New York, Feb. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MicroEdge LLC, the leading provider of solutions for the giving community worldwide, today announced that First Nonprofit Foundation has selected GIFTS Online as its grants management solution.
First Nonprofit Foundation is a Pennsylvania-based, private grantmaking organization that focuses its giving on bolstering the nonprofit sector in the United States. Founded in 2003, it originally focused solely on educational causes and awarded few grants. Then, in 2013, the foundation expanded its scope to become a grantmaking foundation with a wider range of interests. This change called for a streamlined grants management process, which led the organization to acquire GIFTS Online.
GIFTS Online--MicroEdge's fully-hosted, online grants management solution--equips giving organizations of all types and sizes with powerful grants management tools to work more efficiently, improve results and effectively collaborate to make a greater impact. Its high level of scalability lets it easily meet the needs of larger organizations, while its easy to use, intuitive interface and powerful functionality make it the perfect choice for smaller giving organizations with fewer resources.
Because First Nonprofit Foundation operates with only one fulltime employee--CEO, Joe Geiger--acquiring a system that is both powerful and yet easy to use was critical. The foundation's needs are not uncommon in today's philanthropic community; more and more small foundations need to operate effectively with very few staff members in order to maximize the amount of dollars they can award as grants. This generally calls for a system that has extensive capabilities, yet is not cost prohibitive for organizations of that size. First Nonprofit Foundation found that combination in GIFTS Online. "We did not want to make a huge investment into software that we would have to manage on our own servers, and be concerned about data backups, emergencies, etc.," said Mr. Geiger. "When we looked at GIFTS Online, we found that it would allow us to manage our grants free of the concerns we had. Plus, the pricing was right for us."
The foundation was also drawn to GIFTS Online's ability to streamline the grants management process, which is particularly important for small foundations with limited human resources. When the organization began to award more grants following their 2013 shift in focus, time spent on the grant process suddenly became an important variable. "Our previous process of managing grants manually in spreadsheets proved to be extremely time consuming and often resulted in us having to redo work that had already been done," said Mr. Geiger. "That experience helped us understand that we could not manage the number of grants we wanted to award unless we had a system to help."
Having now acquired GIFTS Online, the foundation is eager to see how the system will allow them to grow and evolve, as well as meet the goals they have set for the future. "We believe that GIFTS Online will allow us to realize our goals of a fully 'paperless' grant cycle, operating with significant overhead efficiencies, and the ability to award the maximum number of grants with the resources available," continued Geiger. "We also feel that it will allow us to be consistent with our mission statement going forward. So overall it was the right system for us and we're excited about the opportunities for improvement it will bring."
About First Nonprofit Foundation
First Nonprofit Foundation strongly believes in the resilience and
provision of quality of life in the United States provided by
nonprofit staff and volunteers. As such, the Foundation offers
grants to programs that advance leadership in the sector, enhance
and reward top management practices, fund programs that represent
great need, or are uniquely replicable. To learn about First
Nonprofit Foundation, visit www.firstnonprofit.org.
Additional Information on GIFTS Online
Visit www.microedge.com/GIFTSOnline
to learn more about the features and benefits of GIFTS Online, view
video demo recordings, and access a host of free grantmaking
resources.
About MicroEdge
Established in 1985, MicroEdge, LLC is the leading provider of
software and services to the giving community worldwide. MicroEdge
solutions deliver a powerful, integrated, and open framework for
efficient and effective charitable giving. The company is committed
to providing the best technology toolset for foundations,
corporations, government agencies, donors, advisors and financial
institutions. Together, these tools help organizations to work with
one another to raise, invest, manage and award charitable currency.
MicroEdge is headquartered in New York City with regional offices
throughout the U.S. and supports thousands of clients worldwide.
MicroEdge is part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio of
software and technology-enabled companies. To learn more about
Vista Equity Partners, visit www.vistaequitypartners.com.