The Marin Community Foundation (MCF) was established in 1986 with the assets of a trust created by long-time Marin residents Leonard and Beryl H. Buck. From the start, MCF’s mission was to use philanthropic contributions to help improve the human condition and enhance the quality of life in Marin County, CA. An unintended consequence was that they were swimming in paper.
Marin Community Foundation
Computhink Success Story
LR Hines Business OverviewCustomization was Key The Marin Community Foundation (MCF) was established in 1986 with the assets of atrust created by long-time Marin residents Leonard and Beryl H. Buck. From the start,Value Added Reseller Lonnie MCF's mission was to use philanthropic contributions to help improve the humanHines has never shied away condition and enhance the quality of life in Marin County, CA.from a challenge. And so it waswhen he was asked to do what Their mission was successful, and by the end of fiscal 2005, MCF was the largesthad not previously been done in community foundation in California and one of the largest in the U.S., with assets of $1.1creating an all-encompassing billion. Last year, MCF made over $55 million in grants and received over $25 million indocument management solution gifts.for Marin CommunityFoundation. An unintended consequence was that they were swimming in paper.
"I knew that ViewWise, with it's Document Challengeselectronic versions of file rooms,cabinets, drawers and files, There is no common equation that equals the number of pages in a completed grantcould easily handle the application. According to Christopher K. Black, CIO, Marin Community Foundation, "It isdocument management portion not so much the application but the supporting documentation that can cause aof the project. The rest was up grant-application file to swell. Applicants send all kinds of supporting information into us," says Hines. many different formats from newspaper or magazine clippings to extensive researchreports."After installing ViewWise, LRHines staff converted all the While MCF was making decisions on how to best distribute millions of dollars each year,TIFF documents from the they were waging a daily battle to control the paper, complete effective grant analysis,previous system into the and provide timely responses to grant applicants. For example, if MCF requiredViewWise repository. That part additional paperwork from an applicant, they would have to snail-mail a notification letterwas standard. to the applicant who would respond by snail-mailing whatever was required to MCF.Each step produced more paper and consumed more time. However, designing anddeveloping the custom workflow Selecting a Solutionapplication that runs as aservice in the background was MCF's first attempt at electronic document management was a system they installed inmuch more involved. MCF's 2003. The system had many positive features, but it also had a number of drawbacks.Chris Black wanted a system For example, it could only save files in TIFF format, which in turn, required a TIFF viewerthat would be easy and intuitive for anyone wanting to view the files. However, using the knowledge gained from the firstfor his users to use. Not only system, by the end of 2004, MCF executives planned the system's evolution to the exactthat, but he wanted one that requirements necessary to run their foundation with maximum efficiency.would do all the tedious work of Their initial analysis revealed that evolving the existing system was not feasible, so, theyindexing and filing documents set their sights on finding a system that could meet their needs for customization andautomatically so his staff could affordability.have the time to do moreimportant tasks. MCF knew that a streamlined document management process with a Web-enabledcomponent would dramatically reduce their time necessary to organize each file. ThisThe help provided by the IT would, in turn, allow them the time they needed to analyze applications and processstaff at MCF, Chris Black and grants much faster. They needed affordable software that could meet all the followingEmory Horvath, and Foundation requirements, and they found all this and more with ViewWise:
Computhink.com Computhink Inc.Phone: (800) 98-THINK, Outside the U.S. 630-705-9050, info@computhink.comMarin Community Foundation
Power developer Eric Westby 1. Contain all the paper.was invaluable. "We made agreat team," says Hines. Their 2. Establish interoperability between the document management system and theirknowledge of the MCF existing internal software. They were already using foundation-specific software calledBusiness Processes and Foundation Power, which is basically transaction-processing software that maintains grantdetailed knowledge of the inner account records and related information. The ch... [download for more]
