Please note: Foundation Center and GuideStar recently joined forces to become Candid. Links and email addresses in the resource below have been updated accordingly.
What is the eReporting Program?
Candid’s eReporting Program enables grantmakers to quickly and easily share grants data with the field, making the data searchable across several platforms and research projects. Foundant clients who participate in the program will be provided with a premium version of Candid’s newest mapping platform, Foundation Maps, which reflects your own foundation's grantmaking activity in a highly interactive tool, accessible directly from your Foundant Grant Lifecycle Manager (GLM) Platform (Here’s a link to an example map).
These complimentary maps benefit both internal and external stakeholders and can be used by your staff, included in presentations to your board, or posted on your intranet or public web site. We currently have over 100 clients who are eReporting to Candid via their Foundant eGrant Report. Click here to find more information about the program on Candid’s eReport Website: https://candid.org/use-our-data/about-our-data/share-your-grants-data
Why Should I Participate?
- Share info widely in an efficient manner and without any duplicated efforts.
- Use the data to proactively think about what your grant data says about you as a grantmaker.
- The sector as a whole needs better quality and more timely info than what is publicly being shared on 990s. Grantmakers need to be both consumers and participants in the “Virtuous Circle of Data”. Everyone will benefit from this “Virtuous Circle” as more and more organizations contribute to the eReporting program.
- eReporting gives your foundation more control over how your grants are represented to others and, more broadly, to the field.
What Will be Done with My Data?
Your data will be centralized by Candid and help to fuel tools such as:
- Research studies on giving trends.
- Licensed data sets available for both your organization and the sector.
- Special projects like custom web portals and interactive mapping tools.
- Online tools such as Foundation Directory Online which allows grantmakers to be more informed about their grantees, or Foundation Insights which is a tool that provides a snapshot of givers’ statistics.
What is an eReport Map?
By contributing your data you get a free interactive, custom mapping tool which contains your data reflected back to you and also provides an excellent visual of how your grant funding was dispersed geographically. This tool becomes available on your Foundant site as an eReport Map and you’ll see the eReport Map link in the upper navigation bar for easy access. Once you’ve eReported for the first time to Candid and identified yourself in that initial email to them that you’re a Foundant client, the data will be processed by Candid within two weeks and we’ll be able to turn on that map link for you on your Foundant site.
You will also receive a link to the interactive map that you can use as a communication tool and that you can embed on your website in conjunction with a press release about your new eReporting participation status. Your board members who log in to your Foundant site will also have access to this eReport map, allowing you to incorporate this tool into the decision-making process and informing internal conversations about what data you need to zero in on in order to make your organization a better grantmaker.
Map Features:
- The map plots your giving on an interactive map and your data can be “sliced and diced” in many ways including where funds were provided, checks were sent and programs carried out.
- As you hover your cursor over specific states you can show cumulative funding by county, region, city, etc.
- You can filter the map and click on the actual grant to see grant totals from you, the funder, as well as details on the recipient's grant.
- When you open up a grant you can see further details as you’ve eReported it (this is where you’ll see Candid’s taxonomy. If you want to use taxonomy and get your data as close to the way Candid files it, go to https://taxonomy.candid.org/ for a list of current codes ). Any one of the dots on the map has data fields contained in it so you can see a snapshot of grant details from here as well.
How do I eReport via my Foundant Site?
It’s easy! Just email support@foundant.com that you’d like us to create your eGrant Report for you and we’ll be in touch within a few days after it’s built for you to review and finalize. Once you’re happy with it simply Run Report from your Saved Reports page, export to “CSV” output and email it to Candid at egrants@candid.org. Your eReport Map should be built and ready within a couple weeks of your first eReporting submission.
For more information, Getting Started with an eReport Map has more detailed steps throughout the process of getting your eReport set up.