Foundation For The Carolinas
The fifth largest community foundation in the U.S., Foundation For The Carolinas manages nearly five billion dollars in charitable assets across 3,000 funds established by families, nonprofits, and businesses alike. FFTC supports 13 counties throughout the region with a range of innovative funds and giving options. The Foundation also drives nonprofit sustainability through endowment management, customized solutions, and grantmaking.
With a mission to inspire philanthropy and empower individuals to create a better community, FFTC has been a civic leader and philanthropic partner in the region since 1958. Their flagship program, the Robinson Center for Civic Leadership, actively addresses the community’s most pressing challenges and greatest opportunities, from economic opportunity to neighborhood revitalization to education and beyond.
“All of our software systems were being sunsetted, and we wanted to upgrade to cloud-based solutions. But community foundations are very complex, and there aren’t many all-in-one solutions on the market that meet our unique needs. We needed a partner that could help us with the transformation.”
Andrea Phelps
Vice President of IT & Business Liaison, Foundation For The Carolinas
Finding the Right Partner
With their self-hosted software stack sunsetting, Foundation For The Carolinas needed a new solution that would meet their many requirements as a community foundation. There are few all-in-one solutions on the market that support their unique operations, accounting, tax, and marketing needs. After exploring possible solutions for several years, FFTC turned to NPact, who had implemented part of their legacy solution back in 2008. In addition to upgrading their legacy grantmaking software, they also needed to upgrade Blackbaud Raiser's Edge 7 and Financial Edge 7.
The FFTC team knew they wanted to move to a more secure, cloud-based solution. Before doing so, they needed to be absolutely certain that the new system would meet all of their specific needs now and into the future. With around 120 FFTC employees working in the system, as well as more than 3,000 constituents and individual fund holders logging on, they wanted a seamless implementation or rollout. Having the right technology partner at the planning stage was critical to ensure a successful go-live.
“The NPact team was fantastic to work with and were with us every step of the way. They listened to our needs and helped us come up with the right solutions. It was a well laid out project plan and implementation. They even advocated on our behalf when we needed it—without us having to ask. I would gladly recommend them.”
Andrea Phelps
Vice President of IT & Business Liaison, Foundation For The Carolinas
Fully Integrated Solution
NPact began by meeting with the FFTC team to thoroughly understand their needs and project goals. From there, NPact developed a comprehensive recommendation, and supported FFTC through demos to explore each of the products they would be using within their integrated ecosystem. During this evaluation period, the FFTC team and their stakeholders agreed that Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT, Financial Edge NXT, and NPact’s Foundation Cloud Grants (FCG) and Foundation Cloud Community Portal (FCCP) would meet their robust requirements.
Once aligned, NPact led the transition to the new software stack, regularly sharing screens with the FFTC team to optimize usability and work through any questions and requests. FFTC was pleased with the implementation of NPact's Foundation Cloud Community Portal, which allows donors to manage their grantmaking online. The product provides a greater level of self-serve customization than other portals they considered. The full software transformation from their legacy solutions to a cloud-based ecosystem was completed in less than eight months. With their solutions now fully integrated, FFTC is continuing their work with NPact as they grow and expand within their new system.
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