Create and Modify Grant Recommendations

Grant Recommendations

As a donor/advisor, you can use the Grant recommendation form to recommend a one-time grant or a recurring grant to your favorite charity. The process looks slightly different depending on whether a charity already exists in a community foundation's database.

Note: For administrators: The instructions below are for the default grant recommendation form. You can modify the form to fit your foundation's needs. For more information, see Grant Recommendation Form.

Note: Some features are only available to donor/advisors and to administrators viewing as advisors. If you are an administrator, go to Home and select View as advisor. For more information, see View DonorCentral as an Advisor.

Create a new grant recommendation

1. Go to Recommendations and click New on the tool bar

2. Either choose a charity from your prior grantees under Select prior recipient, search for an existing charity you haven't yet donated to under Search for a recipient or select Add a new charity to add a new recipient to the system.

• If you select 'Add a new charity' to add a new charity that does not exist in the database, you will see an area appear where you will enter in the new charity's information in the fields provided
• For search criteria, you can enter part of an organization's name, location, ZIP Code, or EIN — or a combination of these. For example, if you search for "scouts ny," it will match Boy Scouts of America -- New York, NY 00564.
• To remove a selected charity so you can choose a different recipient, select X.

2. Select Next to advance to the Recommendation tab.

3. In the Fund section, select the fund you want used for this recommendation by searching or browsing under Funding source.

• If you select the Fund anonymous option, the fund is marked anonymous on the Payment Plan tab in FIMS. When the grant check is printed, instead of having the fund name print on the check stub, “Anonymous Fund” appears. In addition, if you select this option, the information is hidden from other grant funders in DonorCentral.

Note: To see how FIMS records and handles the Fund anonymous option, see Track Anonymous Fund/Advisor in FIMS.

4. In the Grant section, enter the recommended Amount, Number of payments (if applicable), Program name, New Grant Purpose, and any Special request. To not display an advisor, select Advisor anonymous.

• Depending on your site's configuration, you may be able to create multi-payments by splitting the total grant amount over multiple payments. In Number of payments, enter how many payments you want made. The frequency defaults to every month, and the amount of each payment is calculated by dividing the grant amount by the number of payments. To change the frequency, specify how often you want each payment made in Months or Years. The payment amount updates whenever you change the number of payments and/or the payment frequency.

Note: To see how FIMS records and handles the Advisor anonymous option, see Track Anonymous Fund/Advisor in FIMS.

5. To make this a recurring recommendation, scroll down to the Recurrence section and select Is recurring. Specify the Start date (required) and the End date (optional). In Recur every, enter the frequency in Number and select the time period under Interval — either Days, Months, or Years.

• If you specify an End date, the Total number of recurrences and Total amount for the grant are displayed. Total number of recurrences is calculated using the Start date, End date, and recurrence frequency values. Total amount is calculated by multiplying the grant amount value by the number of recurrences.

6. Select Next to advance to the Agreement tab.

7. Acknowledge the grant recommendation requirements by selecting I agree.

8. Select Review to verify the information you entered is correct. If you need to modify any of the data, select Previous to go back and make your changes.

9. Select Submit. A submission confirmation will appear when the process is complete.

• If your site was configured to require a minimum grant amount, and the amount you specified doesn't meet the minimum amount criteria, you will need to change the amount to at least the minimum value before you can submit the recommendation.
• A confirmation screen appears thanking you for your recommendation, and an email containing similar information is sent to you and the community foundation. The email message also provides a link to the grant detail page, which provides information included in the grant recommendation

Note: At any time in the process, select Save for later to store your grant recommendation without submitting. To return later and complete it, look for it on the Home page under Unsubmitted recommendations.

Note: To track and manage all your recurring grant recommendations, select Recommendations, then Manage recurring.

Cancel a pending grant recommendation

Donor advisors and foundation staff can cancel a grant recommendation that has not yet been viewed by the foundation.

1. On the Grants page under Pending recommendations, select Cancel from the recommendation's menu . Or, select View details from the recommendation's menu to display the Grant details page, then select Cancel at the top of the page.

Note: If a recommendation cannot be canceled, donor advisors will be instructed to contact their organization to cancel the recommendation.

2. In the confirmation message, select Yes.

• If the recommendation you are canceling is a recurring recommendation, select either Cancel this recommendation or Cancel this and all future recommendations.

Note: For Foundation Staff: If the Contact Us page is enabled on your site, donor advisors will see a link to that page in error messages about canceling a recommendation. If a suggestion import window has already been opened in FIMS, foundation staff will have to manage the recommendation in FIMS. For more information, see this Article.

• After canceling a pending recommendation, the donor advisor will receive an automated confirmation email.

Change a pending grant recommendation

You can modify a grant recommendation that has not yet been viewed by the foundation. The recommendation is canceled so you can create a new one based on the information that was in the original recommendation, and then make your changes. Because the original recommendation gets canceled, you'll receive an automated recommendation cancellation confirmation email.

1. On the Grants page under Pending recommendations, select Change from the recommendation's menu . Or, select View details from the recommendation's menu to display the Grant details page, then select Change at the top of the page.

2. In the confirmation message, select Yes.

The original recommendation is canceled, and the Grant recommendation form displays with a copy of the information that was in the original recommendation.

3. Modify the recommendation as necessary.

4. Select Submit.