The SmartSimple Blog

Introducing SmartSimple Support Twitter Account

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 May 2018 13:47:00 +0000

Get real-time support and service updates on our new Twitter channel.

Transparency means everything to us, and to ensure that every SmartSimple user is up to date about everything happening with our software, we've launched a new Support Twitter channel.

CLICK HERE AND FOLLOW OUR SUPPORT TWITTER ACCOUNT

Adding to our 24/5 Support services, we've opened a new line of communication to alert our clients about current system upgrades, upcoming upgrades, and any sudden changes in service. While we'll still be sending out emails with upgrade updates, you don't have to wait for them to learn about our new services and products. Be in the know now. Follow our Support Twitter account today.

May 2018 Upgrade Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 May 2018 14:14:00 +0000

For this month's upgrade, we focused on making the system configuration more efficient and simplified. We also provided functionality to enable you to become more GDPR-compliant.

Below is a summary of these exciting updates. For a full list of our upgrades, visit our Wiki.

MAY 2018 UPGRADE HIGHLIGHTS

_________________________________________________

Policies, Regulations, and Privacy

Personal Data Fields
Permissioned users can now identify custom fields as personal data fields. That means, as end users enter their data into your system, a message will be displayed informing them why specific information is being collected, Users will also be able to access a summary of this information, providing complete transparency.

Privacy Policies and Agreements on Sign-up Pages

Another feature to enhance transparency is the added ability to view your privacy policies and agreements directly on your sign-up pages. Registrants can now consent to your terms of the agreement prior to submitting their information. This also saves your users time, as they will know up front what they are agreeing to.

Data Retention Policies

This new feature provides the ability to set different data retention policies, making it easier to comply with the latest regulations your organization must adhere to.This means that you can choose what, and when, information supplied by your end users will be purged from your system.

Scheduling of GuideStar Charity Checks

You now have the option to schedule regular, automated checks in GuideStar. This is a useful tool for when you’re issuing payments. Running an automated workflow will confirm the status of any organization listed in Guidestar.

Reporting

Impact Quadrant Chart

Measure your success, compare, and visualize the impacts of all your investments. This feature can be used by anyone looking to quantify the result of your organization’s work on any Level 1 record. The charts you create will clearly show the differences in the outcomes from your awards based on definitions you create.

New Search Fields with Report Builder

We’ve added a new feature to our report builder functionality. Now, there’s a search fields option that makes it easier for you to find the exact fields you want to use, providing the ability to create reports more quickly and effectively.

Schedule Report Exports

You can now schedule regularly recurring tasks (daily, weekly, monthly) and have your system automatically run a report and export it to a SmartFolder or external, secured site.

Visual Differentiation for Non-Production Environments

Instead of having to consistently check the URL to confirm whether you’re working in back up or production, we’ve introduced a clear visual indicator at the top of your screen that will identify which environment you’re logged in to.

User Functionality

Define Dynamic Search Parameters

You can now define search parameters within a portal list view panel. This makes it easier for your end users to do searches on their own, without having to build multiple list views. For example, if a user wants to perform a targeted search, they can set parameters (within the last month, within the last year, etc.), making it faster to find what they’re looking for.

Question Set Builder

There’s no need to engage an administrator for Question Set edits with the Question Set Builder. Now, you simply create your own unique field sets anytime you need. For example, if you have different users running different programs, they can easily define and add their own set of questions or metrics as required.

Upload Pictures for Shortcuts and Sections

Personalize your SmartSimple system with your own images. Pictures can be uploaded to use as portal shortcuts or section backgrounds. This new feature gives you more options for branding your system.

Bridging Technology and Empathy: Why Support Needs To Be A Priority

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 May 2018 20:05:00 +0000

SmartSimple Product Business Analyst, Sharon Courtney guest writes about the intersection of technology meeting empathy and how support plays a critical role.

Where do technology and empathy meet? How do you build a culture of trust using software solutions with your clients? We’ll be discussing how we use this question as a driving and guiding force in how we approach our support services.

At our core, SmartSimple is a software company that creates technological solutions for human connection. An innate part of our DNA is to build relationships with the clients we collaborate with — to bridge technology in a dynamic, empathetic world. To understand this, we first have to examine what both technology and empathy mean to us.

Empathy can take two forms: cognitive and effective. Cognitive empathy, also known as perspective taking, can include the ability to sense the emotions of others, imagine what they may be thinking or feeling. From a support perspective, affective empathy would mean feeling what the client feels, which is not always what the client needs.

What is empathetic technology?

It means building a tool for the client that addresses their discrete needs. It means building to what they feel. It means we want to make sure that what we build for them actually helps them do their job. This could entail accessibility, compliance, process, background checks, eligibility, task automation, and above all, engagement.

How do you build engagement?

There are multiple ways to build engagement. The first step is understanding what the client deals with on a daily basis. What are their challenges? How technical are they, and how technical are their users? Are they over- or under-resourced? What is the frog they must swallow every day? Where could their process be improved? Why did they choose the processes they did?

Every client has unique needs and history. Their previous process could be pen and paper forms, other systems, or dictated by needs or users that are no longer current. How can we make life easier for them?

Engagement builds trust, which fosters productive communication. Depending on a client’s challenges, they may communicate their needs in ways that are not immediately obvious or technical.

Engagement includes, but is not limited to, active listening, identifying pain points, future-proofed thinking, documentation, follow-up, transparency, consistency, and recall. It also includes check-ins before and after each engagement and having a clear plan. Even if that plan is to work on an issue and check in once a week, that is still an agreed plan to build trust.

This engagement can be paid forward to the client’s users. Highlighting accessibility, areas of confusion, multiple languages, and inclusive language will create a better system. Our goal is to create a system that a client does not merely rent, but owns - that they trust themselves with the system.

Empathy is a responsibility that applies to every role at SmartSimple. From early engagement to architecture, to build, training, and go-live support, empathy is paramount, and it critical in every facet of what we do.

How To Make Your Website Forms GDPR-Compliant

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 May 2018 15:22:00 +0000

Are your website forms GDPR-compliant? Make sure your data collection processes are ready for the upcoming EU legislation with this checklist.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is fast-approaching on May 25, 2018, and it’s imperative to make sure all of your services and processes are compliant. If you haven’t heard about the GDPR yet, get acquainted here and see if and how you are affected by the new legislation.

Your web page forms are usually the first point of contact and the place where most personal data is collected. Therefore, it’s vital that web page forms are GDPR-compliant every step of the of the way from collection to reporting.

We’ve created a checklist of best practices to help you make your website forms GDPR-compliant.

1. Data

Start by specifying what kind of data you want, why you want it, and how it’s presented when you collect it.

Define what data you will be collecting
List out all of the questions you’re going to ask in your website form
When designing your form and questions, make privacy your guiding priority.

2. Data Mapping

Mapping out all the touchpoints and steps in your data processing cycle will prepare you to be audit-ready.

Lay out the following information concerning the data you’re collecting:

Who the data was collected from
Where the data was collected
If the data subject is over the age of 13
What your purposes are for collecting the data information
Where you plan on storing the data information
Who will have access to the data information
What category of personal data it is
If the data information is sensitive
How long you hold the data information for

3. Define Your Process

Having detailed documentation around your process enables you to detect the points that aren’t GDPR-compliant easier.

Make sure your internal processes are transparent and fully auditable
Make sure the Data Map is the point of reference

4. Communicate

Clearly communicating your compliance with GDPR to your audience within every step of the data collection process is key. Providing transparent information about your use of collected data for everyone to fully consent with giving their personal data is required by GDPR.

Article 13 of the GDPR sets out what you information you need to provide at the point of data collection (i.e. website form)
Include the GDPR policies on each data entry field
Let your audience know exactly why you need their information and what you’re going to do with it
Write everything out in clear and accessible language

5. Finishing the Form

Make sure that your audience knows about their data rights at the specific point of data submission. This will ensure their data rights and full consent to the collection of their personal data submission as required by GDPR.

Make sure the consent is opt-in
Link to your organization’s Privacy Policy, a place where they can manage their consent settings, and where it is easy to withdraw their consent.
Provide a well-monitored email where your audience and contact you with questions and about their data information

For more information about how you can prepare for the GDPR, visit our “How to Prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)” blog.

3 Ways To Simplify the Tracking of Your Research Funding Outcomes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 May 2018 15:33:00 +0000

The research you fund is only as good as the outcomes it generates. Funders have to make the process of reporting easy for researchers so they can give you the metrics you need while not sacrificing their important research time. Tracking and measuring the impact of funding can leave researchers and funders alike misaligned and out of sync, which in turn, leaves everyone isolated and in the dark.

Even when there are outcomes to be tracked, gathering the data and efficiently reporting it is a different story. Based on a global 2016 survey, 36% of researchers felt they would benefit from improved systems for tracking impact. Quality data reporting, in turn, dramatically influences the confidence of their funders, i.e., you.

Here are three ways you can simplify your impact reporting process

Separate your key metrics into easy to access activity categories

When reporting metrics and outcomes, there’s a delicate balance between what the researcher has to do and what the funding staff needs to capture their reporting needs. SmartSimple simplifies the reporting process for funders, and makes sure that when researchers enter in their metrics, it’s in a very systematic way. For example, metrics and researcher activities can be reported in categories including;

Publications
Achievements
Intellectual Properties (IP)
Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP)

All of these key sections convey a well-rounded report on how the funding is being allocated with finite proof to report with.

Keep all of your information stored in one platform

For funders, reports are often housed on multiple spreadsheets and different programs that quickly fall out of line with current and updated research milestones. Funders have the common problem with the inability to keep up with the volume of data and multiple file versions, so the whole process of keeping track of the researcher’s activities becomes too time-consuming. SmartSimple provides an all-in-one solution with endless configuration that enables all data to be tracked and reported in one platform. Researchers have one centralized and clear channel to provide up-to-date reports, metrics and milestones to funders along the way in their projects.

All relevant stakeholders have access to real-time reports at any time, anywhere

With platforms like SmartSimple, funders and researchers have access to the data and reports through their role-based user portals. When a researcher logs into their portal, they can continually update their projects as those metrics are updated. As a funder, you don’t have to wait for quarterly or annual reports, you can gain access to updated information and reporting the minute that it’s posted by the researcher. All parties are on the same page every step of the way.

As impact and outcome reporting is becoming more and more of a critical element in research funding, the need for transparency and agile reporting is more important than ever. As a funder, you should know where your funding is going, and the more real-time updates you get, the more compelling your reporting will be.

How the SickKids Foundation Elevated Their Grant Funding Impact

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 20:05:00 +0000

The SickKids Foundation’s National Grants Team had big organizational challenges in their grants management system. Their small number of dedicated program staff were inundated with a burdensome, outdated grant application process, and the data they pulled from templates yielded incomplete data that limited impact reporting. SmartSimple assisted them in updating their entire application process in one centralized location. Their new grants management system enabled them to work more efficiently and provided them with in-depth and powerful tracking and reporting capabilities that gave more insight into their grant researcher work and community impact.

About the SickKids Foundation

As a leader in the not-for-profit sector, SickKids Foundation raises funds on behalf of The Hospital for Sick Children - one of the world’s foremost paediatric health-care institutions. SickKids Foundation is the largest charitable funder of child health research, learning and care in Canada. Established in 1972, the SickKids Foundation was built upon the leadership of SickKids in helping children across Canada and has funded more than $80 million in grants across the country for children’s health through their National Grants Program. Their awards focus on supporting well-trained researchers across the country who are working to address the most pressing childhood diseases and conditions. They also work to bring together families, researchers, clinicians, and community organizations for medical presentations and family-oriented discussions. While their grant funding is only a small part of the vast lineage of the incredible work that SickKids has provided, it has made a significant impact on children’s health and the medical industry.

A lot of time spent with little results

The SickKids Grants Team was utilizing a grants management system that was timeconsuming, and wasn’t yielding great outcomes for all the invested effort. “We were literally getting proposals in by PDFs and we had to enlist volunteers to do hours of data entry.” says Pam Gilliland, Granting and Hospital Relations Manager of the SickKids Foundation. Their cumbersome process was getting stuck at the administrative level, and it was difficult to quantify program impact.

To make matters worse, they were overpaying for their current system, “The maintenance fees were relentless, so we couldn’t afford the online module,” and the modules themselves made for a complicated workflow. Their application process also didn’t provide in-depth impact reporting since their templates only offered bare-bone information making for incomplete data.

The search for a solution

Needing a significant change in their application process, the Foundation Grants Team looked for an online platform that was cost-effective and didn’t require a degree in technology to set up. They needed an online platform that could streamline and simplify their expansive grant application process. “We get up to 100 applications every cycle from applicants all across Canada.” Pam and her team needed a solution that gave them the powerful functionality that ensured robust reporting, “We wanted to be able to manage and dig deeper into the applications that we were receiving,” as Pam states. They appreciated the transparency in pricing from SmartSimple’s sales team and decided on working with SmartSimple because the software met their workflow needs and expectations.

A grants management system that put all the pieces together

After working with SmartSimple’s implementation team in person, the changes in process were met with positivity. “I was amazed that we could start monitoring the grant requests that people were creating,” Pam says, “the applications and their deadline dates we could see two months out and see what grant activities were taking place,” she continued. With SmartSimple’s powerful grant management tools, Pam and her team were able to get a broader perspective of their work instead of playing catch up with paperwork, “I could get a head start in preparing and assigning reviewers to applications. “We no longer have any data entry, and with an updated system, there were fewer mistakes in processing data into the system.”

With SmartSimple, old processes were shed, and new ones welcomed with open arms. “Having a head start on the peer review analysis has been amazing” Pam says. “Deadline day used to be the day people would send their PDFs, and that’s when we’d open the documents. Now we see beforehand what kind of applications we’re getting and what expertise we need. We used to sit down with a paper checklist which took forever. Now we don’t have to do that anymore. When applicants fill out the application, they have to fulfill our requirements and we can easily see the type of expertise we will require from our peer reviewers.”

High focus on high impact

The transition to SmartSimple was an extensive process to ensure user comfort and confidence. “There’s only two of us on the Grant’s Team that use the database and neither of us are tech-savvy. We spend a lot of time with SmartSimple’s support team, and they’re very responsive.” Says Pam. “The support has been great, and they’re helping us all the time to make it better. It’s been very manageable, even without going through our own IT department.” Now with all of the time they’ve saved with their new system, the SickKids Foundation can focus on continued support for their community. “We’re really starting to focus on impact and showcasing our awardees,” says Pam. “With the freed up time, I’ve managed to highlight and focus on our grantees, and we’ve created profiles, bios and web pages following their careers. I’m able to pull this information from the system and we can highlight the impact our grants are making.”

Pam is happy about the capabilities the SmartSimple system has already delivered and is looking forward to the future. “We’re going to be able to pull impact data and statistics much easier now, and see what our researchers are accomplishing.”

DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION

How Machine Learning Can Help Grants Management

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 20:04:00 +0000

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are rapidly enhancing how we work, but what does this mean for the granting world? Below are 3 different examples of how it applies.

Machine Learning might sound like a concept you'd read in a sci-fi novel taking place in the distant future, but it's something very present in our daily lives. And you've definitely interacted with some form of it, probably even today. From your Recommended movie section on Netflix, to self-driving cars, Machine Learning is quickly becoming a tool that enables projects and businesses make more effective and impactful decisions in their processes and strategies in effort to connect with their audiences in the most appropriate way. When it comes to the granting world, Machine Learning can create a major shift in the landscape as we know it. Machine Learning can enable any grants foundation to look at their past giving to assist in achieving better giving outcomes in the future.

Learn about SmartSimple's Machine Learning Tool, "Janus"

What is Machine Learning?

Machine Learning is a form of technology that autonomously learns from collected data through algorithms, discovers patterns, and makes predicted decisions for the future. Stanford University succinctly defines Machine Learning as "the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.” For the grant management world, Machine Learning technology can match the scale of a growing organization’s complex needs and helps make informed, data-based decisions to allow you to focus on all the important elements of grants management. When approaching the use of Machine Learning, it’s helpful to map out a set of objectives that you want to learn from your data; having this information will provide greater insight and impact of using Machine Learning as a resource.

How Machine Learning Works (A Brief Overview)

Without getting bogged down in granular details, the overall concept of all Machine Learning algorithms are broken down into three components that all run concurrently:

Representation: This component is the "language" and form in how the Machine Learning algorithm will speak and display your data-based information and predictions. Examples include decision outcomes (ie. yes/no), sets of rules, instances (i.e. sequence of events), and graphical models (i.e. charts).
Evaluation: This component is how the Machine Learning algorithm assesses, and reads the data collected in your system. Examples of evaluation include consistency of accuracy, likelihood of a prediction happening in the future.
Optimization: This component is an extension of how Machine Learning algorithm predicts the ‘best’ option from the evaluated data. Examples include choosing the most likely and best outcome to predict in the future based on findings in your processed data.

From these three elements, Machine Learning technology enables a more efficient workflow while cutting down on errors in data analyzation.

Dr. Pedro Domingos, winner of the SIGKDD Innovation Award, Fulbright Scholarship recipient, and Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington states that, “Machine learning can’t get something from nothing…what it does is get more from less.” meaning that Machine Learning is a tool to make your data become more of a resource in your processes, allowing for more time spent on dynamic human relationships within the grant world.

Machine Learning and Data Privacy

Data privacy is critically important, especially as technology processes countless forms of personal data every day. This is why Machine Learning understandably may cause anxiety in how it inherently processes data. This is where transparency and accountability practices come in. To ease the stress of using Machine Learning technology, organizations (including SmartSimple) can analyze data that is anonymous, where the data can no longer be attributed to a specific subject without the use of additional information, which is kept separately.

Other accountability measures and practices with Machine Learning technology include legislations like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which advocates for data subjects and the right to access their data and objection to the processing of their data. GDPR lays out specific mandates including “the right to explanation.” It’s stated in Article 22 that “the data subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or similarly significantly affects him or her.”

GDPR is just one set of principles that apply to the use of data, including Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) as another example.

Now that we've established the Machine Learning process, here are three real-world scenarios of how it can help with Grants Management...

Grant Funding Impact

Challenge: One of the biggest priorities for organizations is not only ensuring their grant dollars are making the most impact, but also engaging with donors in an authentic way.

Solution: By pulling information from grant reports and analyzing their funding impact, Machine Learning algorithms can pinpoint specific community needs and predict where funding dollars will have the most impact, making for robust, high value reporting for donor engagement news.

Data Breach Security

Challenge: At every point in the granting process, making sure the personal data of all applicants is kept secure and safe from data hacking and privacy breaches.

Solution: Machine Learning algorithms can detect anomalies in user behavior, which uses statistics building a historical baseline within your data. The system alerts the admin on deviations from established baselines that can predict a potential attack.

Review Process

Challenge: The review process evaluating applications using a combination of quantitative and qualitative criteria can be an exhaustive one. Reviewers spend too many hours assessing the relative experience of the applicant or caliber of the organization.

Solution: Implementing Machine Learning algorithms can be used to analyze the content of any grant application and establish a baseline view of the quantitative criteria such as the applicant’s years of experience or specific characteristics of an organization. The algorithms can help predict the impact per dollar invested the funded project will generate.

Machine Learning is a valuable resource that can be used to glean a deeper understanding of not only the impact of our work, but how we work in general. At SmartSimple, we continue to work on making technology more comprehensive and accessible for organizations to thrive in their work’s mission, and Machine Learning is a powerful tool to help along the way.

Learn about SmartSimple's Machine Learning Tool, "Janus"

How to Prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:03:00 +0000

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is fast approaching and officially enacted on May 25, 2018, in Europe, and it will have a critical impact on organizations around the globe which can even include bankruptcy.

GDPR is a European Union legislation that is designed to protect the fundamental rights of citizens and their personal data. This law ensures not only that people know where their private data is kept, but keeps organisations accountable and transparent with their practices. This new regulation not only shifts the standards for how organizations store data, it changes how they relate with data in general.

At SmartSimple, we want to help you not only be informed about GDPR, but be confidently compliant with it so that your organization is ready and safe from heavy consequences. This is why we’ve broken down the different elements into our S.I.M.P.L.E model and providing real, practical strategies to comply with the upcoming regulation.

Read on and be ready. We are here to help.

Sharpen Security and Privacy By Design

Review your security and data protection protocols. Engage your data processing software providers to find out how they can work with you to guarantee compliance.

Create a manual that will help your organization develop best practices regarding GDPR and security awareness

Breach and data attacks happen all the time, and it can happen with a simple click of a wrong link in a spam email. By developing a manual or utilizing available training resources with concrete practices of how to identify potential data risks, it will decrease your chances of suffering from a breach in the future and staff will be informed and knowledgeable.

Implement consistent data protection techniques

In order to protect the data of your clients, utilize SmartSimple’s various security protocols within the system. Some of these include:

Encryption: the process of converting information or data into a code to prevent unauthorized access.
Pseudonymization: the processing of personal data in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, which is kept separately.

Each of these auditable processes ensures that your collected data is protected from a potential breach and data hacking.

Develop a data protection template to be included in upcoming projects

Make sure your implementation processes are not reactive by developing compliance in important projects you’re working on now. By creating a structured process for data protection accountability assessments, you’ll be more prepared when the regulation takes effect.

Implement Relevant Procedures

Each organization is different, so ensure that your data protection plan is tailored to your unique needs and processes.

Designate a Data Protection Officer (DPO)

Under the new regulation, you must appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO) if your company does any of the following:

Exceeds 200 employees
Processes or stores large amounts of EU citizen personal data (this includes international companies)
Processes large amounts of special categories of data which includes sensitive data involving health, religion, race, sexual orientation, etc.
Regularly monitors data subjects (people and entities)
Are a public authority (an entity that’s supported directly or indirectly by the government)

The responsibilities of a DPO is to educate the company on the important compliance requirements, training staff involved with data processing and conducting periodic security audits. As a DPO, you will be also be the main contact for all GDPR matters for your clients.

Create a Data Protection Policy

One of the integral elements of being GDPR compliant is updating your current Data Protection Policy to reflect the new changes. Policies are documents that create principles.

Within the policy, include key elements that include explicit reasoning why the policy is needed, existing technical and organizational measures, and documentation of how the policies will be implemented.

Create a public statement to your clients about GDPR and list out how you’re complying with all aspects of the new regulation

One impactful way to build trust and safety with your clients is to proactively write a public statement and address your commitment to GDPR compliance on your website. This creates transparency in your communication while opening space for dialogue and accessibility to answer questions from your audience. Another option is to become certified as compliant with an authorized code of conduct.

Make Transparency Your Priority

One of the key themes of the GDPR is transparency. Foster transparent processes in your organization through increasing communication and documentation, and build trust along the way.

Review and update customer privacy notices to reflect the new transparency and accessibility requirements of the GDPR

In (an) effort to keep everyone informed, make sure your privacy notices are compliant with GDPR standards and clearly expressed to your clients.

Use video as a medium to explain GDPR

Video is a great way to connect with your audience. It not only delivers the information in a conversational, human way, it also keeps your audience engaged with the information you’re delivering.

Create responsive and layered information notices

There’s a lot you can do to promote transparency on a website design level. You can deliver clarification and details of GDPR terms by using hover notices. This promotes a level of thoroughness that will instill trust in your clients.

Protect the Rights of Your Clients

The GDPR places the responsibility of facilitating a data subject’s rights on you, the controller.

Develop a GDPR compliant checklist that you must complete BEFORE you process and collect data from a subject

Implementing a structured checklist will help make sure you’re not infringing on your client’s rights. Remember, it’s your job as a controller to be facilitating these rights. Having a tangible document gets all of the granular requirements out of your head and onto paper, making for a more stress-free experience. This checklist also serves as a form for future auditing.

Make sure the information you need to provide the data subject is accessible in plain language

Transparency is a major component with GDPR, and the simplest way you can express information to your clients is the best way. Make sure to write your GDPR-related material in a way that a child would understand.

Look Over Your Current Practices

Take time to thoroughly and critically assess what your organization is currently doing, and amend what falls short of compliance. A deep knowledge of your processes will make your road to compliance much smoother.

Implement SmartSimple’s GDPR Self-Assessment Workbook

This Workbook provides our S.I.M.P.L.E. model that lays out a series of questions to help guide you in pinpointing areas in need of improvement.

DOWNLOAD OUR GDPR SELF-ASSESSMENT WORKBOOK

Empower Your People

Empower both your clients, and your employees, through education and communication. GDPR doesn’t just affect the IT department, it makes a great impact into how your organization processes information as a whole. Every part of your company is accountable.

Create a GDPR task force

Get more of your staff actively engaged in making sure you’re GDPR-ready. Not all responsibilities should fall on your DPO, you can create a whole team working on preparing and implementing new company-wide practices.

Put together training materials to raise staff awareness of the new rules under the GDPR

From onboarding of new hires to continuing education for current staff, educational materials on GDPR should be integral in raising awareness in every department.

While all of this may seem daunting, remember that you can contact us with any questions and we're more than happy to help you get GDPR-ready. And always live by this mantra...

10 Things You Need To Know About GDPR

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 13:32:00 +0000

At this point, you’ve probably heard the widespread chatter about the upcoming impact of GDPR, and for good reason. While this new regulation has been enacted by the EU, it will affect how organizations engage with data on a global level. GDPR is a looming presence in large part because of the prohibitive fines for non-compliance (see below). With only a few weeks before it takes effect, many organizations are left trying to understand the legislation, its scope, and how to prepare for it.

We want to help you not only understand the nuances of the GDPR legislation but be confidently compliant with it. This is why we’ve broken down the different elements of the new law in our latest GDPR Workbook. The guide is structured around a set of self-assessment questions designed to help you evaluate your preparedness for compliance with the law.

DOWNLOAD OUR GDPR SELF-ASSESSMENT WORKBOOK

To get you started, here are 10 important things you need to know about GDPR

1. What is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU legislation that is designed to protect the fundamental rights of citizens and their personal data. This law ensures that people not only know where their private data is kept but it holds organizations accountable and transparent with their practices. EUGDPR.org lists the key changes.

2. When is the GDPR compliance date?

GDPR will be officially enacted on May 25, 2018, in Europe, and it will have significant impact on organizations around the globe. This means you. This new regulation not only shifts how organizations store data, but it also changes how they relate to data in general.

3. The Scope of GDPR Affects More Than Just European Organizations

GDPR affects all organizations processing (collecting, recording, storing, using, etc.) personal data (any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person) if the organization is:

Has established controller or processor activities within the eu, regardless of where the actual processing takes place

If you're not established in the EU, you still have to comply if you are:

Offering goods or services to people in the EU
Monitoring EU residents
Obligated via contract

This means that ALL organizations who engage with data from EU-based clients have to be compliant with the new regulation.

4. GDPR focuses on advocating and protecting data subject rights

All data subjects (people and entities) also have new and explicit rights. They now have the right to access their stored data, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restricting of processing, the right to object, and the right to data portability. In essence, any personal data that’s being stored needs to be completely accessible and transparent. Personal data now covers a vast range of information including photos, bank details, social media names and posts, medical information and even very granular data like IP addresses.

5. “Controllers” and “Processors” are mainly impacted

Two main entities will be affected by the new regulation. Data controllers and data processors. A controller is an entity that’s making decisions about what data is collected and how that data is used. A processor is an organization directly involved in collecting, storing, and transferring that data. SmartSimple is a processor and our clients are considered controllers. As a processor, GDPR stipulates our obligations around how we store information and ensures that as processors, we have mechanisms that make data transparent and accessible to data subjects.

6. GDPR is all about lawful use and consent

When it comes to data collection, implied consent (an assumed permission that’s not explicit) is out the door and is replaced by expressed consent (explicit written permission). Data must also be processed with full consent, meaning that the subject must willingly give their data for the purposes of processing. This means that there can no longer be autofill and auto-acceptance webforms. If consent isn’t possible for the subject, it needs to comply with legal obligations to prevent fraud.

7. Data breaches are a big deal

If a data breach occurs, the organization must inform the proper authority within 72 hours, or face steep fines. This short deadline gives you the chance to report the nature of the breach and the approximate amount of people that have been affected by it. The people affected should also be notified, even if this takes place before reporting it. This response process needs to be an organized effort between the controller and the processor.

8. Non-compliance comes with a huge fine

The fine for non-compliance to the GDPR can be up to 20 million euros or 4% of your gross revenue (whichever of both is highest). In either case, this can put organizations out of business, so it’s imperative to comply.

9. The GDPR and Privacy Policies

The user of a website needs to have a clear understanding of how their data is being processed. On ICO’s website, it includes that “the information you provide to people about how you process their personal data must be:

concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible;
written in clear and plain language, particularly if addressed to a child; and
free of charge.”

Writing with clarity will allow the user to fully understand how their data is being processed. The ICO supplies a detailed checklist of new privacy policy requirements.

10. The GDPR and Cookies

Cookie policies are also affected by the implementation of the GDPR. Cookies store unique data about a user. This means that cookie consent will now need to comply with the GDPR.

When data is collected, users will have to make an intentional action to signal that they consent to the data collected from cookies. This means that the current pop-ups used on many websites stating ‘By using this site, you accept cookies’ is insufficient. This also means that sites will need an opt-out option. One of the main points stated by the GDPR is that withdrawing consent must be as easy as permitting in the first place.

DOWNLOAD THE GDPR SELF-ASSESSMENT WORKBOOK

5 Ways Community Foundations Can Align Grantmaking and Fundraising Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 18:40:00 +0000

Within the foundation world, grantmaking and fund development roles are often treated like opposite sides of a coin. However, in reality, these two functions share a uniquely symbiotic relationship. While both roles are important within a community foundation, there are ways this shared relationship can be further improved.

In a community foundation, staff members charged with fund development assist donors with leaving lasting legacies by making contributions to the foundation’s engagement. Grantmaking staff are then tasked with the responsibility of working with local nonprofit organizations to provide them with grant dollars to fund the work they are doing to improve the community.

The challenge with donor flexibility and grantmaking restrictions

Community foundations are often faced with a wide array of challenges when it comes to creating synergy between the fundraising and grantmaking sides of the foundation. This tension is often caused by a discrepancy in goals between both functions.

The considerable flexibility given to donors within a community foundation often causes complicated restrictions for grantmaking staff. If a donor contributes $1 million to the animal rescue fund, the funds can only be used to support organizations engaged in the cause. While this benefits animal rescue organizations, foundations may be prevented from supporting organizations impacting specific high needs in the community, such as early childhood education, food insecurity, and drug addiction.

In an effort to better align development goals with grantmaking needs, many foundations are beginning to think more strategically about how they pursue future gifts. Conducting a community needs assessment may identify that many of the afterschool and youth summer programs are challenged with long waiting lists due to lack of funding. The development department can drive funding in the area of childhood education, so the grantmaking department can increase grant dollars in an area of need for the community.

Here are 5 ways to strategically align grantmaking and fundraising goals

While aligning fund development and grantmaking goals will take some work on the part of the foundation’s executive staff members and board of directors. While it may sound easier said than done, there are some simple ways to begin now:

Pull a report from your grants management software to identify where the most funding requests are coming from in your community. Has there been an increase in education requests in the past three years? Are local human service agencies suffering from government cuts to funding?

Analyze the types of requests for support. Are more nonprofits requesting support for training and development? Maybe the foundation could offer professional development opportunities or fund a professional trainer to provide workshops that organizations could otherwise not afford.

Make connections between donor wishes and community needs. Would a local construction company be interested in establishing an endowment to support building improvement? Are there local doctors that would support a fund for HIV prevention?

Track donor interest. Keeping a database of the interest of various donors can assist foundation staff in calling upon prospective donors to support strategic initiatives when specific needs in the community are identified.

Don’t underestimate your data. With the right tools, foundations have the ability to pull all kinds of reports that can be shared with current and prospective donors. Using your data to create a metric-based impact story can assist donors in realizing the potential impact of their gifts to a specific fund, or the foundation’s unrestricted fund.

As foundations are continuously spouting the importance of collaboration, it is time to begin taking the advice constantly being shared. Fostering collaboration between the individuals tasked with securing foundation assets and those distributing them will increase impact and cohesion within your community foundation.

For more tips on improving how you manage and engage donors, download 5 Proven Tips for Community Foundations to Better Engage Donors.

So what do you think? Did we miss any?

Introducing 24/5 Technical Support

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 15:30:00 +0000

Real technical support from a real human, at any hour.

We’re launching round-the-clock technical support 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. From Sunday at 4pm Eastern Time to Friday 9pm Eastern Time, our clients will have access to live support.

GMT: 9 pm Sunday to 2 am SaturdayEST: 4 pm Sunday to 9 pm FridayPST: 1 pm Sunday to 6 pm FridayAEST: 8 am Monday to 1 pm Saturday

“When you have to burn the midnight oil to get your job done it’s important to know you won’t have to wait till the morning to get answers. You can call us up and talk to a real human being any time of the week, day or night”.

— Mike Reid, Co-Founder of SmartSimple

We take support seriously, which is why we’re pioneering this model as the first in our industry. We’re in the empowerment business, and as such, it’s part of our responsibility to help our clients to get the most out of the SmartSimple platform every step of the way.

We at SmartSimple take pride in our delivery of excellent service to our customers. We have customers who have been with us for more than a decade and we continue to be their trusted advisors for process improvement and growth.

— Madhulika Sharma, Director of SmartSimple Community Support

So, even if you’re working late into the night or in Melbourne, Australia, we’re here to help troubleshoot your technology issues while everyone else is asleep.

“We don’t ever want our customers to get stuck, day or night. Our new 24-hour real person support takes that fear away. We will be here, just call”.

— Mike Reid, Co-Founder of SmartSimple

What clients have said about our Support services:

“The Community Support team is amazing. They’re very responsive, always able to reply to requests in a short time frame. They’re also great at explaining what they’ve done and helped us understand how we can replicate changes ourselves in the future.”

— Ryan Mudawar, Director of Academic and Workforce Programs, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

“I’ve been consistently impressed with how responsive the Community Support Team are. They never rush you off the phone or make you feel like you’re wasting their time.”

— Misha Dashevsky, Grants Manager, Pohlad Family Foundation

February 2018 Upgrade Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:30:00 +0000

For this month’s upgrade, we focused on making system configuration more efficient, more streamlined and more intuitive to make it easier for you to apply changes. Below is a summary of these exciting updates.

Watch the video below to review the highlights from the February Upgrade.

FEBRUARY 2018 UPGRADES

_______________________________________

New Look And Feel To Your Login Pages

We have enhanced login pages with a new look. This update, coupled with improvements from the last upgrade make it easier than ever to create a unique look for your login page.

You’ll notice that the email and password boxes have been re-positioned for greater emphasis and accessibility and you now can personalize your own background image. Note that these changes only apply to newly created login pages, or if you refresh the template in your existing instance.

Creating Company And User Accounts Just Got A Whole Lot Easier

We are always looking to simplify every aspect of your user experience and we’ve made creating new user and company accounts much easier. We’ve streamlined this process by shifting the “Roles/Categories” selection into a different screen for a step-by-step experience. Once the Roles/Categories have been selected, the user and company can continue creating their account with ease.

We have also introduced the “Activate/Deactivate” button right on the user profile screen that indicates if a user has login access right up front.

Eliminate the need to review user types, just simply activate or deactivate them.

Hierarchical Record Navigation

You can once again easily navigate between level one, two and level three objects. With this enhancement, you’ll be able to move from a level 2 directly to the level 1 parent or the UTA list with a single click.

Hierarchical navigation shows your location in SmartSimple’s structural hierarchy at all times. This makes it easier to keep track of what type of record you're currently working with, and to navigate between different records. This upgrade replaces the “go to” menu hidden under “options.”

Simplified Configuration Pages

The new URL Lookup (name change pending) helps in areas where you need to link to system pages like in configuring shortcuts or menus. Starting in the Arcadia portal builder, the URL lookup assists in the construction of URLs for objects and lists. Start by picking the object type such as UTA, Organization, People or Report and then the desired action. For example, choose "People" then "Edit my profile."

We have made it easier to review/modify lists and charts before you use them for different areas. For example, when selecting a list view or chart in an Arcadia portal section, you can now edit the selected list view settings.

Ever feel overwhelmed when you look at configuration pages? We have simplified the settings pages and have moved some antiquated options into a Classic tab. We have also introduced a new Advanced Options toggle to hide away rarely used options. This reduces the clutter on the page and lets you focus on the important settings.

Important note:

Custom field types have been renamed and reorganized. This makes creating custom fields and identifying the type of information you wish to capture a whole lot easier.

Editing language translations have also been simplified. We have added a button beside caption fields that let you enter different language translations a little easier by not having to go to a separate page. An asterisk indicator has also been added to denote that a translation exists, so you no longer have to guess which languages have translations.

The menu UI for configuration pages has also been updated to be more consistent with the object pages, e.g., UTA records, organizations, and users.

Adding Fields In Configuration Mode

When editing a field in Configuration Mode, you now have access to a “+” button to create a new field. Note: If a Type specific field is clicked on, the new field will also be created under that Type.

We have also added the ability for you to create and toggle between different document versions, otherwise known as SmartVersioning. Let’s say you have forms from the past few years that you want to compare data from — you can have access to all of them in one centralized location.

Designing Great-Looking Workflow Emails is Now Easier than Ever

We understand that writing emails take up a lot of your precious time, which is why we created a new “Workflow Email Template” so you can be more efficient with your email communications. You can access these customized templates under the Email Body Format field.

Once you’ve selected the template you’re using, it will automatically populate the subject, body, and attachment fields. Now you can go ahead and focus on other important things instead of rewriting the same email over and over again.

Upgrade Release Notes

Full details on all our February 2018 Features and enhancements, including notes from system administrators, are available on our SmartSimple Wiki

February Upgrade Q&A Sessions

Tuesday, February 27, 2:00PM EST

Thursday, March 1, 10:00 AM EST

Join Arjun Hiranandani, Technical Account Advisor, for a Q&A-style webinar, focusing on our February upgrade. Arjun will review key features and answer your questions to help you make the most of your system.

24/5 Technical Support Is Coming

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 18:39:00 +0000

Photo courtesy of Loic Djim

Round the clock technical support starting on March 4

As we’ve grown our international footprint with clients to support across every continent on the planet, we know that time doesn’t stop when we go to sleep. That’s why we’ve ramped up our technical support to assist our clients with any technical needs they have, at any hour.

Beginning March 4, we’re launching round-the-clock technical support 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Our clients will have access to live support during the following hours:

GMT: 9 pm Sunday to 2 am Saturday

EST: 4 pm Sunday to 9 pm Friday

PST: 1 pm Sunday to 6 pm Friday

AEST: 8 am Monday to 1 pm Saturday

“When you have to burn the midnight oil to get your job done it’s important to know you won’t have to wait till the morning to get answers. You can call us up and talk to a real human being any time of the week, day or night”.

— Mike Reid, Co-Founder of SmartSimple

SmartSimple Business Strategy Service

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 18:38:00 +0000

Photo courtesy of Raw Pixel

Introducing: SmartSimple Business Strategy Service

Get your answers and solutions faster

We want to make sure you’re maximizing the powerful functionality of your SmartSimple software, which is why we’re launching our complimentary SmartSimple Business Strategy services — for those times you have questions that require more than just technical troubleshooting.

Thinking of adding a component to your platform that sends out automatic notifications alerting and updating your grantees where they are in the grant application process? Want to impress your boss by improving your foundation’s impact reports at your next presentation? We can help you every step of the way.

Think of this like our white glove concierge service to your platform’s needs. We’ll help you get the resources you need to make sure your platform is future-proof and scalable to your new technological advancements.

“The SmartSimple Business Strategy service is like an operator of sorts who can talk with you about your concerns and then direct you to the correct team to help you and at the same time provide some advice on how best to implement a change into your system.”

— Eric Lauer, Director of Customer Experience

We know it can be frustrating to talk to someone new each time you call, and we understand your needs expand beyond just talking to a person, so we want to make sure you talk to the right person. When you call, we’ll not only talk about what new developments you need in your software, we’ll connect you to the right team to best implement it. We also provide training sessions and webinars to help you apply your new tools on your own.

Photo courtesy of Jon Tyson

Here’s another way to think of our Business Strategy service...

Let’s say you go to your bank with a check for $100. You have the option to deposit or withdraw it as a straightforward transaction — consider this to be our general support. Another option is to talk to a financial consultant that will help guide you to make strategic decisions and help grow your money — consider this as our Business Strategy service. Both are excellent routes, just under different circumstances.

As your organization grows, your platform’s capabilities need to grow along with it. And sometimes your questions exist outside the boundaries of technical troubleshooting.

There is no question too small or big. We’re in your corner.

Contact our experienced support team HERE.

In this Photo: Eric Lauer, Director of Customer Experience

“One of the phrases that we don't use at SmartSimple is "well, we've always done it that way". As part of this internal, we realized that we could do better with helping our clients address their business process requirements. While we always provide this type of support we felt that we were not directing these queries in the best way we could to give the best service to our clients. We see our Business Strategy Support team as an answer to this.”

— Eric Lauer, Director of Customer Experience

SmartSimple and CAF America form partnership to enhance international grantmaking and CSR programs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 20:26:00 +0000

We’re excited to announce our partnership with CAF America, a global leader in domestic and cross-border grantmaking, to provide a full service, end-to-end solution for SmartSimple’s corporate enterprise and community foundation clients.

Our collaboration joins SmartSimple’s leading-edge workplace giving and grants management software with CAF America’s expertise in charity vetting and advisory services. Together, this solution creates a completely integrated client platform and experience. From workplace giving, campaign management, charity vetting, to donation and grant payment processing, this partnership offers a one-stop shop service that handles every backend function of your foundation.

Now, here’s a breakdown of the benefits

What SmartSimple clients will get from this partnership:

SmartSimple Donor Advised Funds hosted by CAF America

Tax receipt at the time the donation is made CAF America’s enhanced Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML & CTF) protocol

Enhanced due diligence and charity vetting

Increased transparency for advised gifts, ensuring funds make it to the intended charitable recipient

Expedited payments to eligible domestic and foreign charities

Mike Reid, SmartSimple Founder and COO, sees tremendous value in this partnership, remarking, “Navigating global grantmaking can be an extraordinarily complex and risky business. By working with CAF America to create a fully integrated verification solution, collectively, we are helping our clients de-risk the process and achieve their philanthropic goals.”

Ted Hart, President and CEO of CAF America, said, “SmartSimple provides an innovative, yet simple and highly customizable platform to fit the technology needs of a wide variety of philanthropic platforms. CAF America is proud to partner with SmartSimple to assist with mitigating risk and ensuring regulatory compliant grantmaking.”

How do you see this partnership benefitting your foundation?

For more information on how you can benefit from this partnership and enhance your donor-advised funds experience, contact Katie Houghton, Partner Program Manager at SmartSimple or Kinga Ile, Director of Communications at CAF America. You can also learn more about the SmartSimple and CAFA solutions by visiting SmartSimple and CAFAmerica.

SmartSimple January 2018 Community Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 14:12:00 +0000

Welcome to another year with SmartSimple!

In this year's kick-off newsletter, we would like to start with some words from our co-founders Mike Reid and Keith Yau. Their message will provide you with a snapshot of our achievements in 2017 and how we will be positioning our development efforts this year. Also, we will be sharing some results from the recent Community Engagement Survey and our brand new approach to delivering webinars.

A Message from Mike and Keith

Mike Reid, COO

Happy New Year, SmartSimple Community!

Every new year brings a renewed sense of hope and optimism.
At SmartSimple, our optimism is driven by our theme for the year: Future-Proof.

So why future-proof?

In 2017, our strategic theme was Efficiency. With efficiency in mind in everything we do,
we have achieved the following:

Keith Yau, CTO

192% user growth - Over 115,000 individual users/month as of December 2017 vs 60,000 individual users/month in 2016
New global markets: Opened up the APAC market with our first client in Australia
Next-level learning opportunities: ELEVATE 2017 - our biggest client event to to date
Stronger strategic partnerships: New AWS designations and a growing partner network
Innovative solutions: Amazon Alexa voice automation system integration

Starting the year with these achievements, we are confident in saying that we are fully equipped
to be your eyes and ears into the future.

The trust, encouragement and ideas that you eagerly provide our team have always been the key drivers to our strategy. With our new theme for 2018, we are devoting our efforts into ensuring that you, our valued clients, have the technology required to keep up in a world that’s changing faster than ever. You can be assured that the innovations we are currently working on will continue to set you up for success in tackling the future’s tracking and reporting demands with ease.

To end this message, we say, focus on your mission. We’ll take care of the rest.

Here’s to another great year!

Mike and Keith

Community Engagement Survey Snapshot

Your voice was definitely heard! The amount of information that we’ve gathered from your responses definitely made us more enthusiastic about improving the quality of engagement and educational opportunities available to you as a SmartSimple user. Winners of the draw will be notified and receive their prizes in the mail.

Are you curious about which industry trends your SmartSimple peers have been following? Using the data gathered from the Community Engagement Survey, have a look at the most commonly followed industry trends among the SmartSimple Community.

31.7% of the respondents follow trends on data and outcomes such as impact reporting, accountability, and transparency reports

15.9% follow trends on diversity and equity, concerning topics such as community diversity, diversity location tracking and creating more equitable communities

14.6% follow trends on technology and software functionality, mostly concentrating on business process efficiency and mobile access

Interested in more data points like these? We will be sharing more results from the survey in upcoming newsletters!

A Smarter and Simpler Approach to Webinars

From the recent Community Engagement Survey, we’ve received a lot of requests from SmartSimple users to break down topics into simpler details. As a response to your feedback, this year, we will be organizing our webinars into quarterly themes. To start the year and lay the foundation for your system’s security, the theme for this quarter will be Security.

Don’t forget to register for the webinars under the Security Series:

Access Granted: Taking Control of Your User Roles and Permissions

January 16 2:00 PM/January 18 10:00 AM

Defining Your Security: Effectively Managing Your UTA Security Matrix

February 20 2:00 PM/February 22 10:00 AM

Organized Access: Setting Up Your Company and Contact Security Matrix

March 13 2:00 PM/March 15 10:00 AM

REGISTER NOW

All times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST)

SmartSimple 2017 Events Round-Up

2017 was a big year for SmartSimple as we completely revamped our client events strategy. Starting with four Block Parties in Toronto, Chicago, DC and LA and ending it at sunny Venice Beach with ELEVATE LA, these new events were all well-attended and well-received by the SmartSimple Community.

Here's a recap video of ELEVATE LA.

So which events should you look forward to this 2018? Stay tuned for our Events Calendar coming soon!

SmartSimple November 2017 Upgrade Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 22:05:00 +0000

The November upgrade demonstrates our continued focus on improved usability with enhancements designed to offer an even more intuitive user interface. These latest changes have led to visual updates to the look of your system, easier configuration options, greater searching capability, and a new security summary feature.

User Experience:

Interface Enhancements

We’ve done some considerable work to simplify navigation and enhance functionality of the platform to deliver a more intuitive user experience. Specifically, we’ve improved the layout of record pages to make better use of screen real estate. We’ve also focused on making it easier to find the information you need to complete your work easier.

Watch the video below for complete details on the new left navigation, application tabs, and profile cards:

Security:

New System Security Summary Page

Quickly access and review the security of your system anytime. This valuable feature will highlight the most important features you should be aware of, and whether any require your attention. You can easily identify the features that you should enable, as well as any deprecated (no longer supported) features that should now be disabled. Our easy-to-read security summary shows you if any features require your attention, how urgently attention is needed, a brief explanation of the issue, and a link to each feature configuration, all in order to help you proactively mitigate risk.

Efficiency:

Batch Update Custom Field Values

Save hours of data entry work on custom field values with this latest enhancement to the batch update. You now have the ability to batch update your custom field values all at once. Simply choose the desired records, click the batch update button, and select what field you want to update.The batch update page has also been reformatted for a cleaner and more organized view of your records.

Enhanced Advanced Search Options
Complete complex searches more easily, no matter what your search parameters are. We've added more power to your list view searches with an updated advanced search that includes greater flexibility to target, define, and refine your searches.

Functionality:

Simplified Login and Sign-up Configuration Pages

Create great looking login or sign-up pages via simple text boxes where you can enter your content without having to edit any HTML. You’ll also notice a new preview panel on the login configuration page that will display your changes in real-time. The preview panel highlights the area you’re working on, so editing is quick and easy to complete.

This is just the first of several new and expanded configuration options we’ll be introducing in 2018. Be sure to keep an eye out for upgrades in 2018 for more system enhancements.

Upgrade Release Notes

Full details on all our November Features and enhancements, including notes from system administrators, are available on our SmartSimple Wiki.

November Upgrade Q&A Sessions

Tuesday, December 5, 2:00PM EST
Wednesday, December 6, 10:00 AM EST

Join Eric Lauer, Director of Customer Experience, for a Q&A-style webinar, focusing on our November upgrade. Eric will review key features and answer your questions to help you make the most of your system.

Register Now

The Reviews Are In: 2 Thumbs Up for SmartSimple ELEVATE

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 17:21:00 +0000

SmartSimple’s 2017 annual conference was the largest in the company’s history

With over a hundred of our friends, partners, and colleagues, SmartSimple hosted the first ever ELEVATE conference down in sunny Los Angeles (November 1-2). ELEVATE is a new event that evolved from the previous community conferences that SmartSimple hosted twice a year in Toronto and Chicago.

“ELEVATE is a reflection of the ongoing maturation of SmartSimple as a company. We’ve seen some rapid growth over the last few years, and we wanted to deliver a memorable conference experience for our clients, new and old alike,” Says Mike Reid, Co-founder and COO of SmartSimple.

From early morning walks on the Venice beach boardwalk to watch the sunrise, to a Lego-inspired collaboration exercise, the conference was high energy from start to finish.

Client demos from JDRF and The Coca-Cola Foundation offered attendees a unique chance to see what their peers are doing with their systems, while members of the Irving Harris Foundation, Crown Philanthropies, and Feeding America participated in a panel to share how they leverage SmartSimple’s Premium Support Services to effectively drive requests and changes as their systems evolve.

Outside of conference sessions, we took some time to have a little fun, enjoy some good food, and good company, at the Welcome and Fireside receptions. What do you do when you’re in Tinseltown? Play movie trivia of course!

Thanks to business solutions Re-Solved, The Innovation Network, and CAF America for partnering with us as sponsors to make ELEVATE an event that we were proud to host.

Want to know where we’ll be taking our act next year? Watch this video to see where ELEVATE will be going in 2018!

Feeding America battles food insecurity with the help of SmartSimple

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 17:00:00 +0000

The current statistics on hunger in the United States tell a very distressing story that should concern everyone currently living in the country:

● 13 million children face hunger in the United States today

● In 2014, 5.7 million senior citizens - that’s 9% of all seniors in the US - lived with food insecurity, meaning no reliable access to affordable, nutritious food

● Nearly 3 million rural households live with food insecurity

● There are 12 states that show significantly higher household food insecurity rates above the national average of 13.7%, including Mississippi (20.8%), Arkansas (19.2%), and Louisiana (18.4%)

Considering that the US is one of the top 20 of the richest countries in the world, the number of Americans living with food insecurity may seem surprising. Yet, according to Feeding America, the country’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, many Americans are just one job loss or medical crisis away from suffering food insecurity. More than 46 million people turn to Feeding America’s extensive network of food banks each year to help stave off hunger.

Since 2011, and thanks to the generous support of their partner, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, Feeding America maintains Map the Meal Gap on their website. This interactive map of the United States visualizes, county by county, the levels of food insecurity and poverty, the cost of an average meal, and the amount of money needed to ensure food security for every resident.

It’s why the Feeding America network created the Hunger Action Month campaign (HAM) several decades ago. Every September, Feeding America launches the Hunger Action Month campaign to bring awareness to the issue of hunger in the U.S. and encourage people across the country to get involved in the movement to end hunger. Hunger Action Day^®, on September 14th this year, is when Feeding America focuses their efforts across the country to make the greatest impact possible in the lives of people in need.

Their work has definitely been paying off. In 2016, the campaign reached more than 3.7 million people organically via Facebook and Twitter, increasing awareness and generating conversation about hunger on social media. The 200 network member food banks supported these national efforts locally, leveraging this same message and creative look & feel on their individual social channels to promote engagement with the campaign in their local communities.

Managing a granting program that touches every state in the country is unique for a foundation. It means a very complex administrative process due to the vast number of initiatives they support. Before SmartSimple, Feeding America was sending award confirmations, processing grant requests, report reminders, and keeping contact details up to date manually, resulting in hours a day entering and updating data alone.

That’s why they decided to use SmartSimple as their grants management solution. Feeding America now has:

● A single, centralized repository for all their programs and activities that’s completely automated

● Intuitively organized records for all incoming donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals

● Automated workflows that make sending all confirmations and report reminders easier than before

“SmartSimple enabled us to configure and automate our unique system the way we wanted and needed. The platform was able to automate the unique requirements of our operation and we now have a central repository of information that’s accessible to those working across all our food banks, as well as our staff. There is no way we would have been able to absorb the volume and additional complexity we currently have without a system like SmartSimple.”

Anne Bronson, Managing Director of Member Grants, Feeding America

Thanks to the help of their SmartSimple platform, Feeding America is saving significant administrative time and resources managing their approximately $30 million in grants for more than 80 initiatives each year. Read the full story on our website for the complete details.

You can follow the campaign, and learn how to participate, all throughout September at FeedingAmerica.org/hungeractionmonth.

Member of the SmartSimple community? Discover the highlights of our August upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 19:21:00 +0000

Enhancements to user experience have again featured prominently in our August upgrade, as we strive to continually develop a solution that is intuitive and easily accessible to all users. Beyond making the platform more user friendly, we’re happy to introduce our integration with GuideStar Charity Check, a pre-grant due diligence service that provided information on 2.5 million organizations in the U.S. in 2016.

Read our highlights below.

User Experience

New viewing experience for object list views

Need to cross-check an individual record? In this upgrade, we’re introducing a split screen layout for list views. This new feature enables users to preview a record without navigating away from the list. On the left, users can quickly scan through the full list view. On the right, you will see details of the selected record which you can view or edit.

Simple, intuitive user interface

As part of our commitment to making the platform even quicker and easier to use, we’ve made a series of subtle enhancements to the user interface. This includes changes to the positioning of a number of buttons and menu options, to optimize and improve screen layouts. Each enhancement creates a more consistent experience for users across pages, as part of our aim to offer an intuitive interface.

Usability for mobile users - a continued focus

As more clients access their system on the go, we’re continuing our focus on creating mobile-friendly experiences that are even more responsive across devices. Using SmartSimple on a smartphone or tablet? You’ll notice the experience is smoother, making it easier to navigate.

Integration

GuideStar Charity Check

A number of clients expressed interest in connecting their SmartSimple system with GuideStar Charity Check, and we’re happy to deliver on this request, furthering our integration with GuideStar. ‘Charity Check’ is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. GuideStar is compliant with all IRS requirements for determining a nonprofit’s eligibility to receive tax-deductible contributions. The integration offers a fast, simple way for both systems to communicate with each other and store due diligence reports.

To find out more about the GuideStar Charity Check integration, please speak with your Account Manager.

Efficiency

A new way to modify & create portals

The introduction of a new portal Draft Mode gives system admins the ability to stage portal modifications or create new portals in draft before making changes live. In Builder Mode, admins have the ability to preview how the portal will look, and when satisfied, promote it to make changes live.

Functionality

Mark the pages you use the most

The new SmartCard feature introduces a personal screen that enables users to bookmark commonly used pages. The screen presents a collection of SmartCard containers that hold and display any records that have been added. Users can create any number of SmartCards, and even share them with others. SmartCards aim to empower end users to create their own lists, eliminating the need for administrators to create system list views. Enabling the feature is a simple permission setting, found under System Feature Permissions.

Identify bottlenecks in your processes

As part of this upgrade, an enhancement to how changes are tracked in the status field gives visibility over how long a record spends in each status. Using new fields within the report builder, you can build custom reports to identify bottlenecks and drive continuous improvement in your processes

Upgrade release notes

A glossary of upgrade features and enhancements, including additional notes for system administrators, is available on the SmartSimple Wiki.

Q&A Sessions - August Upgrade

Tuesday, September 5, 2:00 PM EST
Thursday, September 7, 10:00 AM EST

Join Eric Lauer, Director of Customer Experience, for a Q&A session that’s specifically designed to guide you through each new upgrade feature and enhancement, answer your questions, and help you make the most of your system.

Register here

How The Harrington Discovery Institute uses SmartSimple to create new vaccines

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 16:16:00 +0000

As recently as 1980, measles has been responsible for an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year. That’s almost as many deaths as there are people living in Chicago today.

Each August, the National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) celebrates National Immunization Awareness Month, highlighting the benefits and importance of vaccination for people of all ages. NPHIC provides a website and series of downloadable toolkits to help promote vaccination for pregnant women, children of all ages and adults.

While vaccination of children has been controversial of late, there’s little doubt that the development of vaccines and immunization programs have significantly improved life expectancy around the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), immunization prevents illness, disability, and death from vaccine-preventable diseases, and currently prevents approximately 2 to 3 million deaths every single year.

The ongoing development of new vaccines is vital to the health of future generations. With viruses like influenza that are constantly evolving, research granting organizations - and the work they fund - is not just important, it’s crucial. That’s why SmartSimple created RMS360° for organizations like the Harrington Discovery Institute. Their mandate is to accelerate the transformation of physician-scientists’ medical breakthroughs into life-enhancing and life-saving new drugs.

By partnering with SmartSimple, the Harrington Discovery Institute has:

An intuitive system their entire user community can access and use to easily apply for, and review, research grant applications
Profiles that researchers can amend and update themselves, ensuring consistently accurate records of every member of their community
An entirely online platform that automated every aspect of their grantmaking process from Requests for Proposals to award distribution

“SmartSimple is a powerful solution. It offers so many more opportunities to automate our activities than we had initially thought. SmartSimple is actually changing how we operate and is making a positive impact on our entire operation. Before we were restricted in how much we could do because of our manual processes. Now, the sky’s the limit!” - Mel Sanders, Financial Analyst, The Harrington Discovery Institute

Mel Sanders, Financial Analyst, The Harrington Discovery Institute

Learn more about how the SmartSimple platform has helped the Harrington Discovery Institute manage their research grants to fund initiatives like the rare disease research program with Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Read their full story here.

How the Helios Education Foundation uses SmartSimple to help youth build marketable skills

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:19:00 +0000

73 million young people around the world between the ages of 16 - 24 were unemployed in 2016. That makes them three times more likely than adults to be out of work.

The problem really hits home when you consider that it means 20 million Americans are currently not working who could be.

So what is being done to reverse this trend? With events taking place all over the world this coming July 15 to commemorate Work Youth Skills Day, it’s good to know there are organizations tackling this important issue, getting to the root causes and finding ways to increase the number of opportunities available for youth everywhere.

The Helios Education Foundation is one such organization, taking the initiative to provide grants and form strategic partnerships with communities across Arizona and Florida. Helios strives to provide the resources needed to ensure everyone has access to the education needed to build the skills that will improve their chances of achieving gainful, sustainable employment.

Their 2016 Annual Report highlights their successes, and shares how and where they invested $17.4 million in Arizona and Florida on initiatives that promote educational success and career-focused skills.

We’re excited to count organizations like Helios among our clients, and SmartSimple takes pride in playing a vital role in helping Helios deliver on their mission. With SmartSimple, Helios has:

A truly organizational solution that tracks engagements, contracts and users, including grant applicants
Ad-hoc reporting capabilities for data, such as the current number of open grants, can be created in seconds
Improved efficiencies in areas such as approvals and payments, that ensure grant agreements are signed, and awards distributed faster

“SmartSimple is absolutely invaluable for managing our grants and other activities...we’ve discovered new processes and ways to bring other aspects of our organization into our SmartSimple system.”

Linda Thompson, Senior Vice President and Chief Impact Officer

How did we help Helios deliver a total of 18,000 scholarships to young Arizonans and Floridians to further their education? Read the full story.

SmartSimple Expands Down Under

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 21:55:00 +0000

This month, SmartSimple landed its first client in Australia, as part of a broader expansion plan to grow our presence in Asia-Pacific (APAC).

In Australia, SmartSimple will offer process automation solutions to a government-backed agency in New South Wales (NSW) who lead on a strategic Government-backed economic development initiative.

NSW is Australia’s startup capital, with nearly half of startup businesses calling Sydney home.

“Australia is a priority growth market, and having our first client here establishes SmartSimple as a truly global provider of software solutions,” said Michael Reid, Co-Founder of SmartSimple.

“We anticipate significant growth through our ability to offer comprehensive, dedicated solutions to new clients, and our commitment to host data in the jurisdiction of the client through our partnerships with AWS (Amazon Web Services). Importantly, our presence in APAC will complement and connect the ongoing development of our global Partner Network.”

“With strong growth in North America and EMEA over the past five years, we have been laying the groundwork for international expansion for some time. Australasia is a natural step as we strive to build our business and meet new clients’ needs” added Cameron McLean, President of SmartSimple.

“In terms of the acquisition of SmartSimple’s newest client, our priority is to support their mission, by delivering an automation platform that’s tailored specifically around their process needs. To achieve this, we’ve just spent a month working directly with the client on-site to ensure a successful implementation.”

Discover the highlights of our May upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 24 May 2017 19:09:00 +0000

Usability has been at the forefront of this upgrade. As part of our commitment to making the platform even quicker and easier to use, we’ve significantly cut down the time it takes to configure and make changes to your system. For end users, we’ve continued our priority focus on improving user experience on both desktop and mobile devices.

User Experience

Enhanced Settings pages

With system administrators in mind, we’ve enhanced navigation on the ‘Settings’ pages so that choices are clearer and it’s easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Here’s what you’ll notice:

Need a particular setting? We’ve added a search function to the top right corner;
Some menu options are reorganized and renamed - so finding what you need is straightforward;
Lesser used settings are out of the way in the ‘Classic Options’ tab:
Layout and navigation of a number of pages has been revamped for ease of use.

Better usability for mobile devices

Creating mobile experiences that are even more responsive across all devices is important to us, and something we wanted to focus on. As part of this upgrade, we’ve adapted web content to different sized screens, so that the SmartSimple interface looks great on smartphones and tablets.

Functionality

Quicker way to update custom fields

It’s now quicker and easier for system administrators to configure and update custom fields. Rather than navigating to various settings pages, administrators can now update field configuration in a new ‘Configuration Mode’ when viewing a record. This means there is no longer the need to find which field to update in the custom field list. Configuration Mode also provides shortcuts to major settings pages, so administrators can easily flip between making configuration changes to testing them.

New Syntax Checker tool (in Beta)

The introduction of a Syntax Checker tool enables system administrators to easily test the resolution of variable syntax on a record. An option for using the tool can also be found when viewing a record in Configuration Mode (detailed above).

Making shortcuts work for you

Do you or your users rely on shortcuts to find what you need faster? Look out for three new upgrades that improve navigation and offer an even better user experience:

Instead of a single section for all your shortcuts, you can now configure and tailor individual shortcuts in any portal section - meaning you only see the ones you use most;
Give your portal a new look by assigning each shortcut an icon from a library of eye-catching symbol options;
Connect a shortcut to a list view to display aggregate figures and bring your data to life in dashboards.

Split-screen functionality

Need to review two documents simultaneously? Our new split-screen functionality means you can view two applications (parent and child record) side-by-side, without having to manually move and resize windows. It’s particularly useful for reviewing grant applications and assessing case files.

Screen sharing technology (in Beta)

The introduction of screen sharing technology means that system content can now be shared in real-time with others. Use the feature to collaborate on a case file, guide your applicants through an application, or when you require assistance from our Technical Support team.

Fast, new way to download multiple files

Downloading more than one file attachment directly from a Level 1 or Level 2 list view is now quicker and easier than ever before with a new group download feature for multiple records. Once downloaded, attachments can then be accessed anywhere, anytime.

Security

Advanced security setting

While SmartSimple adheres to the most respected security standards in the industry, we’re always looking for ways to offer our clients added security options tailored to their specific needs. Our new Enhanced Security Mode is an advanced feature that when enabled, will automatically set and lock security settings throughout your system, and configure the highest level of protection available.

Who is it useful for?

Recommended for organizations with stringent security compliance (i.e. government agencies).

Important to note:

Enabling the Enhanced Security Mode will disable a number of system features. Please speak with one of our Technical Account Advisors in the first instance for more information.

Upgrade release notes

A glossary of upgrade features and enhancements, including additional notes for system administrators, is available on the SmartSimple Wiki.

Q&A Sessions - May Upgrade

Tuesday, May 30, 2:00 PM EST
Thursday, June 1, 10:00 AM EST

Why grantmakers should embrace the power of predictive analytics

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 16:15:00 +0000

Predictive analytics is used to calculate your insurance rates. It even tells retailers how to design their stores. Whether you realize it or not, the uses for predictive analytics aren’t only expanding but becoming more and more ingrained in our daily lives. The world of grants management is no different.

Tim Daciuk, Director, Data Analytics at SmartSimple

What is Predictive Analytics?

The term “predictive analytics” means different things to different people depending on the context. So what does it mean for grantmakers?

Basically, predictive analytics takes historical information and combines it with data science and math to comment on future events. For granters, that makes it the ideal tool to leverage in order to increase the impact of funding and improve outcomes. How? By using prediction and segmentation.

Prediction

Forecasting outcomes is an important part of what predictive analytics does. By looking at your past granting activities, it can help you make better-informed funding decisions in the future.

Let’s suppose you’re unsure that the $500,000 you allot in annual granting for animal rescue group support across your region is being used effectively. By creating a predictive analytics model, you can see how funds were used, and evaluate if you should commit more funding or less, or create different criteria for the grants you offer.

Segmentation

Simply put, segmentation is the ability to group people, places, or things that have common traits, like applicants, donors, or funding sources (government support, endowments, etc.). For example, applicants seeking grants to improve primary education could be one segment. Those seeking grants to improve middle school education would be another, and so on.

Read more about the challenge of extracting data from text, what the next steps are for granters exploring predictive analytics, and information on an upcoming series of webinars with Tim Daciuk, Director, Data Analytics at SmartSimple on the Peak Grantmaking blog.