Many of you have expressed concerns about recent gifts to your funds not appearing on your financial statements. You’ve heard us talking about technology changes at Southwest Initiative Foundation over the past year and are probably eager to see the new and improved results. As our staff has had the opportunity to work with our new database software, we have been tested, impressed, frustrated and overjoyed by its capacity and flexibility. It really is a whole new world for us and we have been challenged to rethink the way we do our work.
We have spent the last year working with our technology vendor and are closer to providing you with an updated way to see fund information. The database software we are using is called Salesforce, and you will interact with it through “Partner Communities.” This will be a big change in the way we work together.
Here are some of the changes you can expect to see in the coming months:
- Grant applicants will fill out and submit grant applications using online forms.
- Board rosters will be filled out and submitted via an online form. This way the information provided will automatically be updated in our database, eliminating time consuming data entry and allowing you to keep your records up to date.
- Through the Partner Communities site, you will be able to see recent gifts posted to your funds.
These are just some of the first steps to help us streamline gifting and granting. We expect to be testing new forms and processes over the next 4-6 weeks and may ask some of you for your assistance and input before we roll it out to all fund partners. When we are ready to go live, we will schedule training opportunities around the region.
In the meantime, if you need access to gift information, don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for your patience!
