Pinkerton Improves Grantee Satisfaction With Fluxx

The Pinkerton Foundation does things a little differently than your average grantmaker. Because the foundation localizes their work and is dedicated to – “improving the lives of young people in poor neighborhoods throughout New York City by helping them develop the skills, self-reliance and strong values necessary to live up to their full potential” – they prioritize interacting with their grantees with regular site visits, and needed a platform that would free up valuable time for these face-to-face interactions.

However, their in-person interaction with grantees was being hampered by an inefficient Microedge GIFTS system.

“My desk was stacked with weighty paper proposals and other documents. Everything had to be created outside of GIFTS. There was no regular maintenance across GIFTS modules so I had to spend hours cross-checking organizations to make sure that the right address was logged. Often this basic information wasn’t properly pulled through the platform forcing me to re-generate documents,” said Santos-Schonborg.

Constantly having to double-check simple data and often call grantees for information, not only hampered the tight-knit team of five at The Pinkerton Foundation but left grantees feeling frustrated by what they viewed as internal disorganization.

So in 2016, the team began to search for an automated, comprehensive grants management solution that would address all of the foundation’s needs within a single toolset.

Overall the team was looking for a solution that would:

• Consolidate and reduce re-work – Pinkerton wanted all of their grants management needs to be handled within a single portal
• Enable automatic payment updates – this would save countless hours spent following up with grantees over the phone or via email
• Uplevel the foundation’s data – information needed to be readily available and easy to access
• Eliminate the need for mailers – Pinkerton’s grantees are conscious of their paper waste and had requested that the foundation work to be more environmental, and not add to their grantee’s burden

The team found all this and more, with Fluxx Grantmaker. “Grantmaker is a total game-changer. The time I spend processing a grant has been drastically reduced, not to mention the platform is intuitive and easy for our grantees to use as well,” said Yvonne Santos-Schonborg, Grants and Office Manager at The Pinkerton Foundation.

Now, team members are equipped with all of the necessary information they need before a grantee site visit. The time spent with grantees is used to asses and celebrate impact, rather than confirm information or update teams on their grant status – all things that are now easily generated in a Fluxx Grantmaker automated report.

To learn more about The Pinkerton Foundation’s success and grantee satisfaction, read the case study.