Orcas Island Community Foundation
"After switching to CommunitySuite, grantmaking grew from $300,000 to over $1.8 million in four years, the number of donors increased by threefold with nearly 10% of the local island community participating, and began running two annual online grant programs, all while maintaining the same foundation staff size."
Prior to Foundant
After spending many years in partnership with The Seattle Foundation, OICF took investment management in house in 2012. Our objectives were to improve investment results, reduce fees charged to our partners, and produce more timely and accurate fund balance information.
We used several systems such as Quickbooks and Gifts until we worked with the CommunitySuite software developer in 2012 to create a database program unique to the needs of a community foundation. We were looking to track donations, manage funds, calculate distributions, and quickly determine spendable amounts so our staff could focus our efforts on our mission rather than paperwork. We worked with Chris and his company and the result was CommunitySuite software for community foundations.
Key Features
Our favorite features are the Grant Catalog which allows us to run two annual online crowdfunded grant programs, Fund Accounting to trach all our funds, and the easy to use Donor Reports.
We use all the tools CommunitySuite provides including Events, the Grant Catalog, Fund Manager for our Fund Advisors, Online Documentation, Live Phone Support, Training Videos, and Email Support. We have found that the tools all make being a user easier.