community engagement.

Key features to look for in community management software

Integrated fund accounting and CRM: Essential for seamlessly managing finances and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships.

Portal: recently updated, CommunitySuite’s Portal allows you to customize a seamless experience for a wide range of users – from donors to fund managers to grantees. Make engaging with your organization easier.

Grant and scholarship management: Streamlines the application, review, and award processes – including post-award management and communication.

Donor management: Keeps track of donor interactions, preferences, and history to enhance fundraising strategies.

Event management: Facilitates the planning, promotion, and execution of events.

Online giving: Simplifies the process for online donations, a crucial component of modern fundraising.

Customer service: Offers robust support to ensure users maximize the software’s potential.

Solution features in detail

CommunitySuite, by Foundant Technologies, offers integrated fund accounting and CRM with depth and flexibility. The system is meticulously designed to cater to the intricate needs of sizable organizations with complex accounting and CRM needs.

With CommunitySuite’s fund accounting, you can:

- assess and accurately calculate multiple separate admin fees
- allocate investment activity across funds
- create up-to-date fund statements in real-time
- empower donors with information via an easy-to-use portal
- transfer balances between accounts and funds
- prepare 990 and other reports easily
- manage spending policies
- seamlessly manage grant and scholarship accounting
- view financial reporting by multiple types

With financial and CRM functionality in one system, your teams will be more efficient and your organization will be positioned to develop even stronger donor and community relationships.

The NEW CommunitySuite Portal is designed to revolutionize the way stakeholders interact with your organization. With a focus on user experience and security, this update offers:

- enhanced user access supports different personas with distinct login credentials
- streamlined navigation offers condensed login pages to enhance efficiency and usability
- customized profiles so users can personalize aspects of their experience based on preferences
- enhanced security to safeguard your data and ensure compliance with industry standards such as text and email pin verifications
- expanded features to manage recurring donations and grants, pay pledges and invoices, and submit voucher requests online

Foundant’s integrated grants and scholarship management offers sophisticated tools that automate and simplify the grant and scholarship cycle from start to finish, significantly reducing administrative burdens:

- reduce manual effort and speed up review times with automated application processes
- make better, faster decisions with collaboration and communication tools
- use real-time data to monitor grant performance
- ease the process for your applicants with the user-friendly interface
- gain insights on grant performance with comprehensive and customized reports
- lower risk and maintain transparency with compliance monitoring

Donor management is arguably the most critical piece of community engagement. With its advanced analytics and comprehensive tracking capabilities, CommunitySuite was built side by side with community foundations. These features enable organizations to develop deeper insights into donor behavior and preferences, a critical advantage for effective fundraising.

Fortify your donor and fund-advisor relationships with real-time access to fund information:

- agreements
- statements
- balances
- activity
- recommendations

Foundant’s comprehensive online giving platform and event management tools offer customizable options across events, giving campaigns, ongoing community engagement, and more.

With CommunitySuite, you can:

- create events and manage registrations
- allow users to purchase tickets online
- track attendance
- customize event pages and registration forms
- integrate event data with donor management
- crowd fund for grant opportunities
- provide supporters with a custom list of nonprofits for education and/or giving opportunities
- offer supporters recurring donation options
- track donations, donor engagement, and fundraising performance

As discussed earlier, Foundant consistently excels at client support. Whether via phone, chat, or email, our team thrives on helping clients make a difference in their communities. We offer a detailed knowledge base kept up to date by our dedicated product education team in tandem with our frequent product releases.

Many of our team members – across all areas, but particularly in support – started at Foundant after having worked as foundation staff – grants managers, fund accountants, program officers, and more come to Foundant looking for the next step in their careers and a way to use their knowledge and expertise to help their peers in the industry.

Foundant vs platform providers

Some providers leverage existing software platforms (frameworks) to build their software “on top of.” Like any software solutions, there are pros and cons to both platform and proprietary SaaS providers. Here, we’ll look at the key differences between Foundant’s software being privately owned and managed versus other platforms built on an existing base such as Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Foundant CommunitySuite	Platform (Eg: akoyaGO)
Developed and maintained by Foundant – the company you license your software directly with.	Built on top of existing frameworks not owned by the company you license the software from.
Licensing is straight forward and transparent. No hidden fees or added licensing to external platform vendors needed. You pay Foundant for your all-in-one, integrated solution. Because of this structure, we control pricing, not a third-party vendor.	The vendor is reliant on another organization and can sometimes require more than one license for what they may describe as a single system. In this type of licensing, you pay both the vendor and the platform – which may be two separate payments or wrapped into the full cost from your vendor. In addition, the vendor pays the platform provider for the rights to build on top of their framework. Which, in turn, is generally passed off to the end user through added licensing fees
Software updates are done in the client's interest – the end-user – when and how is best for the company and the client.	Software updates done to the platform are at the discretion of the framework, not the licensing company.
All Foundant solutions are web-based and mobile responsive for easy access anywhere, anytime. We are a remote-first company with extraordinary uptime and availability we can prove.	Typically web-based.
You own your data. Foundant has implemented technical and organizational measures to ensure the security, privacy, and availability of your most valuable asset.	As secure as the framework. It’s good practice to ask your vendor about the SOC audits and any potential risks.
Purpose-built features based on real user feedback. No workarounds are required.	Leverage pre-built tools via the framework to offer additional automationdepending on licensing.
All-in-one system. Input a transaction in one place and it reflects across all areas of your organization within the system. Informed decisions in real-time.	Financial and analytics tools are built on existing software, i.e. Microsoft O365. The company you purchase the layered software from does not have control over how any of these features get updated at the framework level.
The features and growth of the software directly correlate to what our users need and how they are evolving.	Only have control over the software they built on top of the framework. If the framework partner makes an update, it is left to your provider to ensure everything continues to work.
We maintain the ability to partner and integrate with the companies that represent our and our clients’ best interests.	It integrates with the framework it is built on but requires pre-licensing from the end user before it works. i.e., an existing O365 license for your entire office before you can use the software.

Keys to choosing the right software for you

At the end of the day only you can decide what the right choice is for your organization based on the benefits, cost, key features, and company support.

Here are a few last things to keep in mind as you continue your search:

- Assess your organization’s needs. Involve your team to identify current pain points and define goals.
- Consider your budget and clarify hidden fees or costs associated with getting the support you need to be successful.
- Understand ease of use, implementation timeline, and training requirements
- Evaluate customer support by talking to current clients a vendor has “taken away” from the other vendor(s) being evaluated.
- And, most importantly, talk to other users of the systems being evaluated, including ones the vendors do NOT provide as references.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about what community management means for Foundant. More importantly, thank you for all you do to make all our communities a better place.

We welcome your questions and look forward to partnering with you to elevate your community management and expand your community engagement.