The Calgary Foundation has chosen the FIMS community foundation information management system from MicroEdge, a wholly owned subsidiary of Advent Software, for its Canadian operations.
In making the announcement, MicroEdge President George W. Macintyre said, "We are extremely pleased that The Calgary Foundation found FIMS to be the most efficient and cost effective technology solution to support their foundation, donors, and their fine community. The FIMS solution is ideal for organizations like The Calgary Foundation that need seamless integration within all their management processes."
After a lengthy and comprehensive study, The Calgary Foundation transitioned from a system comprised of disparate software programs, to the full power and adaptability of MicroEdge's FIMS. The foundation found that working with so many different software systems presented challenges both for the staff and the workflow of the organization that could ultimately affect their goals of superior service to their donors.
According to Craig March, Information Systems Manager and Controller for The Calgary Foundation, FIMS was a good business choice. "With our previous system if a donor were to change their mind about an already assigned fund and want a different fund - there would be no way to do that in the software," explains Mr. March. "Once the funds were assigned it was difficult to reverse that data and re-assign it somewhere else." March calls this system requirement, "forward and backward software" - or software that allows the foundation to respond quickly to changes, maneuver and extract information and get that information to the donors.
FIMS foundation information management system from MicroEdge is a fully integrated enterprise technology solution specifically designed for the community foundation market. In fact, FIMS supports nearly 85% of the community foundation industry assets. Through its integrated windows and web-based technology and single relational database, community foundations can perform grants management, financial management and donor relationship management with one comprehensive system.
"In today's complex and highly specialized giving environments, community foundations trying to utilize a multiple interface and database approach will find it may not create an efficient solution, and it can generate unanticipated difficulties in control and management," explains MicroEdge President George Macintyre. "Our FIMS product was specifically designed to provide a completely integrated solution - saving the organization time and reducing costs. Complete integration is what makes a community foundation successful."
MicroEdge, Inc., a subsidiary of Advent Software, Inc. is the leading provider of software and services to the giving community worldwide. The MicroEdge suite of Windows and Web-based software delivers a powerful, integrated, and open framework upon which effective charitable giving can be made. The company is committed to providing the best technology toolset for foundations, corporations, government agencies, donors, advisors and financial institutions. Together, these tools help organizations to work with one another to raise, invest, manage and award charitable currency.
Advent Software, Inc., a multi-national firm, has been providing trusted solutions to the world's leading financial professionals since 1983. Firms in 50 countries using Advent technology manage investments totaling more than US $12 trillion. Advent's quality software, data, services and tools enable financial professionals to improve service and communication to their clients, allowing them to grow their business while controlling costs.
