Grantee organization able to see all of their grants submitted
At the current time there is no one person in a grantee organization that can see all the grants submitted from that organization since the system is based on each user rather than an organization. We have grantees, though, with multiple programs and departments (e.g., a university) that want to (a) manage the overall relationship with our foundation and (b) see all the grants they have submitted to us. Is it possible to provide a means for the primary contact to see everything submitted, approved, etc. for that organization?
Idea posted June 1, 2012 by Skip Moore, Weaver Foundation
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Chris Dahl commented
Hi all,
Thanks for the feedback. As a first cut of this, we are looking at allowing foundations to select if they want to give access to applicants and others to see the organization's request history. They would be able to grant this access to all users OR on a user-by-user basis. Users granted such access would be able to see the organization information, the contacts (active & inactive), and each of the requests made by any users for that organization.
I understand this won't resolve everything that you all are looking for - i.e. you will still need to re-assign a follow-up if the assigned user leaves an organization - but given the variety of uses across all of our clients, I think it's a reasonable first step.
When we do get it implemented, I will reach out to the folks who've commented here to get some feedback.
Thanks
posted April 29, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies
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Ideas commented
I agree as well. I like the idea of tying applications to the organization rather than a person. We have a lot of turnover in the organizations we deal with and we often get calls that say they can't access the follow up due, as the person it is assigned to is no longer with the organization.
I would agree with Meredith's first point from her post on 7/2/2012, but not necessarily the second. I don't know that it would hurt, but it isn't something we have found a need for.
I also agree with Amy. This would be a helpful addition.
posted April 16, 2013 by Lynn Larson, Fred and Jean Allegretti Foundation
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Ideas commented
Agreed this is a great suggestion. It would be a very helpful addition.
posted April 15, 2013 by Amy Meyer Lehenbauer, Community Foundation of the Quincy Area
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Chris Dahl commented
Hi Cheryl and Mara,
Thanks for the feedback and ideas. I understand the motivation for the suggestion. In this case, as I've talked to some folks over the last few months, the challenge is in the details.
For instance, as Meredith noted above, she would like: "The organization to be able to select who their primary contact is, and more easily edit any/all contact names associated with their organization." One of the challenges with this is determining the mechanism ... conceptually it's easy to understand, but who is the organization?
Another example of a challenge is that when an applicant first creates an organization and sets the Executive Director, some people have concerns that the person they indicate may or may not actually be the ED. And if not, then there could be issues if that person is allowed to view all the data.
In terms of when we might implement some of this functionality ... at this point, both given other priorities we have and the time it's going to take to work through some of the details with this effort, it's not something we will be implementing in the short-term. However, given that getting more organization visibility into the foundation-organization history and relationship is something quite a few folks want, it's not going to fall off our radar.
Thanks again for the feedback
posted October 13, 2012 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies
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Ideas commented
We have also run into this problem. Our work-around has been to ask everyone to log in using one user name/password. We only use this approach with organizations we have a close relationship with. This is not an ideal solution, but it does give everyone (who has the password) visibility to the grant history. The password can be reset if staffing changes.
posted October 9, 2012 by Mara Yarp, Morgan Family Foundation
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Ideas commented
We've run into problems for precisely this reason as well. We deal with coalitions, with multiple people from multiple organizations "trading" responsibility to apply, report, etc. I've fielded numerous complaints from individuals who cannot access any of the past information entered for their organization. It would be extremely helpful if the information was tied to an organization rather than an individual...simply for the sake of dealing with turnover in staff if nothing else. I was really quite surprised to discover that all the records were linked to an individual rather than the organization and even more surprised that Foundant has not received many requests for this before.
Any idea when this will be implemented?
posted October 4, 2012 by Cheryl Lee, Town Creek Foundation
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Chris Dahl commented
Hi Skip and Meredith,
Thanks for the responses and additional information. It certainly makes sense; it's also a bit complex to implement. However, we are looking at improving how we manage organization and contact information and relationships. It is going to be a big effort for us, and considering this request seems like it would make sense in that context. Given the level of effort, it's not something that you'll be seeing in the next few months, but it is something that is important both in terms of the long-term direction of the system as well as to address client needs. As we continue to plan this effort, we will be getting input from customers, and I'll definitely keep you in mind.
Thanks again
posted July 20, 2012 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies
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Ideas commented
Chris: thanks for the contact re this issue. I agree with Meredith's comments. Here are some more:
1. The relationship between the foundation and the grantee is organization to organization, i.e., foundation to nonprofit. The way the system is currently structured is essentially organization to individual, i.e., foundation to an individual within a nonprofit, in terms of application management. While the foundation can look at what an organization is doing in total, the organization itself cannot.
2. There are really three key contact relationships: (a) the executive director (or similar top administrator); (b) the organizational primary contact (which may be a development director for example); and, (c) the individual completing an application. We contact these individuals at different times for different reasons. For example, we might send a newsletter to executive direcotrs but an RFP to primary contacts -- who would then decide how and if the organization would respond -- routing the RFP to a person who would become an applicant.
3. For us, having the ED and the primary contact with the ability to look at their whole file (applications, reports, etc) would be beneficial. As for setting permissions, we wouldn't need to do it on a case by case basis. The system could just default to providing that permission to the ED and the primary contact. I suppose we could reverse it if we wanted to.
Hope this helps and thanks for considering.
posted July 2, 2012 by Skip Moore, Weaver Foundation
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Ideas commented
Hi Chris --
Skip may have different thoughts but here are mine. In an ideal world, I would like:
All applications associated with an organization to be tied to the organization, not a specific person, so that if a development staff at an organization turns over, the new person can see all history and documents that have been submitted by that organization, and potentially what (if any) follow-up reports might be coming due. This would extend beyond just grant amounts, dates etc., and would include LOIs, applications, follow-up reports, etc. Essentially what they'd inherit in paper files if the applciations had been submitted the old fashioned way.
Hopefully this will save them work -- allowing them to copy and paste certain fields such as project description and organization description, rather that recreating the wheel each application cycle. And to Skip's point, it will help development staff and leadership at organizations to better manage their relationship with the Foundation by seeing a full history, both their successful partnerships (grants) have been, and their declinations.
Right now if we want to accomplish this, we as administrators can go in and edit the contact name on an old application to give a new applicant access to prior applciations. But makes historical data inaccurate. I would rather be able to see that the old developent person wrote the old application(s), and the new person the new one, while still giving the new person access to the old one(s).The organization to be able to select who their primary contact is, and more easily edit any/all contact names associated with their organization.
Thanks, Chris, for your thougthful response, and Skip for raising the issue.posted July 2, 2012 by Meredith Huffman, Genuardi Family Foundation
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Chris Dahl commented
Hi Skip and Meredith,
Thanks for the request. It's not one I've heard before, but I can definitely see how for many organizations it would be useful. I'll have to discuss this with our Product Team to see if anyone else has received feedback on something like this.
Is setting the permission and the primary contact for the organization something a foundation would do on an organization-by-organization basis? Also, when you say "see all the grants submitted" ... can you elaborate? Would they have permission to view the actual applications, or just amounts, dates, and applicants? Are there other things that go into "manage the overall relationship with our foundation"?
As we get more feedback, we can start to determine where on our product improvement list this can go.
Thanks
posted July 1, 2012 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies
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Ideas commented
Great suggestion -- I second Skip's request.
posted June 4, 2012 by Meredith Huffman, Genuardi Family Foundation