Import Grants
Select Grants from the Home page. Click Import Grants. Click Download Template. The file will automatically download to your computer's Downloads folder. Open the .csv file and enter your data within the corresponding fields. Note: A row must have at least a grantee_name or a profile_id, an amount, a funit_id and grant_date. All other fields are op...
Edit a Grant
Grant details can be edited directly from a grant, by entering edit mode, or from the left-side menu. Note: The fields and features available to add and/or edit may differ depending on how your grant is set up, and where you're editing from (edit mode, from a grant, left-side menu). You must Unpost a Grant before it can be edited. Select Grant...
Cancel a Grant
Cancel is usually for a grant that has been paid or a grant from a prior year or accounting period that has been canceled. If it is a new grant, and the books are not closed, you should Unpost and Delete it instead. See this article to learn how to partially cancel a grant. To Cancel a grant, start by voiding the issued check. Select Checks from the...
Partially Cancel a Grant
Cancel individual grant installments for grants with multiple installments. Both the payment(s) and the grant must be approved before you'll have the option to cancel a grant installment. If you want to cancel an entire grant at once, see Cancel a Grant. Select Grants from the Home page. Select the Voucher grant bucket. Select the ID of the grant. C...
Refund a Grant
Select Grants from the Home page. Select the Paid grant bucket. Select the ID of the grantee who received the grant. Click the grant ID. Select Refund. Enter a Refund Date, a Refund Amount, and a Refund Reason, then click Receive Refund Check. In the Refunds window, click the GrantID. Click Deposit to Bank, and follow steps 3-5 in this tutorial....
Schedule Grant Payments
Break one payment/installment into multiple payments/installments with unique payment dates. Select Grants from the Home page. Select the grant ID number. Click Edit Pay Schedule. Add or edit a Payment Date(s), Amount(s), and check or uncheck the box next to Conditional. Conditional payments are those in which the recipient must complete an action b...
Create & Post a MultiFund Grant
Note: You must create a single fund grant before you can make it a multifund grant. Select Grants from the Home page. Select the New grant bucket. Select a grant I D. Note: This grant will act as the parent grant. Click MultiFund Add. Link an existing grant, or create and link a new grant. MultiFund Grant - Link Grant - use this option to link a gr...
Create Spendable Grants
Create spendable grants to transfer the spendable balance of a fund to the fund beneficiaries control. You must add and edit fund beneficiaries to the fund before you can create spendable grants. Select Funds from the Home page. Click Create Spendable Grants. Enter the Grant Date, a Description, and review the Spendable Grant Summary; then click Cre...
Change a Grant Recipient
Note: You can only change the recipient of a grant if the grant is unposted and unapproved. Select Grants from the Home page. In the New grant bucket, select the grant ID number. Click Change Grantee. If this is an External Grant, enter the name of the of new grantee. If this is an Internal Grant enter the name of the new fund. Click Review to chan...
Ajah Integration*
CommunitySuite is integrated with Ajah, which allows Canadian clients to check and confirm a grantseekers nonprofit status. To utilize Ajah, the grantee's business number (tax ID) must be present in the grantees profiles. In System Data, the box next to Enable Ajah must be checked and the box next to Enable Guidestar must be unchecked. You may run ...
Grants Overview*
CommunitySuite can help you create and track grants, plus the system allows your Fund Advisors to request grants for approval. Grants from your funds and donations from donors can be used to fulfill (pay for) the Grants your organization approves. Internal and External Grants can be created by staff or by a Fund Advisor online via their Donor Porta...
Create a Grant*
If a Fund Advisor who holds a Fund at your foundation wants to grant money to a nonprofit grantee or if they wish to give to another Fund, they can do this from their online Donor Portal or you can create a new Grant Request for them. From the Homepage, select Grants from the top tabs or from the Nonprofit column Click on Create from the left menu B...
Confirming Fund Balance Before Posting a Grant*
Before a grant is posted for approval, the system will check to see that there is enough money in the granting Fund to cover the grant amount. If there is not enough money in the Fund, the system will alert you. Example: You make a grant for 10,000 from a Fund that does not have 10,000 in it. When you select Post & Get Approval the system will g...
Place a Grant On-Hold*
Use this feature if you want to keep a grant from being posted. If a grant is in "New" status, go to the grant from the Grants page Select the On-Hold option from the left menu The grant will remain in the system but its status will be "On-Hold" with no option to post it. The grant stays On-Hold until you select "Clear On-Hold" from the left menu. ...
Grant Approval*
To process or move a Grant from the Request, New, Catalog or Import buckets, a Grant Approver needs to review, evaluate and approve the request. Some foundations may call these people grant evaluators. You can find, create or edit Grant Approvers by going to Funds and choosing Grant Approvers on the left menu. Each Fund must have a minimum of one (...
Notifying Grant Approver of Grant Requests via Email*
Go to Grants Choose Request Notify from the lefthand side of your screen Choose the checkbox next to the person(s) you wish to notify Select Update Make sure that the person you are notifying via email has an email in the system by going to Users and verifying the email on file. Now when a Fund Advisor completes a Grant Request online or cancels a G...
Completed Grants*
Track finished or completed grants in your system. Under Grants choose the Paid list from Grant Buckets at the top of your screen Select the ID number of the Grant you wish to finalize. Choose Complete from the lefthand side of the screen to mark the grant as completed You may add a file by selecting Attach File The new page will ask you to Choose a...
Grant Reports*
Go to Grants from the Home page Select Filter Reports from the left side menu Pick Add Filter or Reverse Filter from the left side menu Choose from the Grant Filters Make a selection to specify the filter Then pick the Apply the List Filter button The system will show you the results of all grants that were tagged with that specification. You can ...
Opting Out of GuideStar Charity Check*
If you do not want to use GuideStar to verify the non-profit status of a specific grantee or 501(c)3 you can override the Charity Check. This may be necessary for some Universities, Schools or Churches. Go to Grantees Begin typing the name of the grantee you wish to no longer verify using GuideStar in the Search Grantee text box Select the Grantee C...
Accounting Transactions*
The Grant Date is when your system will recognize the grant expense. When you select Post & Get Approval this is the date your system uses as the Grant Date. Your system uses the date that the voucher is approved as the actual voucher date. Note: Negative Grants will show up in the New Grants bucket along with other grants. Do not use negative g...
Add Recurring Grants
Select Funds from the Home page. Search and select the fund that the recurring grant will be from. Hover your cursor over the left-side menu, scroll to the bottom, and select Add Recurring Grant. If this will be an external recurring grant, enter the name of the Grantee, or click Show List to select from a list of grantees. If this will be an intern...
COVID-19 Grant Field
Overview The COVID-19 grant field is designed to allow consistent tracking of funding trends across the sector in response to COVID-19. The shared aggregated data will show how much, where, and for what purpose funding is being distributed. With over 1750 grantmakers and 240 community foundations, our clients’ combined data can provide valuable insi...
Create & Post an External Grant
Select Grants from the Home page. Click Create. Search for a Grantee or click List and select from the list, then click Create. Enter the grant information and click Create. Grant Fields Grant Date Description Grant Type (if applicable) Amount Conditional - checking this box indicates that the recipient must do something in order to receive the next...
Approve & Pay an External Grant
After creating and posting an external grant, you can approve and pay the grant. To approve a grant, you must be listed as a grant approver on the granting fund. Select Grants from the Home page. Select the Approval grant bucket. Select the grant ID that you want to approve and pay. Click I Approve. After selecting I Approve, the grant will move int...
Create & Post an Internal Grant
Create internal grants to send money from one fund to another fund. Select Grants from the Home page. Click Create. Enter the Source Fund and the Destination Fund then click Create. Source Fund - fund that the money is coming from. Destination Fund - fund that the money is going to. Enter the grant information: Grant Date Description Grant Type...
Approve & Pay an Internal Grant
After creating and posting an external grant, you can approve and pay the grant To approve a grant, you must be listed as a grant approver on the granting fund. Select Grants from the Home page. Select the Approval bucket. Select the ID of the grant that you want to approve & pay. Click I Approve. After selecting I Approve, the grant will move ...
Grant Catalog Overview
The Grant Catalog is a feature that facilitates crowdfunding, co-funding, and other funding needs for Nonprofits. The Grant Catalog allows Fund Advisors and the public to donate to a specified list of funding requests. The Grant Catalog is visible from the Donor Portal and Online Donations webpages or via a private link. This page is open to the pub...
Create a Grant Cycle
A grant cycle defines the dates that the grant catalog will be available for donations, and grant requests in the Donation Portal. You can have multiple active grant cycles at the same time. Select Grants from the Home page. Select Grant Cycles. Click Create. Give the grant cycle a name and complete the remaining fields, then click Create. Grant Cyc...
Edit a Grant Cycle
Navigate to Grants. Select Grant Cycles in the left-side menu. In the Grant Cycles window, select the Grant Cycle ID. Click Edit from the left-side menu. Edit the following information: Name No Request Amounts - this allows you to create open ended grant requests. In other words, this allows you to raise as much as you can for a specific grant reque...
Grant Catalog Application Request
Grantees can use the online Nonprofit Grant Request Application page to request funding for their projects. Required for a Grantee to be able to make a Grant Request: The Grantee must have a Profile in the system The Profile must be made a Grantee The Grantee record needs to have with Public Requests checkbox checked When you create a "Grant Cycle...
Create a Grant Cycle for a Grant Catalog*
The Grant Cycle defines the dates that the Grant Catalog will be available online to accept donations. A Grant Cycle includes the "Grant Request" process where your Grantees can apply for funding and inclusion in the Grant Catalog. From the Home page, select Grants Pick Grant Cycles from the left-hand menu Choose Create from the left menu to make a ...
Grant Catalog Categories*
After creating a Grant Cycle for a Grant Catalog you will need to make categories that will organize the online catalog. Example categories for an online catalog are Critical Needs, Opportunities, Environment, Health and Human Services, Arts and Culture, Education, Youth Development etc. You need at least one (1) category to create a Grant Catalog ...
Grantee Application Process*
The following is Required for a Grantee to make an application for inclusion into your Grant Catalog: The Grantee must have a Profile in CommunitySuite The Profile must have a Grantee designation The Grantee record needs to have the Public Requests checkbox checked The application process begins when your Grantees are invited by you to go online an...
Processing Grantee Funding Requests for the Grant Catalog*
Once the Grantee fills out the Nonprofit Grant Application Form with their Grant Request Information, their submission will automatically show within CommunitySuite’s Grants section under the "Catalog" bucket. Within the catalog bucket, you can access pending requests to edit, accept or deny them. When a Grant Catalog funding request is made, it com...
Grant Catalog Donations - Cash or Check*
Donations toward the Grant Catalog can be accepted from anywhere and from anyone with a valid credit card or who holds a Fund at your Foundation. You can also accept other forms of payment at your office or via mail if you decide. Any donations accepted for an item in the Grant Catalog will show up in your system as a donation that applies toward t...
Editing or Adding Missing Grant Catalog Donations*
Fund Advisors may think they are donating to a Grant Catalog item but instead give a grant to another foundation fund, thus the donation is not tagged correctly. There is an easy way to fix this. From the Home page, go to Donations Pick the transaction ID # in question Find Grant Cycle and pick [edit] Choose the correct Grant Cycle Pick the Save bu...
Deleting Donations from a Grant Catalog Item*
If you have not closed out the grant or deposited the donation to the bank, you can delete it. From the Home page, go to Grants Pick the Grant that the Donor gave to by selecting the hyperlinked Grant ID number (eg. 2260 ) that the donor gave to - it will be in the "Needs Funding" section of the table if it is a Grant Catalog item that has not been ...
Closing a Grant Catalog Grant Cycle*
The Grants Catalog will no longer be available online for donations after the Grant Cycle end date. Once the grant cycle has closed, you can go into Grants and review the grants in the grant cycle. If they were fully funded, you can post and approve the total funding that was given. For grant requests where the total funding request was not met, ...