Decide System

Decide System

Decide - The Online Grant Decision System for Community Foundations

Managing core costs is an ongoing challenge for Foundations in tight economic times. Knowing how much it costs to run your grant making and being confident that your systems are in great shape reassures your staff, trustees and donors.

Grassroots Grants was a trigger for many Community Foundations to review their grant processes. Many of us updated our systems to manage volume applications and tight deadlines.

The Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon developed Decide, an online system for grant decision-making. Using DECIDE helped save Wiltshire £3,300 in administration costs facilitating Grassroots panel meetings during 09/10.

Decide enables grant panel members to:

Login to an online system at any time
Review applications
Share thoughts with other members using a message board
Vote on the allocation of funds

Its quick, its easy and it requires minimal input from Community Foundation administrators. The Decision Making Process – using DECIDE is exactly the same as a traditional meeting:

The Community Foundation prepares the applications and supporting documentation – and uploads a batch of applications for the members to review
The system automatically notifies the members and the committee chairman by email that a batch is ready for review
The members log in and review the applications online at a time convenient to them
They leave comments on each application for others members to view – and when they are ready to vote to allocate funds
As the deadlines for decisions approaches, the system reminds members who haven’t voted
Once the deadline is passed the chairman logs in, reviews the votes and allocates the funds.

The Benefits

DECIDE is a live system that is now used by the Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon and is now being used by Devon Community Foundation and the Greater Manchester Community Foundation. DECIDE has been developed and is supported by RealityHouse Limited a web development company. DECIDE offers your Community Foundation:

A cost effective solution for managing grant programs with tight timeframes
Reduced paper and administration costs
Quick distribution of applications – stored on one central website
Easy online access to applications for committee members
The ability to reduce the number of grant panel meetings
Online voting and allocation of funds
A fixed time frame for decisions that is managed by the system

Contact Rosemary Macdonald now on 01380 729284 to learn more.

£1 million donation to One Degree More

The Underwood Trust has been a considerable supporter of the Community Foundation for many years and they have now made a substantial £1 million donation towards the One Degree More fund that aims to offer scholarships to students from deprived backgrounds.
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The Diamond Jubilee Fund Update

Since being launched in September of last year the Salisbury Diamond Jubilee Fund has been successful in raising £8,000 in its effort to build a permanent and sustainable source of grants to support community projects and voluntary groups in Salisbury and South Wiltshire. Further to this however, we have the great pleasure of announcing that Councillor John Collier, mayor elect for Salisbury, has chosen the Jubilee Fund as his mayoral charity for 2012/2013.
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Wiltshire Police Authority Fund

We are now welcoming applications to the Wiltshire Police Authoity Fund. Grants will support projects which seek to bring communities together to tackle local issues, improving trust and understanding.
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