The SmartSimple Blog

There are a lot of things that make SmartSimple a great place to work. We make cool software, we collaborate with awesome organizations, and we have super smart people from all over the world who make our offices dynamic, creative environments. It takes a variety of people to create a space that’s inclusive and unified, and that includes welcoming new Canadians to our head office team in Toronto. A number of our employees are new to Canada, and there are things we like to do at SmartSimple – not just as an employer but as people – to ensure everyone feels welcome and valued. For starters, when you visit the offices at 111 Peter Street, you’ll see a plethora of international flags proudly displayed in the reception area. These flags represent where we all originally hail from, and include places like India, China, Barbados, Greece and Morocco among them. The other thing you’ll notice is we also have a sign by the door identifying us as a Positive Space. Our Positive Sp...

The SmartSimple team broke out the sun block and headed to the annual Technology Affinity Group (TAG) conference in Turnberry Isle, Miami, from November 10 th – 13 th . This four day event brought together experts from foundations, not-for-profits and technology suppliers to network, learn and share industry best practices. The theme for the 2014 conference was Data: Gather, Analyze, Act! , and the agenda featured sessions on how foundations and other organizations are using technology to improve the granting process. “The conference was a great opportunity for everyone to gain insight and ideas,” says Brian Lai, Business Analyst at SmartSimple. “Discussion topics included business process improvement, security and information management. TAG also provided an app for all attendees, making it easier to track when and where events were happening, and included options to register and confirm attendance.” SmartSimple President Cameron McLean at the TAG Conference. Our Pre...

Welcome to your final round of SmartSimple upgrades for 2014! These latest enhancements will be accessible to our SaaS clients as of Thursday, November 20, 2014. Please note two of the features are on-demand options, easily configured by your System Administrator. Updated Functionality for Maximum Word/Character Limit Users could always see what the content limit was before they started, how many words or characters they had left and when they have gone over the word or character limit for a particular field. We’ve now enhanced this feature to display how many characters/words over the limit you have gone. The character/word limit will still be enforced once you hit “save.”    Additional Visibility Options on Company/Contact Custom Fields This field improvement gives you more control over custom fields on user and company profiles. You can now easily determine and configure what company categories and user roles each field will be attributed to. ...

On Wednesday, November 5, 2014, SmartSimple hosted our first community conference in Chicago. Held at the offices of the Chicago Community Trust , the day was jam-packed with informative and interactive sessions involving both the SmartSimple team, current clients and people looking to learn more about what we’re all about. COO Mike Reid talks about our machine learning tool, Janus. “I was really excited to see a full house,” says Sarah Harris, Operations Manager at SmartSimple. “We’d never done anything like this outside of Toronto, Canada, so we were thrilled at the level of interest!” The purpose of the conference was twofold – it gave our team the opportunity to have face-to-face discussions with current and prospective users, and it provided a networking opportunity for those in the Chicago granting community, opening doors and making introductions. “It was great that the people who came out were not just interested in what they could lean and share with us, but a...

Community foundations are registered charities that fill a vital role in the growth and prosperity of our neighborhoods. Donations are collected, then distributed, to other registered charities to fund social welfare initiatives that improve the lives of local residents. Many different groups of people work with community foundations; grant applicants, donors, volunteers, program managers, board members and more, and the needs of each of these groups is unique. From funding applications to financial distribution to managing fundraising events, it’s a lot to keep track of. Fortunately, SmartSimple has the perfect solution, and we call it GMS360 o . GMS360 o provides community foundations with one, highly personalizable platform to manage all their administrative processes. Our GMS360 o software will accommodate any foundation, no matter how big or small. Our clients use GMS360 o to coordinate a multitude of tasks. At the center is a flexible fund management tool that ...

On October 29 th and 30 th , the SmartSimple team took part in the very first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Conference. Hosted by the Conference Board of Canada, the event took place at the Hilton in Toronto, Canada. The theme for this inaugural event was Delivering Meaningful Impact. Sarah Jane Nicholson and David Resnick welcome participants. “We really enjoy attending events like this,” says David Resnick, Director, Strategic Initiatives and Product Placement, “We always appreciate the opportunity to share the power of SmartSimple with organizations looking to easily manage and run their CSR activities. Plus, it’s great to speak to our existing clients and hear about how well SmartSimple is working for them.” Also in attendance from SmartSimple’s Toronto team were Sarah Jane Nicholson, Relationship Manager, and our new Inside Sales Manager, Alvin Thompson. This summit gave participants the chance to learn, explore and discuss best practice strategies for compan...