At the risk of sounding cliche, 2020 was an unprecedented year for all of us. For Fluxx, 2020 was a year spent working round-the-clock to further collaborate and support our clients and team while also adjusting to a fully-remote work environment. We also found new ways to support our community, volunteer, and give back throughout this ongoing crisis. It’s safe to say our team is closing out the year feeling a renewed appreciation for our work, one another, and our impact.
Naturally, all of these changes meant that there was also a lot to share on the Fluxx blog, so we wanted to revisit the five most important posts of this year. These pieces were inspired by our community and our team; and were shared often and read by many of you!
At Fluxx, we pride ourselves on being nimble and working quickly with our clients in order to scale Fluxx to do more – faster. That’s exactly why when COVID hit the U.S., one of our first large-scale projects of the year was to collaborate with the Colorado Health Foundation and the Governor’s Office of Colorado in order to launch the Colorado COVID Relief Fund.
This initiative was formed to provide grants up to $25k to nonprofit organizations, local governments, school districts, and small businesses of Colorado to help support communities most disproportionately impacted by the crisis. Within two weeks, the Colorado COVID Relief Fund Fluxx solution was live. In record time, our team built the Fund’s web portal and backend site that were used to accept applications, process grants through each phase of the cycle, and allow multiple review committees to review and score applications through our solution.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on grantmaking. With so many communities around the world suddenly facing urgent, unexpected need, funders quickly pivoted and incorporated rapid-response tactics to their grant portfolio in order to support their grantees.
That’s why Fluxx partnered with Grantbook (a preferred Fluxx strategic technology implementation partner for grantmakers) to explore how funders can employ rapid-response grantmaking tactics efficiently and effectively at their foundation. We talked about principles and best practices for framing your response plans, tactical tips that you can implement in Fluxx Grantmaker or other grants management systems today, and most importantly, we profiled the Surdna Foundation, who shared how their team supported their overall mission while simultaneously re-allocating funds for rapid response needs.
Earlier this year Fluxx was pleased to announce that Kristy Gannon assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer. The role was previously championed by Madeline Duva, who has remained at Fluxx as an active board member. Gannon was Fluxx’s first full-time product hire back in 2012. She originally joined the team as the Vice President of Product. She then quickly transitioned to the role of Chief Product Officer followed by Chief Operating Officer prior to stepping into the role of CEO.
Gannon’s transition to the role of CEO was in development for several months. She will lead the organization’s ambitious plan to expand its product offering and to continuously improve how Fluxx serves its clients and community.
We love our integrations at Fluxx. Why? Because they allow our funders to leverage multiple systems in one place and to do more directly within Fluxx Grantmaker.
When you consolidate your work into one system, your work is more streamlined and you are able to eliminate tedious busy work so you can focus on what matters most! That’s why this popular blog focused on all of Fluxx’s most-used plug-and-play integrations. A plug-and-play integration is a tool that you simply “turn on” in Fluxx Grantmaker. Meaning there is no customization needed – it’s set up and ready for you to login and connect with your other system.
Click the link above to learn more about our plug-and-play integrations. You will likely see some familiar products in this list.
A recent survey from the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) found that 90 percent of funders surveyed were relaxing reporting requirements in some capacity for their grantees during the COVID-19 crisis. Click the link above to learn more about how calling your grantees, putting your reporting on pause (or keeping it super simple), and leveraging your grants management solution to stay streamlined, can all effectively ease grantee burden.
What a year it’s been! We hope you enjoyed revising some our top five blog posts from the year. We look forward to sharing more with you next year.
The IRS is about to release foundation 990-PF (and 990) tax returns as machine-readable open data. Is this the game-changer we've been waiting for?
When we move towards the unknown, we open ourselves up to new insight … and, if we’re fortunate, transformation.
In this blog, we will be covering episode three of Untapped Philanthropy, which you can listen to now through the podcast link at the top of the...