“Our previous grant management system being so limited was a constant challenge. It felt clunky from the very beginning. ”

“Even with such a tight timeline, the Una Buro team always presented solutions that worked within the project scope. We loved working with them – it felt like they were in the trenches with us.”

Kate Brayley

Operations Manager, Chamandy Foundation

Private Foundations

Chamandy Foundation: Fast-Tracking Grantmaking Without Cutting Corners

Client

Created by the Chamandy family — which has a long history of philanthropy in Montreal — the Chamandy Foundation supports grassroots and community organizations serving children, youth, equity-seeking communities, and marginalized people.

Since its establishment in 2015, the Foundation has supported initiatives focused on housing, health, wellness, education, and community engagement. It distributes between four and five million dollars annually. Like many family foundations, it operates with a small team of just four people.

Situation

Since 2020, the Chamandy Foundation had been using an out-of-the-box grant management platform. It worked well for managing applications, budgeting, and producing impact reports, but lacked support for intake requests and providing a fully bilingual user experience.

“The framework was available in English only, so we had to make all our forms bilingual”, recalls Kate Brayley, Operations Manager at the Foundation. “This led to some very long questions and crowded forms.”

As the Foundation explored alternatives, Kate Brayley consulted peers across the philanthropic sector, where Salesforce consistently emerged as a leading recommendation. “My main concern was that, because Salesforce opens up so many possibilities, I couldn’t clearly picture what the end result would look like”, she says. “Several colleagues told me Una Buro was the only partner we should seriously consider and to trust them about this.”

Challenge

At first glance, the project itself was straightforward: to implement a grant management solution for the Chamandy Foundation. However, the new platform needed to go live in just five months – rather than a typical 9 to 12 months – ahead of an upcoming grant cycle and before the Foundation’s existing software contract expired.

To meet such a tight timeline, Una Buro focused on:

Maintaining momentum through rapid, incremental progress
Close client collaboration through twice-weekly working sessions
Controlling customization wherever possible by relying on proven features that could be deployed quickly and more affordably maintained over time

Solution

Una Buro implemented Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for Grantmaking, configuring the platform to:

Automate routine communications while preserving the Foundation’s personal approach
Support a two-stage grant application process, from proposal review to full application
Making forms available in English and French as separate options, with the flexibility to add additional languages in the future
Generate real-time dashboards and customized impact reports aligned with the Foundation’s reporting practices

The two-stage application process – which prepopulates some information from the initial request – required additional setup but ultimately saved the team significant time. “Previously, we had to review and respond to hundreds of emails before manually creating profiles for applicants moving to the next stage”, says Kate Brayley. “Now we can move through the workflow in just two or three clicks.”

Results

Describing the delivery pace as intense is an understatement. “I didn’t fully realize how ambitious the timeline was until the project was complete”, says Kate Brayley. “Yet, I looked forward to our twice-weekly meetings because the collaboration was so productive.”

Online forms save more than 10 hours per week

Initial requests are automatically converted into standardized profiles instead of being manually copied from letters of intent.

Online forms save more than 10 hours per week

Initial requests are automatically converted into standardized profiles instead of being manually copied from letters of intent.

Describing the delivery pace as intense is an understatement. “I didn’t fully realize how ambitious the timeline was until the project was complete”, says Kate Brayley. “Yet, I looked forward to our twice-weekly meetings because the collaboration was so productive.”

Tackling
long-delayed priorities

The Foundation’s team was finally able to focus on organizational- and system-level initiatives that had been postponed for two years, thanks to data collection and time saved through automation.

A project that would normally take close to a year was delivered in less than half the usual timeframe — without compromising quality. “This never would have happened without such a high level of client engagement”, says Mitchell Swailes, Chief Architect and Partner at Una Buro. “That’s what makes working with small, tightly knit teams so effective: they’re highly responsive and deeply committed to making the project succeed.”

The project also required a disciplined focus on essential functionality, with less critical features deferred to future phases.

This project represents another step toward making advanced technology more accessible to nonprofit organizations of all sizes.

“We believe any organization working to strengthen our communities deserve access to the same high-quality tools and infrastructure as any large institution”, says Mitchell Swailes.

By working efficiently, with the right partners and towards a clear goal, even small nonprofit teams can leverage enterprise-level technology to strengthen their impact.

“Salesforce is extremely powerful, but that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. If you don’t need something, don’t use it. But when your needs evolve, capabilities like advanced budgeting and integration with your accounting system can be added seamlessly.”

Mitchell Swailes

Chief Architect & Partner, Una Buro

303-3535 Saint-Charles

Kirkland, QC H9H 5B9

514-226-8451

hello@unaburo.com

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