FiS Overview

FiS’ contract and voluntary services have benefited more than 500 community foundations since 1985.

FIS offers community foundations help in:

Company Background

We have been actively engaged as an agent of change for community foundation starting in 1985 at Chicago Community Trust. FIS’ GRATIS was created as an integrated software solution that included fund, grants, investment and allocation management. Chicago was the first community foundation client, where in 1986, we introduced our mutli-user network compatible GRATIS solution on PCs.

The next major advancement in the GRATIS solution was the implementation of multi-pooled fund accounting at Foundation For The Carolinas in 1988. Multi-pooled fund accounting supports a pool’s participation in more than one investment pool based on the requirements for cash liquidity as well as short and long term growth requirements. This concept was an adaption of a similar concept developed by Mr. Myers, President of FIS, for SEIC, the investment management company.

The concept of multi-pooled fund accounting minimizes the focus of inter-period trades and maximizes the ability to adopt portfolio investment strategies to meet the needs of various foundation stakeholders. With the adoption of this multi-pooled fund accounting technique, Foundation For The Carolinas grew from $22M and 400 funds to more than $1.6B and 2200+ funds today.

From 1985 until 1999, FIS was an active software vendor while providing valuable technology consulting to many of its clients. Since 1999 when GRATIS was retired as a software product, FIS focused all of its business activity in consulting to community foundations. This new phase in FIS services was focused on consulting engagements, developing software user groups and maintaining dialogues with all of the major software and services vendors supporting community foundations.

Our work with foundation management and support staff creates, implements and refines effective technology solutions and related business processes.

We have in-depth knowledge current product offerings:

  • Foundant’s CSuite, GLM and SLM
  • Bromelkamp’s akoyaGO and GOApply
  • Blackbaud’s FIMS, Raisers Edge, Financial Edge, and NXT versions
  • NPact Granted GE NXT, Spectrum NXT, Endowment Manager,
  • Charity Evaluator,
  • Blackbaud & NPact Cloud Solution for Community Foundations
  • Stellar’s iPhi CoreEnterprise

A few large foundations are investing in the trend to adopt Salesforce combined with Sage Intacct accounting integrated with other vendor supporting software applications.

Another recent vendor offering is Give Interactive integrated with Sage Intacct.

Our work with foundation management and support staff creates, implements and refines effective technology solutions and related business processes.

Team of Diverse Business Group
Two Businessmen Having a Meeting

Multi-Pooled Fund Accounting

The next significant advancement was the implementation of multi-pooled fund accounting at Foundation For The Carolinas in 1988. It supports a pool’s participation in other investment pools according to the requirements for cash liquidity and short– and long–term growth requirements. This concept was taken from a similar approach developed by Mr. Myers, President of FiS, for SEIC, the investment management company.

Benefits of Multi-Pooled Fund Accounting

The concept of multi-pooled fund accounting decreases the focus of inter-period trades and increases the ability to implement portfolio investment strategies to satisfy foundation stakeholders. After adopting this technique, Foundation For The Carolinas grew from $22M and 400 funds to more than $1.6B and over 2,200 funds today.

Focus on Community Foundation Consultancy

From 1985 to 1999, FiS was an active software vendor providing technology consulting services. Since GRATIS was retired as a software product in 1999, FiS has concentrated on consulting with community foundations. This involved consulting engagements, developing software user groups, and maintaining dialogues with key software and service vendors that support community foundations.

Multi-Vendor Product Expertise

We are highly knowledgeable in the product offerings from MicroEdge’s FIMS, Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge, Financial Edge, Fusion Labs’ GrantedGE/Spectrum, and other vendors. Our work creates, implements, and refines effective technology solutions and business processes.

Contact Us

To learn more about FiS, reach out to us today. We’ll be glad to answer your questions.