Modernizing Administration at an Established Foundation
A long-standing public foundation had grown its donor-advised fund program steadily for years. Success created strain: paper-based onboarding, manual grant tracking and a small team spending most of its time on administration instead of donors.
The challenge
Year-end had become a months-long crunch. Receipting was accurate but slow, grant recommendations arrived by e-mail and were tracked in spreadsheets, and donors had no way to see their fund activity without calling. The foundation’s leadership wanted to modernize without disrupting donor relationships or losing the personal service the program was known for.
The approach
- Phased digitization. Donation intake, receipting support and grant workflows moved onto DSI’s platform first, where volume was highest.
- Donor visibility. A branded donor experience giving fund holders balances, history and grant status on demand.
- Operational partnership. DSI took on defined administrative workloads — validation, fulfillment, recordkeeping — while the foundation’s team kept every donor-facing relationship.
- Controls and reporting. Standardized review workflows, audit trails and operational reporting for staff and board alike.
The outcome
Turnaround times dropped from weeks to days, year-end stopped being an emergency, and the foundation’s team reclaimed its calendar for donor development and stewardship. The program now scales without each new fund adding proportional administrative weight.
The foundation kept its donors close. The busywork went to the platform.
This case study is a representative composite of DSI engagements, anonymized to respect partner confidentiality.