Conferences & Webinars
2015 FAOG Conference
FIS is celebrating it's 30th year serving community foundations and is a Platinum sponsor at this year's conference. FIS is a sponsoring member of FAOG and has been a volunteer consultant to the activities of the FAOG Technology Committee since 2008.
At this conference FIS will announce strategic alliances with other consultants that serve other areas of community foundation necessities not currently served by FIS. We will introduce Angela Lust of Longview Strategies, LLC who previously served more than a decade as senior executive at the Amarillo community foundation.
Council of Michigan Foundations
Dick Myers, President of FIS, will be a panelist in this webinar where three community foundations will share their experience in investigating and/or in making a change in their major back office software. FIS has served in the capacity of consultant to more than 40 foundations who have contemplated and made software changes in the past 10 years.
Conference Presentations
This year's MESC conference will be the first MicroEdge conference held in conjunction with Blackbaud's BBCON annual conference. Myers’ will co-present on the transition of the CF Insights community foundation work to the Foundation Center.
MicroEdge MESC Conference, FIMS sessions, Miami Beach, FL, October 2014
The 2014 MESC conference was held at the Lowes Miami Beach and was attended by more than XXX MicroEdge clients of which XX attendees were from community foundations.
Myers’ presentations were entitled "Community Foundation Trends, Analysis, and Benchmarking" and "Streamlining Due Diligence and Check Processing."
Attendees gained a better understanding of community foundation trends in growth and operations. A overview of the the 2014 Columbus Survey and Enbolden's GAB (Google Analytics Benchmarking) project allow foundations to compare themselves to their peers.
Ed Padar, Controller at Greater Houston Community Foundation (GHCF) shared how FIS introduced efficiencies into their grant approval processes that saved hundreds of man hours each year and increased their capacity to process even more grants. This session described how FIS introduced efficiencies around due diligence, how they reduced the need for multiple check stocks, and how GHCF accommodated single check stock with variable logos and automated electronic signatures.
MicroEdge MESC Conference, FIMS sessions, Denver, CO, October 2013
MicroEdge invited Dick Myers to develop sessions for their FIMS community foundation clients attending their 2013 user conference. The conference was held at the Sheraton Downtown in Denver and was attended by more than 400 MicroEdge clients of which 53 attendees were from community foundations.
Lori Finch, Vice President, for Community Foundations at Kimba, and Marc Goldstick, Research Analyst at Arizona Community Foundation were session co-presenters on "Donor Segmentation". The session on donor segmentation discussed traditional methods for developing donor relationships. Additional information was provided to session attendees on trends that will affect community foundation fund raising over the next 10 years. Myers' second presentation was entitled "Change Management in Community Foundations." Numerous events and other catalysts that introduce the symptoms accompanying change were discussed in this session.
FAOG Conference 2013 – Large Community Foundations San Diego, CA January 2013
January 14, 2013, San Diego, CA - The Chief Financial Officers of the largest community foundations convened for their annual meeting to discuss topics affecting community foundations. Each of these foundation CFOs are members of the community foundation's Fiscal And Administrative Officers Group (FAOG) which sponsors active committees to discuss topics pertinent to accounting procedures, investments, FASB and GAAP reporting and other important operational subjects.
Starting in 2011, Dick Myers has been invited to present information on the state of technology as related to community foundation operations. In addition to technology trends that affect foundations, this technology session has served as an annual update on the state of the software vendors serving community foundations.