PacBell and SBC Communications in 1996. With a staff of three full-time employees and two part-time, the organization has awarded $8.2 million in grants during the last two years.

When asked why CTF of CA calls itself “ ‘your’ foundation,” Saffold replies: “We are truly a community foundation.

Randy Saffold, Program Officer at the Community Technology Foundation of California

CTF was created by the community, for the community. We see CTF as an extension of the community and, through our work -- which is all about strengthening and building communities in order to improve the lives of those underserved -- we want to make sure that we stay connected, not separate.”

The foundation also talks about creating a “zero divide,” a concept that stands for bridging other divides beyond simply the digital divide. “Through our work to create the next generation of community leaders -- individuals who are actively engaged in community technology, telecommunications, and technology policy -- we hope to eradicate the divide between those who have technological knowledge, skills, and access and those who don’t.” He adds: “You see, for us, our work is not just about technology for technology sake; it’s about social justice, social equity … providing people with the resources to empower themselves.”

Technology, the staff at CTF of CA advocates, is not an end in itself, rather a tool for communication, knowledge, and access to services -- a means toward the more important end of improving critical educational, economic, health, employment, political, and cultural dimensions of community life. “Through our work, we hope to have one technology user in every home and a technology resource center in every community. We also stress that the idea of technology isn’t just about computers. It also includes telecommunications, assistive technologies for people with disabilities, and technologies designed with cultural competency in mind,” he says.

Though many of the grants the foundation has awarded are still “in process,” Saffold says that already it is exciting to see the change that is happening due to their work. “One grant we awarded was to an organization called ReachLA. It uses technology as a medium to deliver health messages to young girls of color and to young at-risk teenagers, such as those about pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and body image.” He adds: “Change trickles slowly. The more aware people are, the stronger a community can become. It’s exciting to be able to provide the funding to serve as a catalyst for social change.”

Up until January 2001, the staff at CTF used Filemaker Pro to manage their grantmaking process. They had been using this program as a stopgap measure while the foundation explored grantmaking software to invest in. CTF selected GIFTS.

The implementation of GIFTS could not have gone more smoothly, according to Saffold. The small staff implemented the software in January after two of the three program officers attended training. “We view ourselves as a nonprofit start-up,” says Saffold. “Two of us come with technological backgrounds, so we’re pretty proud to call ourselves ‘program officers who can install GIFTS’.”

“One option in GIFTS that we loved right off the bat was Ad Hoc Reporting,” says Saffold. “It makes picking and choosing data in various combinations incredibly easy so that you can run whatever kind of report you want.” Another feature that the staff found beneficial from the start was the ability to protect the integrity of their data. “The software is very forgiving. If you forget to put a certain piece of data into a field, or create a duplicate, it gives you the opportunity to go back and review or fix the error, or fill in the missing data before you save and close the field.”

“Compared with the grantmaking cycle the year before, this year’s cycle with GIFTS was a lot smoother and quicker,” says Saffold. “The mail merges for the acceptance and declination letters took two days instead of five since we were able to integrate the batches using GIFTS. GIFTS made the process so much easier. Next go around it’s going to be a piece of cake!”

When asked what they might have done differently if they were to go through GIFTS implementation again, Saffold says that he and his colleagues would have had longer conversations about what data exactly to capture. “It’s hard to know when you are deciding on what codes to create which will ultimately serve you best,” he says. “We are a community foundation -- we award grants throughout the state of California, an incredibly diverse state -- so we need to think about types of ethnicities, types of townships, not just more across-the-board populations.”

Saffold, who attended the Council on Foundation’s 52nd Annual Conference, held in Philadelphia at the beginning of May, stopped by the MicroEdge booth to talk with the staff there and find out more about the GIFTS Customizer, an add-on module the foundation is “seriously considering.” GIFTS Customizer allows users to tailor-make additional screens to satisfy the specific grants management needs of their organization. With various materials in hand, Saffold waved a friendly goodbye and said: “This is going in the front pocket,” he said, slipping the MicroEdge materials into the outside pocket of the canvas bag given to attendees at the conference. He patted the pocket and said: “This is the stuff I’m really going to look at.”

When asked why he joined the staff at CTF of CA when he was already settled in a plum job as an information technology management consultant, Saffold says: “They told me that if I truly wanted to make a difference in the community, I should come on board. It took me less than a week of being there to know that they were absolutely right.”


Community Technology Foundation of California Website
www.zerodivide.org