The SmartSimple Blog

The SmartSimple team is very excited about hosting our first ever peer-led panel discussion during our upcoming Fall Community Conference 2015 in Chicago on Wednesday, November 4th. “We wanted to create an opportunity for this year’s conference attendees to experience something different than our usual SmartSimple led sessions. Something that would add some additional value for the experts joining us for the day” says Sarah Harris, Director, Client Support and Operations. “Our clients have a vast array of experience to share, and the chance to compare insights, strategies and tactics with colleagues in an open, interactive setting is important to fostering the growth of the philanthropic industry.” The session’s topic, Strategic Grantmaking , will cover a range of issues from why strategic grantmaking is important to making the transition from responsive to strategic grantmaking. Meet the Panelists Kathe Elwell, Director of Grants & Stewardship, YMCA of the USA

Awarding grants is a complex process. “Every step – from the creation of the grant application to monitoring and tracking of results – must be well thought out,” says Haifa Staiti, Project Manager, Philanthropic Solutions at SmartSimple .* Haifa Staiti ( @haifa_staiti ) Haifa speaks from experience. She’s a grant-making professional with nearly 10 years of experience in managing grant programs. Her areas of expertise include funding medical research, community health promotion, women’s education and empowerment, peace building and human rights, so she understands the challenges facing today’s research and granting organizations intimately. What are the issues around creating, awarding and managing a grant? Haifa shares her top five challenges of the grants management process: Developing an application process that is user friendly. If your potential grantees can’t understand what you’re asking for, or find the process too complex or costly – needing to make multiple

Eric Lauer, Director of Customer Experience, hosted two webinars, showcasing the great new features and enhancements from our September upgrade: In this upgrade webinar, Eric walks you through the latest Global and On-demand updates to SmartSimple, as well as some upcoming Beta testing opportunities for developers. You'll also see three use cases for the Neo Report Builder introduced in this upgrade. Be sure to check out our events page to find out how to register for our Fall Community Conference 2015 in Chicago. Stay tuned for news on more upcoming webinars.