The Technology Steering Committee reports steady progress on a number of vital fronts in this report covering March and April activity.

All TSC subcommittee chairs met in Louisville, KY on March 15 to discuss and negotiate critical issues related the intersection of business needs of the various subcommittees. In in-depth discussions, chairs reviewed activities to date, considered budget implications and analyzed next steps (including timing issues of cash allocations.) While budget projections have remained relatively similar to the original Tech Initiative proposal, timing of cash outlays has been adjusted and is receiving careful oversight.

Chairs reviewed the business needs analysis recently completed for Tech Initiative activities for which monies have not yet been committed (including Web presence, accountability and some aspects of CRM). With new analysis before them, chairs began to determine how overlap in those areas would be managed and how to get most accomplished across all the committees.

Chair: Kit Conroy, NY Community Trust

Business terms have been negotiated with American Stock Transfer (AST) Trust, the provider recently selected to provide the seamless processing requirements of the Technology Initiative. The TSC is in final states of contract documentation, after which launch of this crucial component will be announced. AST's seamless processing solution will allow community foundations to electronically link investment management and custody information to their core systems.

Subcommittee Chair Kit Conroy said, "AST Trust brings to the table a ready-to-use seamless processing solution for our field as well as numerous existing relationships with funds and brokerages around the country."

Chair: Greg McMillan

The API Subcommittee met recently and reviewed the staff's proposed framework for API (application programming interfaces) as well as the overall approach for sequencing of API implementation (i.e. how API's relate and in what order API's will be developed). These discussions will help make clear the TSC's expectations and will inform the creation of a negotiated timeline for completion (a process still underway with MicroEdge).

API's are a major 2004 deliverable, providing critical capacities for implementation of other Technology Roadmap components. API's are also complex to define and tricky to sequence for maximum effectiveness. The most recent work of TSC staff and the subcommittee is a milestone in terms of understanding and gaining consensus on the framework that will drive this work.

Chair: Deborah Whitehurst, Arizona Foundation

The CRM Subcommittee met on April 25 and 26.   Doug Yeager, TSC staff, presented the MicroEdge CRM approach, emphasizing their substantial work in 2004 on the infrastructure for Next Generation Software, delivery of most new functionality in 2005, and their commitment to collaboration and open architecture.  The Subcommittee Chairs' recommendation to combine a portion of the Accountability Subcommittee's work (on grants management and donor matching) into the CRM Subcommittee's responsibilities was accepted.  (See also Accountability Subcommittee report)

Action was taken to initiate a Request for Information (RFI) process for online grants management and donor/program matching solutions that can 'plug-and-play' for those Foundations wishing to take a plug and play (best of breed) approach to their software needs.. 

Chair: Teri Hansen, Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice

The Accountability Subcommittee has completed and approved its research, encapsulated in a report titled "Actionable Blueprint: Operationalizing Accountability in Community Foundations." This report:

• provides a very useful analysis of the field's accountability business processes

• clearly outlines overlap with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Web presence initiatives of the TSC

• will be useful in guiding decision making about focus areas for development

The report recommended that the Accountability Sub-Committee should pass overlapping elements (especially on-line grants mgt and donor matching) to the CRM Subcommittee. This recommendation, which included some significant budget shifts as well, was approved, and shared at the TSC chairs meeting on March 15.

In April the Blueprint was been circulated to (and feedback was sought from) the full TSC, as well as members of two related subcommittees: Seamless Processing and CRM.

Next, the subcommittee will begin work to 1) catalyze development and delivery of appropriate tools and 2) develop, approve and communicate standards and protocols that should drive local accountability efforts so that they can eventually be linked nationally.

Chair: Bill Solomon, The Dallas Foundation

The Research and Education Subcommittee is also writing and gathering new resources, which are being posted regularly to CFTech. The subcommittee also requests your input about resources that would benefit you and your foundation.

Chair: Tom Hay, Pittsburgh Foundation

In early March the Web Presence Subcommittee discussed the findings of a mid-point report prepared by consultants,which summarized the research conducted over the previous several months. This report presented a number of concepts which were reviewed by individuals in the field during a series of webcasts. Participants rated these ideas and a final project report was presented to the sub-committee in early April. The sub-committee agreed that three areas were priority projects that should be scoped out for consideration of implementation:

• personalized home pages for donors, grantees and professional advisors, including 'single log-in' for each type of constituent

• e-marketing suite (a suite of tools that providing e-newsletter and email marketing and communications services with template and tagged content from Websites)

• advanced communications training on using technology as part of an overall communications plan