The Hyphen8 team were delighted to welcome over fifty grant-makers to Salesforce Tower for our Salesforce for Flexible and User-Led Grantmaking event on Monday 12th September.  

Starting with networking and nibbles, our guests had the opportunity to network and share ideas with their industry peers and the Hyphen8 team, sharing experiences in the Grantmaking world and experiences of Salesforce. Delegates were also encouraged to jot down some ideas for discussion in our afternoon’s breakout sessions. 

Paula from Salesforce presented Elaine Forth (CEO) with champagne and flowers, as we had two causes for celebration. Not only is it Hyphen8’s 10th anniversary, but we are still riding high from our recent win of Salesforce’s 2022 EMEA Consulting Partner of the Year serving the nonprofit sector!

Elaine and Angela took us through a demonstration of the Salesforce platform in action in a Grantmaking scenario. This outlined how all stages of the process can be handled, from the Application stage through to Active grants. Elaine and Angela then introduced us to their “3 Tips for Success” when enhancing your Grantmaking platform:

Start with Service Design – rather than replicating existing ways of working, explore ways in which your operations could be enhanced by streamlining these processes before you start your technology implementation. Hyphen8’s Service Design team take a technology-agnostic view of workflows and can help organisations to work more effectively and efficiently.  

Focus on Users – by capturing the insights and requirements of the teams actively involved in Grantmaking, you can ensure user satisfaction by giving them what they need and allowing stakeholders at all levels to feel a degree of ownership. 

Embrace Continuous Evolution – Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your Grantmaking solution won’t be either! You may have high hopes and aspirations for a solution to start doing everything immediately, but we always recommend a phased approach. This allows users to familiarise themselves, and for organisations to have time to prioritise what’s most important to them and their beneficiaries for future enhancements. 

Click here to watch a video showcase of Hyphen8’s Grant Management on Salesforce.

A panel of thought leaders joined us for a Q&A following the demonstration, all at different stages of their Salesforce journeys. The panel consisted of: 

Mark Hoult-Allen (Mark Hoult-Allen Consulting Ltd) – With more than 20 years of strategic leadership roles within the arts and non-profit sector, Mark has extensive experience and practical knowledge of leading strategic business planning and transformation projects. Mark is currently working with Hyphen8 to implement a Salesforce Grant Management system for The Barnardo’s Foundation. 

Rachel Franklin (Pears Foundation) – As Operations Manager of the Pears Foundation, Rachel supports a wide variety of grantees through the Foundation’s organisational and leadership development programmes.  

Nina Frentop (Wellcome Trust) – Nina is the Grants Information and Systems Manager for Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s largest charitable foundations with an investment portfolio of £38.2 billion. Nina works closely with an embedded Hyphen8 team who are implementing a Grant Management system to streamline the trust’s operations to disburse funding for scientific research.  

Amanda Oduka (Atlantic Institute) – Since joining the Atlantic Institute in March 2021 as Impact Fund Lead, Amanda has responsibility for the design of the fund’s objectives, and application and review processes. Amanda has a specific focus in addressing the disparities in equity experienced by the Institute’s grantees around the world. The Atlantic Institute are a Hyphen8 Evolve customer continuously developing their Salesforce Grant Management solution.

Our expert panel fielded questions on all things Grantmaking and their experience using Salesforce for this purpose. A snapshot of these included questions relating to:

Stakeholder Engagement – our panel strongly agreed that solutions which were User-Led had a greater chance of success and delivering on core aims – they encouraged engagement both before and during deployment. Nina spoke of the improvement of the user experience from a Funding Manager perspective, as well as the enhancements in reporting for committees.

Investment Case – Amanda Oduka shared some valuable insights into using the reduction of complexity as a method of justification to management. This is especially relevant to Atlantic Institute, as they work across the globe to support beneficiaries. Atlantic Institute’s use of the Service Design team’s expertise allowed them to simplify their processes and made this an easy decision for the Institute’s senior management.

System Integration – some attendees had specific questions about integration with other Line of Business software, and the panel shared their experiences of seamless integration between Salesforce and other solutions such as E-Signature, Forms and Email.

The audience’s engagement with the panel was fantastic (and could have continued for longer!), but we then allowed our audience to divide themselves into the breakout groups that interested them most from three of the topics they’d suggested:

• Stakeholder Engagement and Values
• Data and Reporting
• Flexible Platforms

Warmed up after the panel Q&A, participation in the breakout groups was similarly lively – our guests were able to share ideas and insights to inform their own transformation journeys.  

The event was a fantastic opportunity for people across the Grantmaking community to get together, collaborate and share their thoughts with us and their peers. A huge thank you to all who attended, and for Salesforce for hosting us – we look forward to the next one!