A dedicated grant catalog fund serves as a pass-through fund for all grant catalog donations coming in and grants going out. Setting up this fund correctly before launching a grant catalog ensures accurate accounting and a streamlined grant processing workflow.
Who: Finance teams, donor relations teams, grant program staff, and administrators managing grant catalogs.
For complete instructions on creating and configuring a grant catalog, see Grant Catalog Overview.
The Role of a Dedicated Fund in a Grant Catalog
Understanding the role of the dedicated fund helps inform setup decisions, from how donations and grants flow through the fund to whether one fund or multiple funds best fit your organization's catalog structure.
Acts as a Pass-Through Fund
The dedicated fund serves as the pass-through fund for all donations coming in and grants going out during a grant catalog cycle: holding donations, housing unfunded catalog grants, and paying out fully funded grants to grantees.
Populating the Fund field during initial grant catalog setup enables bulk action processing when adding or creating grant requests in the catalog, eliminating the need to manually select a fund each time a request is turned into a grant.
One Fund or Multiple: What to Consider
Organizations that run the same type of catalog annually may find one dedicated fund sufficient. Organizations running different types of grant catalogs or multiple simultaneous catalogs may need separate funds for each catalog.
Reporting
Because all catalog donations and grant payments flow through a single fund, organizations can track donors, total amounts raised, and grants paid out for that cycle without pulling data from multiple sources. For organizations that run the same catalog annually and use the same dedicated fund each year, this can simplify year-over-year reporting and attribute trends such as donor growth to the catalog.
Create the Dedicated Fund
It is recommended to create the dedicated fund before creating the grant catalog. CommunitySuite requires a fund to exist before it can be assigned to a catalog record.
To create a dedicated fund for a grant catalog in CommunitySuite:
- Navigate to the Funds page and click Create in the left-side menu.
- Add the applicable fund information. Asterisks indicate required fields.
- Review the Fund Field Guidance section for field-by-field setup.
- Click Create.
Dedicated Fund Field Guidance
It is recommended to configure the fields listed below for a dedicated grant catalog fund. Fields not listed here can be left blank or completed per your organization's needs.
Fund Detail Fields
Fund Name - Use a descriptive name that reflects the catalog initiative. This name appears online in the Grant Catalog, Giving Hub, and the Portal.
Fund Group - Assign this fund to a group. Some organizations choose to place a grant catalog fund in an unrestricted group.
Default Grant Type - Leave the default grant type field blank. If a default grant type is set on the fund, it will only apply to a grant record when no default grant type is already set on the grantee profile. Because catalog grants typically span multiple grant types, leaving this field blank avoids unintended grant type assignments.
Service Area - Leave this field blank.
Loans - Leave this field blank.
Fund Steward - The fund can be tied to a fund steward if your organization prefers. This can be shown on the Fund Management tab of the Portal.
Restrictions
Default Restriction - Set as Unrestricted. Most organizations leave this as fully unrestricted. Temporarily restricted is also acceptable, as the donations come in and grants will pay out within a defined catalog window.
Distributions
Distributions - The Distributions section can be left blank.
Giving Hub Settings
Promote - It is not recommended to promote a dedicated grant catalog fund on the Giving Hub. Keeping the fund from being promoted will help avoid donations coming to it outside of an active catalog. This helps ensure the fund balance reconciles accurately to catalog donations when processing is complete.
Private - Do not mark this fund as private. Donations need to come to this fund from the Giving Hub and the Portal, and marking it private will prevent that.
Fund Summary - This field is externally facing and populates on the Giving Hub.
- Example language can include: "The Community Wish List Fund will be used to support worthy projects by local nonprofits in our online grant catalog. Consider a general donation to this fund today to stretch donated dollars so our nonprofits can be even more successful!"
Fund Advisor Portal
The fund advisor portal section can be left blank.
Fund Statements
The fund statements section can be left blank.
Admin Fee Settings
Admin Fees - The dedicated fund can be configured with a fee type that will charge a per-each donation fee to cover overhead costs for large giving campaigns associated with the catalog.
Cash Management
Manage Cash - Manage cash should be enabled to support Stripe donations to the grant catalog through the Giving Hub.
Investment Strategy - The investment strategy for the dedicated fund is determined by each organization. Because catalog donations are received and paid back out within a defined window, a cash only or checking account only investment strategy can be appropriate.
Checking Account - Every fund in CommunitySuite requires a checking account. It is recommended to assign the same checking account that Stripe deposits are made into. This reduces the number of entries in the system and supports the most efficient workflow for processing catalog donations.
Min Checking Balance - The Min Checking Balance field can be left blank.
Override Balance Check - Set the Override Balance setting to No.
Add a Grant Approver
A grant approver is required on every fund used to process grants in CommunitySuite. Without a grant approver on the dedicated fund, grants cannot be posted or move forward for payment.
For more information, see Add Grant Approvers to a Fund.
Add a Logo
Add Image - Upload an image to the fund record if there is a logo or picture that is preferred for branding.
Assign the Dedicated Fund to the Grant Catalog
Once the fund is created, assign it to the grant catalog record by populating the Fund field during catalog setup.
To assign the dedicated fund to the catalog:
- Navigate to the Grant Catalogs page and click the catalog name.
- Click Edit in the left-side menu.
- Enter the name of the dedicated fund in the Fund field and select the fund from the drop-down list
- Click Save.