“The most useful and influential people… are those who take the deepest interest in institutions that exist for the purpose of making the world better.”
Booker T. Washington
It’s autumn. Change is in the air. Thus, no better time to announce the evolving nature of our own path here at Fluxx!
In Fluxx’s journey to innovate as a company and platform, our North Star must always be to support our community’s evolution in grantmaking practices, paving the (technology) path to bring scale and visibility to their impact. We see a world where funders and grantees build collectives, collaborating in real time over an open structure of knowledge. To make this a reality, it has been - and always will be - critical to partner with people and organizations of like mind in both our mission and values.
We are therefore excited to make an investment announcement, in line with exactly those objectives: Fluxx has been acquired by private equity investor Metamorph Partners.
To lend perspective on what this exciting news means to our Fluxx Community and industry, we asked Fluxx CEO Kristy Gannon and Co-founder / CDO Kerrin Mitchell, to share their thoughts:
Q. Fluxx was recently acquired by Metamorph Partners. How are the two of you feeling about the announcement? Why did you choose to partner with them?
KG: We are thrilled! Full of anticipation. We really found the perfect partner. Metamorph’s operational know-how and financial commitment is what will allow us to execute on our vision for global impact. Today is an exciting day for our employees as well as our customers.
KM: Indeed, we are truly honored for the partnership and very optimistic in how it will support future innovation in our incredible social sector industry.
Q: How does this support Fluxx’s vision to be the leading collaborative grantmaking platform that amplifies impact in our global communities?
KG: In response to the growing collaboration in the grant space, Fluxx wanted to make a few big bets in our platform innovation, augmenting our service of the social sector - for both the private and public grantmakers, alike.
KM: We are at a critical inflection point in grantmaking that technologists like us only dreamed about 10 years ago. We are seeing mobilization and action in areas like the promotion of digital transformation, industry-wide initiatives like common applications, shared taxonomies and impact tracking data science. All of these are absolutely crucial movements for our industry -- one that is defined by its very nature as a collective well-being and collaborative space. The Metamorph investment allows us to invest in our platform, our clients, our employees, all in service to this vision.
Q. What makes being data-driven so important to grantmaking?
KM: Data - good data, that is - serves as the building blocks for collaboration. Data provides the common denominators that will let us identify opportunities for collaboration. With good data in hand, we get to spend time on meaningful conversations around the Why’s and How’s (instead of smoothing out spreadsheets). Technology has a role to play here to lift up the stories, highlight the trends, multiply impact from 10 to 10,000. It’s about finding commonalities and opportunities around your constituents and partners - and taking informed and unified actions.
KG: It’s what allows our customers and their grantees to prepare for the future. The reality is that grantmakers face unprecedented pressure - they’re being asked to give more money in less time and with fewer resources, all while driving major initiatives around security, accessibility, and diversity, equity, and inclusion... And to have all of that captured in systems. Their success is predicated on that data-driven core. Data is what enables grantors and grantees to improve decisions and operations and to evaluate results across their initiatives, programs, and grants.
Q. In addition to this big announcement on Metamorph, Fluxx also announced a program that enables grantmakers to quickly and easily switch to Fluxx from legacy platforms.
KM: We did! Our Fluxx Community encompasses both small and large organizations, private and public sector, alike - many of whom came over from platforms like Blackbaud Grantmaking and Salesforce foundationConnect. In speaking with them, the candid feedback we heard was rooted in frustrations around the forced upgrades and deteriorating service, and they face longer term contracts to boot.
To help interested folks migrate to a new platform, we de-risk the challenge in moving by offering to switch them to Fluxx and without paying any subscription fees until their previous contract is over.
Q. So grantmakers can switch to Fluxx at any time?
KM: Yes. When grantmakers move to Fluxx - even mid-contract - they do it because they know they’re moving to a trusted, data-driven solution and because we’ve got the process down pat. We migrate them seamlessly to get them up and running quickly toward their data-driven future.
Q. What does all this mean for Fluxx customers?
KG: It will mean a lot of change by way of innovation for them soon! But today we are the same Fluxx they’ve known and loved. No changes to leadership, just more resources to help us help them.
Q. What do you hope most to help them do?
KG: To connect their data to their mission. To ensure no insights get lost on the cutting room floor as they piece together information. To enable collaboration. And storytelling. And ultimately to help them make the world better.
KM: Nothing overly ambitious.
KG: Not at all. :)
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