The SmartSimple Blog

We at SmartSimple are happy to report that April was one of our busiest months yet – and May’s shaping up to be even busier! New, free and interactive webinars are coming your way, with topics ranging from our Machine Learning tool Janus, to new and exciting SmartSimple innovations, to useful features in our grants management system , GMS360°. Visit our main website's  Events page  to register for the webinar of your choice, and read below for the full webinar descriptions: SmartSimple’s New & Exciting Innovations Dates: April 30 , May 8 , and May 22 There's always something brewing at the SmartSimple laboratory. Join us as we showcase new and exciting features such as Google Maps integration, and the creation and signing of documents in your SmartSimple system. Enjoy interactive demonstrations of these features and find out how they will benefit your organization. Introducing Janus Dates: May 13 and May 27 Janus Machine Learning is an extension ...

This blog series will summarize the presentations from this year’s SmartSimple Community Conference. SmartSimple’s Systems Controller Chin Chuah presented “Your Data in the Cloud” for our clients in all vertical markets. This presentation defined cloud hosting, digitizing information, security around the cloud, and the future of data storage. Benefits of the cloud include fast setup and maintenance, on-demand resources, and lower costs. It's also highly reliable; hosting providers are specialized knowledge experts and there is a greater variety of and access to resources inherent to resource pooling. As SmartSimple is a cloud-hosted platform, Chin briefly went over the details of our platform's security. SmartSimple maintains a CSAE3416 (SSAE16) third party assurance audit, and have recently completed PCI DSS. More details are available in the PowerPoint presentation (link below). SmartSimple data is backed up daily, with optional incremental backups archived for 90 ...

This blog series will summarize the presentations from this year’s SmartSimple Community Conference. SmartSimple’s Director of Research Solutions Teresa Clarke and Business Analyst Serkan Bilgi presented “Assessing Research Impact” for our clients using our research management system , RMS360 ° . This presentation observed ways one can use RMS360 °  to measure the impact of their research projects, and how to capture research metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to maintain stakeholder engagement. Funding agencies and their processes are informally motivated by three groups: the government, the public, and the researcher. The agency needs to be held accountable to the government, and to provide them with solid outcomes and an ROI (Return on Investment). Performance is measured through progress reports by grantees to ensure compliance with their award, and impact is measured through short-term objectives (job creation, building infrastructure) and long-term go...

SmartSimple will host an interactive webinar, How to Share and Benefit from Your Grants Data , as a part of the Grants Management Network and Foundation Center's Beyond the Transaction webinar series. This webinar will take place on May 15, 2014 at 2 pm EST . From GMN's website: A collaboration between the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, Grants Managers Network, and the Foundation Center, this series of short webinars focuses on how to extract useful information from your grants management software, share it with your peers, and strengthen your organization’s impact as a result. For those using one of the platforms featured, this is a chance to learn how to export important data to share with the sector via the Foundation Center - the field’s trusted source of information on philanthropy worldwide - for inclusion in research, knowledge tools, and data visualizations aiming to help the sector be more strategic, collaborative, and ultimately, to have the ...

Our friends at the Grants Managers Network have recently announced they are now accepting abstracts for papers to be published in their Summer 2014 issue of GMNsight: Advancing Grantmaking . All SmartSimple users involved in the philanthropic community are encouraged to submit! The deadline for submissions is June 10, 2014 . Since this issue's theme is " Philanthropy on the Fringe ", writers should consider new, exciting, and out-of-the-box ideas around grantmaking. Abstracts may refer to current practices, research, works in progress, and untested ideas that fall outside typical grantmaking practices and solutions. For more information, visit GMNSight or email submissions directly to Nikki Powell at  npowell@gmnetwork.org . To learn more about SmartSimple and our grants management software GMS360°, please visit our main website , email info@smartsimple.com , or contact us toll-free at 1-866-239-0991.You can also visit our Event Registration page to sign up ...

Our friends at Volunteer Canada will be hosting full training for Canadian practitioners to earn a certificate of practice (Level 1) in corporate citizenship. All Canadian practitioners using SmartSimple are invited to attend. This event will take place from May 12 - 16, 2014 at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto, Ontario. For more information and to register, please visit the  Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship website  or email Volunteer Canada at  jstomer@volunteer.ca . Topics will include: Corporate Citizenship Strategy Corporate Citizenship Communications Corporate Citizenship Evaluation and Measurement Corporate Citizenship 101 Sustainability Reporting: GRI G4 Certified Program Leveraging Partnerships Corporate Giving: A 21st Century Approach Materiality: What Matters to Corporate Citizenship Strategy and Reporting Social Media The Art & Science of Networking to Build Your Personal Brand Equity CDP Reporting Visit our...

SmartSimple is ecstatic to announce that we will be demonstrating our grants management system, GMS360°, through Idealware's new  Private Foundations Grants Management Toolkit   webinar series. As one of the highly-rated companies reviewed in Idealware's Consumers Guide to Grants Management Systems , Our interactive demonstration will be held on  April 30, 2014 from  1-2 pm EST . Please visit Idealware to register today! Through this interactive webinar, we aim to give audiences a better understanding of the features and functionality of GMS360°. We'll cover the entire grants lifecycle as viewed within our system, from the initial application stage to post-award processes and everything in between. The Private Foundations Grants Management Toolkit initiative from Idealware serves grantmakers as a comprehensive overview of grants management systems. Grantmakers of all types are encouraged to register, explore, and evaluate which options provide the best...

On April 9, SmartSimple hosted a very successful Community Conference at Victoria College on the beautiful University of Toronto campus. We're happy to report that the conference was a great success, with lots of fantastic conversations and feedback from clients, partners, and SmartSimple friends alike! In the coming week, we'll post individual sessions summaries and recap all topics covered for those who weren't able to attend. Additionally, all presentation slides will be made available via our SlideShare account for public viewing. Keep checking our blog for more updates! Read below the cut for event pictures from this year's Community Conference: Remember to keep checking our blog for more updates and session summaries from our Community Conference. Want to know more about SmartSimple or our future conferences? Visit our main site or email info@smartsimple.com to get in touch with us. Remember to vis...

The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL crytographic software library which compromises online security. All SmartSimple users are safe from this bug. Our platform is not affected by Heartbleed. SmartSimple uses the OpenSSL 0.9.8 branch which is not vulnerable. For more information about this vulnerability, please visit: OpenSSL’s official advisory: https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140407.txt  The Heartbleed Bug information: http://heartbleed.com/  If you have any further questions, please contact us at support@smartsimple.com or toll-free at 1-866-239-0991.

Excited for tomorrow’s Community Conference? We couldn’t be more psyched! If you’re curious about how to get to the location at 91 Charles Street West in Toronto, just follow these simple directions for public transit or driving. Public Transit The closest TTC station to Victoria College is Museum Station on the University Line. Take the exit directing you to the Gardiner Museum and you will be at the corner of Charles St. W. and Queens Park. You can also use the Bloor line, which exits at Bay Station, or the Yonge line, which exits at Yonge Station. Walk east on Bloor to Avenue Road, then walk south to Charles St. W. Driving Parking is located at several locations near Victoria College: Metered parking can be found along Charles Street and St. Mary Street.  Impark Parking at 57 Charles St. W.  The Colonnade at 131 Bloor St. W.  Green P Parking at 150 Cumberland St.  Manulife Centre at 44 Charles St. W.  Nearby Accommodations Holiday In...

April’s shaping up to be one of SmartSimple’s busiest months ever - and we couldn't be more excited for it. Our 2014 Community Conference will take place on April 9 in Toronto, Ontario. Register today for your choice of several interactive sessions and discussions about SmartSimple! April will also be a month full of exciting, interactive webinars. We’ll be demonstrating various new features, innovations and projects on-the-go, as well as an introduction to our grants management platform. Visit our main website's Event page to register for the webinar of your choice, and read below for the full webinar descriptions: Introducing Janus Dates: April 1 and April 22 Janus Machine Learning is an extension of the SmartSimple platform. We’ll be demonstrating how you can use Janus to analyze your past information to help you achieve stronger giving outcomes in the future. Introduction to GMS360° Dates: April 2 and April 17 Join us for an introductory sessio...

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Chris Kulczyk is a Senior Business Analyst who has been working with SmartSimple since December 2010. Chris is the first employee from our Dublin, Ireland office to be featured on our blog Spotlight! This week, we talked to him about his best productivity tip, his hobbies, and his favourite podcasts. Productivity tip : My new discovery is the Smartfield View . I am trying to use it everywhere now, as it saves so much time. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple?  I like the team. They are great. Also, the diversity of the different projects I am involved with. What are your hobbies? Currently I am a little bit into landscape photography and spherical panoramas. You can check out my website chriskulczyk.com . It's still in an early stage. What your fav...