As I look back on the growth and changes we’ve experienced to date in 2018 here at Fluxx, I’m reminded that it’s happened against the backdrop of exciting changes in philanthropy overall. It’s a remarkable time for anyone focused on giving and change-making. There was a record-breaking $410 billion in giving in the US last year, with an important shift in contribution sources, as contributions to DAFs (donor-advised funds) exploded.
At Fluxx, our platform processed over $5.2 billion worth of grants in 2017 alone; including grants applied for, approved, and managed. And today nearly 250 of the world’s best-known foundations use Fluxx, among them Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Knight Foundation.
Key to our growth are two exciting changes to our executive team: Kristy Gannon, formerly our VP of Product and Chief Product Officer, will now be serving as Chief Operating Officer; and Dan Schoenfeld, who was most recently Director of Grants and Impact Administration at Knight Foundation, joins Fluxx as Vice President of Strategic Development..
At Knight, Dan was responsible for analyzing the foundation's system of producing grants. He told me, "When I started at Knight, we lacked some insights crucial to improving operations. For instance, it was hard to calculate how long it took to approve and make a grant. And we all know you can’t change what you can’t measure.”
"The majority of foundations still don't know how long it takes to get out a grant. There should be a sense of urgency. It shouldn't be vague; it should be 24 hours."
Knight Foundation was Fluxx's first client, and we’ve worked closely together since. So I am thrilled that Dan has taken this opportunity to join us. He’s excited about the prospect of... “doing for the sector as a whole what I did at Knight.”
Meanwhile, thanks to Dan and the team’s vision—and Fluxx’s software—Knight is now at the forefront of setting standards for the philanthropic world.
Kristy has been at Fluxx almost since its inception in 2010. Now that she has been promoted to COO, I know Kristy will ensure we have the right leadership on every team to meet the changing needs of our foundation clients.
Her new role has her looking at how Fluxx is used throughout implementation, from that first sales call all the way through launch and after they go live.
To this end, Fluxx's UX team goes on-site with clients and gathers feedback about the product’s usability, which is then incorporated into future iterations. For example, foundations use many types of software, and we make it our mission to work with them all seamlessly; today Fluxx integrates with 16 different systems, from Salesforce to Office 365 to DocuSign.
Clients tell me that Fluxx is allowing them ever more visibility into the entire grants management process, which facilitates greater collaboration internally as well as externally with grantee partners. They also report that Grantmaker frees up foundation staff from admin to act instead as the creative thought leaders they are.
That capacity-building is of the utmost importance. Kristy tells me: "It's about directing resources to strategy and increasing impact, taking time and money and putting it out into the community instead."
The results of our efforts thus far are clear. We’ve experienced strong growth and tripled our team in the last two years.
If you have yet to find out what all the Fluxx fuss is about, please don't hesitate to contact us and request a demo.
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