SmartSimple Blog

Consider this: non-profit organizations everywhere are under pressure to maximize their resources, provide for community needs, all while managing their relationships with foundations and partners. Meanwhile, funders and their staff are under duress to balance program development, stakeholder engagement, and fiduciary responsibility. At the end of the day, the grant application, for both grantseekers and grantmakers, is one part of the process that both have to interact with to move forward.

Staff collaboration within MS Teams or Slack. Video calls for board meetings. Grant distribution via ACH and Bill.com. This is the “new normal” for philanthropy, and it’s happened in the span of weeks instead of years. Yet, with such a rapid change, how are grantmakers adjusting to a reality where technology is at the center?

In the course of just a few months, our communities across the globe have been fundamentally changed. Every aspect of how we go about our lives has been affected in some way – from healthcare and retail to food service and essential services. As a result, each sector has had to rapidly adjust to an unprecedented, and invisible, threat to normalcy and our previous status quo. Philanthropy is certainly no exception. 

Board meetings are a core part of governance within foundations and the grantmaking process, where the information discussed drives decision making to act on. Despite board meetings being such a critical piece of the grantmaking cycle, they can often cause considerable challenges for teams – from preparation and scheduling to hosting and following up.

Whether you are coordinating reports, creating a board book with up-to-date details, or sending out invitations and navigating availability conflicts – board meetings are no small task. Until now.

Philanthropy is full of acronyms. LOI. DAF. MOU - the list goes on. What about PRIs (Program Related Investments)? You’ve likely heard this acronym used before and generally understand that they are a part of a foundation’s grantmaking strategy.