Grantmaking Organization Case Study

Arts Organization Uses Foundation Connect and Conga Composer to improve grant management process

Background

A well-respected grantmaking organization in the arts engaged Idealist Consulting to implement a new CRM with grant management and fundraising functionality. They wanted a customizable database that could speak to an online donation system and include grant application form integration. 

Challenges

• Data silos – The customer was using several platforms including an Access-based SQL system. Grant data was separate from contact data, which created silos and redundant processes.
• Unscalable communication – The customer’s process requires regular communication to grant applicants and recipients. This process was manual and unscalable without a CRM.
• Variety of business processes - Although predominantly a grantmaking foundation, about a third of the customer’s business process is devoted to fundraising so they needed a solution that could integrate fundraising solutions as well.

Solutions

• After mapping out business processes, Idealist Consulting chose Salesforce, Foundation Connect, and Conga Composer for their ability to serve the grant process and be well-supported as adjustments are required.
• Foundation Connect is built on Salesforce, making it the most scalable solution for grantmaking as this organization grows and evolves. It includes alerts for new applications, automated workflows, and validation rules for when a deadline has passed.
• The customer is using both point merge and batch merge in Conga Composer to address processes such as managing award/decline/agreement letters. Users have just one click to launch the process directly from a report.

Results

• Increased automated workflows - Foundation Connect’s understanding of the grant making process includes many functions that make the customer’s day-to-day administrative work significantly easier.
• Streamlined grant application management – The customer has worked with Conga support to compile grant applications from 4-8 places on average (including affiliation info and even PDF reference and photo attachments). This process could be beneficial for any organization with an application process or case management.
• Improved grant applicant communication – Through Salesforce and Conga Composer, the customer can easily push out communications through to follow up with applicants for items like missing info, referencing their application that is in Salesforce.