Fluxx | Technology news for grantmakers

Our own Shawn Garrison recently sat with Charles Jun, Operations Manager at The Lenfest Institute for Journalism to talk about their experience with Fluxx.

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism was started by Gerry Lenfest, a media executive and entrepreneur who embraced the necessity of local journalism in the community. While an important part of shaping an objective narrative of democracy in our society, local journalism has seen significant challenges to thrive in the modern world. In response, Jerry founded The Lenfest Institute, which is dedicated to researching and developing sustainable models for local news outlets. 

As a grants manager, you’ve always understood the importance of data, even if you don’t always consider yourself a tech guru. As the quarterback of the grantmaking process, you regularly collect critical pieces of information and synthesize it for future use. You’ve always known you needed data. But until recently, deep dives into the world of data were rarely expected from you due to a perceived lack of expertise, time, or mandate from leadership.

Fluxx’s Community Manager Shawn Garrison met with Art Johnstone and Michael Turner, the President and Vice President of Client Services at EMPH Partners.

About EMPH Partners

EMPH, which stands for the Emergency Management and Public Health Partners team is comprised of experts with nearly five decades of combined experience building and utilizing systems to manage grant funding, including experience using Fluxx Grantmaker to manage thousands grants, and tens of millions in grant funding.

Their particular area of expertise is working with partners to manage Federal pass-through grant funding, using Fluxx Grantmaker to offer sub-awards that meet the specific purposes and due diligence needs of each particular Federal grant program.

Someone once told us that a software implementation was akin to building a house. Sure, anyone can put up four walls, a few doors, and a roof and call it a house, but then it’s no more than just a shell. Building a house requires planning, layout, experts in multiple areas, and feng shui (if you’re into that sort of thing). 

Fluxx’s Community Manager Shawn Garrison met with Tiffany Ramos, Director of Operations at Pillar to discuss their mission, and how Fluxx has been an integral part of their operation.

About Pillar
Pillar was conceived out of the hardships realized by business from the COVID pandemic. Pillar saw a need to help small businesses survive during the tumultuous economic times by providing grants and loans to the small businesses within the Rainier Valley and Greater Seattle area in Washington state. As a result of their work, hundreds of small businesses are thriving today and continue to be a vital part of their communities.

The Need for Efficiency and Transparency
As the pandemic continued to impact small businesses, Pillar saw an increase in their grantmaking to ensure they kept to their mission within the community. They wanted to find a solution to help fill in some process gaps and be more efficient in their grantmaking. Additionally, they wanted to have greater visibility and control into how they were collaborating on grants and ensuring the right people reviewed the grants at the right time in the process. These needs ultimately led them to Fluxx.

The grants management process can vary depending on the size and scope of your organization. It is not uncommon to start with a simple approach involving simple tools, a combination of systems that are either stitched together or siloed (or for some, no system at all). 

Summary:  

Have you recently wondered how to scale to support a new infusion of funding? Started issuing new types of grants or investments? Onboarding more people or new departments to collaborate on your grantmaking process? 

This post first appeared on The Center for Effective Philanthropy blog.

At effective foundations, the how of grantmaking is everyone’s business.

When grantmakers think about their funding strategy, we often focus on where we will give, to what, and to whom. We think about the results we want our funding to spark or enable. But strategy is supported (or not) by operations: the way in which grantmaking programs are structured and how grants are introduced, applied for, screened, decided, made, monitored, reported upon, assessed, and learned from. These funder practices are what we call “the how.”