June 2003 TSC Update

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Funding Syndicate contributions have reached $3.5 million with the addition of two foundations in June —Atlanta and Oregon. This represents 88% of the $4 million goal and brings the total number of FS partners to 35. There are several community foundations with grants still in process and it is hoped that they will commit to the Funding Syndicate shortly. The TSC will close this round of the Funding Syndicate mid-August and outline specific benefits to partners who joined in the first offering. The TSC will also finalize procedures for others who wish to become involved after the first round.

Actual work on the Initiative has been urgent and fast-paced and, at the same time, thorough and thoughtful. To coordinate the various subcommittees, chairmen have been meeting by phone and in also held one in-person meeting on June 9 and 10 in Chicago. High on the priority list at this meeting were discussions on pending business needs, process issues and identification of actions needing resolution.

Online discussions, including one especially for CEOs, continue to be held. For the schedule and registration information, click here.

Technology Steering Committee*
Technology Initiative and Funding Syndicate Update
June, 2003

Seamless Processing (Kit Conroy, NY Community Trust, chair)

After presentations from three finalists during a June meeting in Chicago, the subcommittee narrowed the field to two options. Chair Kit Conroy indicated excitement about these two proposals, both of which exceeded subcommittee expectations. "We didn't dare dream that our options for seamless processing might include a product that requires minimal development, nor did we expect that the vendors would push our thinking to greater heights, but we saw both of these things take place as we explored the two final options. It is even conceivable," Conroy continued, "that the field might end up with more than one choice in seamless processing options."

Now the subcommittee is digging deeper into the two selected proposals and will use their learnings from this solution-oriented process to make a recommendation to the TSC Executive Committee, which makes the final decision on vendor selection and budget.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (Noah Wasmer, East Bay CF, chair)

The CRM subcommittee is has begun working with a draft business needs document prepared by TSC consultant and project manager, Doug Yeager. The committee will be refining the document, seeking outside feedback, and adding enhanced functionality with a completion target date of July 24^th. When the document is fine-tuned and approved, the committee will begin to solicit proposals from a broad variety of vendors.

The CRM Committee has begun vendor outreach, agreeing to research a broad variety of large CRM vendors (inside and outside of the Foundation space) to ensure that we are maximizing the CRM capital of the TSC. Noah, Doug, and other committee members will be contacting these vendors over the coming months.

API and Development Standards

(Greg McMillen, The Central Indiana CF, Tracy Peck, The Arizona CF, co-chairs)

API is beginning detailed discussions with MicroEdge/NPO about specifics in their proposal. The Development Standards folks have received approval from the TSC Executive Committee to hire Brulant, a Cleveland-based consultant, to define technology platform standards for all subcommittees. Brulant's work is critical to assuring that, when technology modules are developed, compatibility across and between various software components is guaranteed for community foundations.

Research and Education (Bill Solomon, The Dallas Foundation, chair)

This subcommittee identified the need for a technology resource center for the field. Envisioned as a Web site, the resource center will assemble a wide range of technology resources for the field.

Work is progressing on creating the site, in co-sponsorship with the Council on Foundations Technology Affinity Group (TAG) and Financial and Administrative Officers Group (FAOG). The Web site will leverage TAG's existing site, providing cost savings, but will have its own unique content, which is currently being determined. By the Fall Conference, the bulk of the work on this resource center should be completed. A soft launch may be possible before then, if all goes well.

Web Presence (Tom Hay, Pittsburgh Foundation, chair)

Recruitment for the Web Presence subcommittee is being finalized this month. An organizational meeting and the beginning of deliberations on business needs are expected to take place by the end of July.

*The Technology Steering Committee (TSC) is co-sponsored by the Community Foundations Leadership Team of the Council on Foundations and Community Foundations of America. The Technology Initiative is a series of integrated and prioritized development activities to build community foundation technology readiness, capacity and infrastructure over the next three years.

These updates are part of a communications effort to keep colleagues in the field informed about the TSC's work. Information in these documents may be freely distributed by TSC members providing that: 1) precise language in the updates is used (for clarity and consistency); 2) the TSC attribution language (provided to the left) is included; and 3) readers are referred to source documents on the COF or CFA Web sites.