About Vancouver Foundation
Vancouver Foundation is a community-inspired foundation that connects the generosity of donors with the energy, ideas and time of people in the community. Since 1943, they’ve brought together donors, non-profits and charities, government, media, and academic institutions, local leaders, and passionate individuals to build meaningful and lasting change in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Bound by an inefficient process
Vancouver Foundation’s granting process has been disjointed and inefficient. They worked with a legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, an online application portal they built themselves, and a variety of Word and Excel documents to receive, assess and track multi-year funding proposals and commitments.
“Although the systems we created to manage specific points in grantmaking process worked well on their own, it was always a challenging and labour intensive process to understand and analyze our caseload at any point in time,” says Dave Doig, Vancouver Foundation’s Director of Field of Interest Grants.
“Although the systems we created to manage specific points in the grantmaking process worked well on their own, it was always a challenging and labour intensive process to understand and analyze our caseload at any point in time,” says Dave Doig, Vancouver Foundation’s Director of Field of Interest Grants.
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We can see better now where the opportunities are to improve and then move forward from there.
David Doig
Director of Field of Interest Grants, Vancouver Foundation
The search for a configurable grantmaking system
The foundation wanted to simplify their current process, while having the capability to innovate their work for more community impact.
Not only did Vancouver Foundation want to simplify their current process, but they also wanted the capability to innovate their work for more community impact. “At the time we were looking for new software, we had been using our in-house process for a couple of decades. We realized that we only knew grantmaking from our own entrenched perspective, and so hoped that working with a new solution would lead to new methods and ideas about how to be more effective,” says Dave.
They also recognized the importance of finding a solution that could be owned and managed by the granting department, instead of by a small IT team. Dave was impressed by Re-Solved’s collaborative approach and the team’s ability to translate the Foundation’s needs into a highly tailored plan that effectively incorporated the Foundation’s most pressing requirements.
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We realized that we only knew grantmaking from our own entrenched perspective, and so hoped that working with a new solution would lead to new methods and ideas about how to be more effective.
David Doig
Director of Field of Interest Grants, Vancouver Foundation
A system that fulfilled on its promises
An important goal for the foundation was to find a way of maximizing the number of grants they could make. In order to do this, they had to come up with an efficient way of quickly identifying grantseekers that aligned with their program objectives. To tackle this, they worked with Re-Solved to develop a number of taxonomy-based search assist tools that could be used at each of the workflow stages.
Within their SmartSimple Cloud for Grants Management system, they code every proposal, fund, and volunteer using the same taxonomy. They then use the taxonomy assist tools developed by Re-Solved to put their review panels together, by grouping like proposals and pairing them with the right volunteers who have the necessary perspectives to review the proposals. Next, they use the fund search tool to identify funds that are most aligned to the purpose of a specific grant proposal, beginning with the most restricted funds first.
At the end of the process, they use SmartSimple Cloud's list views, dashboards, and reporting functionality to understand and describe the characteristics and breath of the caseload, based upon the taxonomy. “Our taxonomy is four levels deep for each of the Purpose, Place, and People categories, and the search tools need to take that into account. It’s quite amazing that way!” states Dave.
Their SmartSimple Cloud platform went live in July 2018 and the responses from most users were immediately positive. “Our applicants appreciate being able to submit all of the proposal details using just one online form and our volunteer reviewers love using the system to assess and rank the proposals,” says Dave. Not only have the search assist tools made the overall process more efficient, but it also helped Vancouver Foundation to demonstrate its effectiveness at maximizing the funds that donors have left to its discretion to support a wide range of community-led initiatives.
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Our applicants appreciate being able to submit all of the proposal details using just one online form and our volunteer reviewers love using the system to assess and rank the proposals.
David Doig
Director of Field of Interest Grants, Vancouver Foundation
Support from all sides
The creation of Vancouver Foundation’s system took a collaborative approach. Dave reflects that “the Re-Solved team checked in regularly with us. They were really good at presenting ideas and were more concerned about being an ally instead of selling us a system.”
On an external level, Vancouver Foundation’s team appreciated the support and connection found within the SmartSimple community of users. “We like the ability to talk to other foundations and to learn from them.”
Looking forward to the future
Vancouver Foundation is looking forward to further leveraging the dashboard and reporting abilities to help tell their story. By simplifying their processes, they now have a clearer view of what to improve. “We can see better now where the opportunities are to improve and then move forward from there.”
Vancouver Foundation is looking forward to further leveraging the dashboard and reporting abilities to help tell their story. By simplifying their processes, they now have a clearer view of what to improve. “We can see better now where the opportunities are to improve and then move forward from there.”
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The reSolved team checked in regularly with us. They were really good at presenting ideas and were more concerned about being an ally instead of selling us a system.
David Doig
Director of Field of Interest Grants, Vancouver Foundation
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