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Home > About Us > Client Testimonials CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
Since 1995, Metasoft has helped more than 10,000 non-profit and charitable organizations throughout North America raise over $1 billion in funding. We listen closely and take pride in our commitment to clients. Here is what they have to say. Katy Quigley Director of Grants The Jesuits of the New Orleans Province "We're very happy with FoundationSearch. We started our membership just before Hurricane Katrina, and I don't know what we would have done without it—it helped us raise $7.5 million to assist in the rebuilding efforts of several member agencies. It was also a great help that we were able to access the membership from any computer, because after Katrina flooded our offices we had to work from our evacuation locations for months—family members' homes, public terminals and other locations. I'm always telling other organizations that they need FoundationSearch—there is simply no comparison with other resources." Eleanor Marsden Manager, Research and Prospect Management University of Southampton "We are very happy with FoundationSearch US – both Louise and I have used it frequently since our training and are very pleased with the information it has allowed us to mine so far." Becky Pettengill Foundation Relations Officer University of Michigan-Flint "I love the reports I am able to create in ‘My Reports’ on FoundationSearch. My manager was quite impressed with what I was able to generate after only one review of the training tutorial on the site. Even though the site is intuitive to use, the tutorial showed me how to take the information to a higher level of analysis and create a concise, comprehensive list of prospective funding sources!" Rabbi Dan R. Director of Development Yeshivah of Flatbush "We rely on FoundationSearch on nearly a daily basis. We tried other databases, but are pleased to have chosen the user-friendly and comprehensive FoundationSearch. The ability to easily search through documents and foundations is indispensible to our fundraising efforts. It's affordable and paid for itself in a matter of weeks. No brainer!" Ryan Kelsey Director of Resource Development The Resurrection Project "This year we are on schedule to submit 51 proposals. Of course we looked at many more than that, but we were making sure that we weren’t chasing money all over. Instead, we selected only firms that were a real fit with our organization. Four of these 51 proposals represent organizations that we hadn’t identified before. Most of these decisions will come in late fall. Using Foundation Search also helped us learn more about ourselves and to refine our proposals. For example, since we can see other awardees of these funders, we realize that we usually represent a certain part of their investment portfolio or strategy in partnership with other organizations. We realize how much more significant our affordable housing and financial literacy work is now. We have deeper conversations with our funder base. Some view our work as community development while others view it as education (financial) or even human services. The other significant advantage for us is the ability to make a reasonable ask. In some cases we were short-changing ourselves by requesting too little. It is easy to get anchored to a much smaller dollar figure with a funder and then spend several years working for incremental increases. For example, a nearby organization started with a $30,000 initial grant and parlayed it into a $100,000 after 10 years. Based upon our research in Foundation Search and better preparation, this same organization told us to request $100,000 (if they couldn’t fund the full amount, they said it is likely that we could still receive $50,000 this year or next). This is a significant difference from starting out with a $30,000 request. I think of this approach helping us avoid two types of errors: Type I – Not applying to organizations that are a very likely fit with respect to our mission. Type II – Avoiding the Type I error, but selling ourselves short in the funding request. We become more efficient when we avoid these mistakes, too. We can maximize the work we do. Many organizations simply look to last year’s award and ask at the same level or 10% more. Instead of looking at the data, they talk themselves out of the very work they are trying to accomplish. Funders might give you less than your ask. I have never heard of one giving more than the request. Instead, they may politely encourage you to increase the request the following year. We can’t be afraid to take the lead on this process. We outline a budget for the projects and programs. If the number is too high for them, they at least agree that this amount is well justified and necessary." Michael O'Leary Office of Development Archdiocese of San Francisco San Francisco, CA "I find myself appreciating FoundationSearch the more I use it. Other similar products I’ve used were not as useful or intuitive - and I have found the customer support is extremely helpful at Metasoft Systems; they have done much to help me. When I am with my colleagues I share how FoundationSearch is a great resource for my fund raising work. FoundationSearch saves me time and I have come to depend on it as my initial and primary resource " Ed Bostick Grant Writer The Denver Hospice "I wanted to let you know how valuable Foundation Search and Big Online have been for The Denver Hospice. The Development department uses Foundation Search and Big Online to prepare for weekly Solicitor's meetings in which prospects are screened and rated. The user-friendly interface and special search features have reduced critical research time that has been redirected into prospect cultivation and relationship building. The print to Excel feature makes information integration with other databases seamless. The special feature on recent Foundation News stories has expedited searches for relationships beyond posted 990's. I am especially eager to see your relationship mapping tool Director Connections out of Beta and in use for the broader marketplace. It has promising features that elevate the art of prospect identification. Customer service at Metasoft for error correction and follow up was rapid response and thorough. Finally, since we subscribed to FS & BOL, grant revenues for The Denver Hospice have increased 14% over this same time period last year. At this rate we can reasonably expect a 42% increase for the fiscal year! In this economic downturn, our most ambitious expectations for Foundation Search have been realized." Sue Terry Grant Specialist Covenant Health System Foundation "As kids say, I am so NOT disappointed with Metasoft. Y'all are the BEST!!!!! Please pass along my words of appreciation to everyone who works to make Foundation Search the top dog!!!" Davis L. Goodman, Ph.D. President Harvester's International Mission "I have found Metasoft, Bigdatabase, and FoundationSearch to be excellent sources for information to help raise funds for non-profit organizations. My experience has been very good in reference to finding the information needed. The people are great! They are eager to serve you and it is a joy to call and be able to talk to a live person. There is a lot of stuff available to the fund seeker who wants information that will help them find the foundation that would be interested in their need, produce the best proposals, write the best letters and support for other fund raising needs they may have. It doesn't get any better than this when it comes to fundraising. Whether you are a novice or experienced fund raiser, you will find the folks at Metasoft, Bigdatabase and FoundationSearch ready to serve you. Just give them a call!" Kathleen Warren, Ph.D. Director, Foundation Relations WSU Foundation "Washington State University has switched to FoundationSearch, and we love it. It provides excellent analysis capabilities especially for funding patterns, sortable by geographic region, grant size, category (i.e. can be filtered just for grants to universities and colleges, or just for health grants, etc.), which enables us to make predictions on likelihood of funding, contact previous grantees, assess our success against competing organizations, etc. It also includes BIG Online, which is a database of top grant making corporations, and most recently it is beta testing a global search tool. Individuals from our large institution are buying their own IDs and passwords to give each unit search capabilities, alleviating the pressure on our central team to analyze their requests or provide additional lists. Both online and phone help is easily accessed, online courses are available at reasonable fees (I haven't tried these yet, but will be doing one soon), the database of news articles and searchable 990's (archived as well as current) is comprehensive and easy to use. You can print profiles for clients, but they also have links to the Websites, which are always where one has to go ultimately anyway to assess current priorities and RFP regulations. Within the FoundationSearch profiles, however, there is a quick link to the stated 'limitations' of the organization, so that you don't have to search through the Website for those and can avoid making elaborate plans to submit only to find out too late that the organization has limits that disqualify you." Cindy Block Director of Prospect Research National Audubon Society "FoundationSearch is a unique and user friendly resource. One of their more remarkable attributes is their customer service which we find to be extremely responsive and helpful. I think the amount and type of information they provide in their foundation profiles is outstanding, especially the foundation news which is a huge time saver. I have also found their grant analyzer tool helpful, especially when searching for grants made to specific organizations. I haven’t seen another product out there that does what they do." Kim Nesvig CHRISTUS Health Foundation "Our non-profit health care system began its grants development initiative two years ago to support our facilities in several states, as well as system wide efforts to address the needs of vulnerable populations. BIG Online and FoundationSearch provide one obvious advantage which is the huge and highly accessible database on America’s charitable foundations. The web access provides excellent graphic and text-based intuitive interfaces that allow fast and easy prospect searches. FoundationSearch quickly identifies those foundations with funding preferences and geographic focus consistent with our needs. I highly recommend this as a resource to both the novice and the experienced non-profit fund raiser." Lynn Rossini Director of Development My Sisters Place CT "FoundationSearch is a 'must have' for any organization interested in increasing their funding. The data base is 'user-friendly', up-to-date and an invaluable tool for any not-for-profit organization. We are so glad we made the investment!!!!" Marie Beichert Development Service CFRE http://www.granthelper.com "I switched to Metasoft's FoundationSearch & BIG Online a few months ago. I'm delighted. The search capabilities and drill down are great, and their features are clean and easy to print and file. I especially like their download to Excel feature. BIG Online is great for corporate search. They seem to be very busy making improvements and updating their files. Tech support is immediate." Daniel A. DiDonato, FAHP VP, Development Shepherds Ministries "The staff and volunteers that I have working with the FoundationSearch software have found this resource to be the most comprehensive they have used to date. Searches and navigations using this online software are easy to learn and use. We have successfully added a significant number of new foundations to our prospect list as well as deleted others that we found were not viable as a result of the information found through using the software. We are planning a major 50th Anniversary campaign and are thankful that we have this valuable resource to assist us in making our grant proposal activities efficient and effective. In addition, Metasoft has provided valuable training to those on my staff using the software and provides excellent customer service as well as regular follow up to assist us in the most effective use of FoundationSearch software. We would highly recommend FoundationSearch as a most valuable and cost effective resource in expanding the foundation research and grant proposal function of a fund development program." Tim Halpern Managing Partner Comprehensive Prospect Research http://www.prospectresearch.org "FoundationSearch has fundamentally changed one critical aspect of strategic fundraising: new prospect identification. Specifically, the firm’s use of OCR and other, related technologies has enabled end users to get past one problem that haunts most non-profits: effective lead generation. FoundationSearch’s full text coverage of multiple years of 990 returns is impressive; and its intense use of Boolean logic resoundingly beats the competition. And one need not be a technical specialist to use the product to its full advantage. In short, no serious fundraising operation can afford to be without the product. If you’re not using this product effectively, the probability is high that your organization is over soliciting “the same old prospects." David Broussard Grants and Research Officer WellStar Health System Foundation Atlanta, GA "We recently signed up with them. The main advantages we saw were a greater number of searchable docs/Excel export stuff but also (and probably more importantly) their grant visualizer and the new foundation updates." Cara Rosson Prospect Research Analyst Bradley University "I am pretty enamored of the product. The variety of ways that you can search for information is my favorite aspect. You can search by state, by amounts, by interest, for your organization specifically. The ways to drill down into the specific information are also great. The profiles they provide for each foundation are about as comprehensive as I've seen. The information is, on the whole, very current. Their customer service was great too. I certainly like it better than what we used before. There is a great deal more information in FoundationSearch's profiles" Laura Olague Executive Director Children's Grief Center of El Paso "I want to thank you for introducing the Children’s Grief Center to your FoundationSearch and BIG Online software. We have increased our foundation support by 35% this year and that makes our purchase a worthy investment in our organization’s future. Without a doubt it was an excellent choice." Linda M. Frisch Director of Grants & Major Gifts Carroll Hospital Center Foundation "FoundationSearch is the most comprehensive and user friendly tool that I have used to research grant prospects. I especially like the capability to export lists of prospects and non-profits who have received funding from a particular foundation. The searchable 990 is helpful to identify Trustees, application specifics and recent recipients of funds. The FoundationSearch links will take you directly on the page of the 990. Very time effective. I have also used the upcoming grant deadline link which is also extremely beneficial. I would highly recommend FoundationSearch to the beginning grant writer as well as the most experienced." Michael S. Campbell Director, Grants Department Edison Schools http://www.edisonschools.com "FoundationSearch has been an invaluable funding research tool for us at Edison Schools. From day one, Metasoft has provided our Grants Staff with hours of extra training and support, guiding us through complex searches. This is our main resource for seeking the best funders for our 100+ schools across the United States and abroad." Tracey Martin Director of Development Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York "I use FoundationSearch a lot and have found it a useful tool. Fortunately, the first grant we applied for that we found on the software more than made up for the price we paid. FoundationSearch is very flexible, easy to use, and produces detailed information that has been very helpful in locating and applying for new funds." Annie Farrar Development Research Coordinator College of Notre Dame of Maryland "We switched this past fall. I personally was a little apprehensive. So far, I've been quite happy with it. I have found FoundationSearch to be easier and faster. I'm a very visual person, though, so I like all the graphs and sorting features." Richard Weitzel Director of Development Teen Challenge Training Center, Inc. "I would like to report that our organization has obtained a grant for $20,000 in the latter part of 2006 for computer network system upgrading through utilizing the FoundationSearch website resources. We are especially pleased at this because obtaining funding for infrastructure and operations is generally more difficult to obtain. We recommend FoundationSearch as a viable grant search resource to other non-profit organizations." Kerstin Leonard Prospect Researcher Northwestern College "Very easy to use, easy to search. We previously had a subscription to another resource. I like FoundationSearch better." Rick Snyder Senior Association The Helen Brown Group, LLC http://www.helenbrowngrooup.com "One of the things I particularly like about FoundationSearch is the ability to do full text searches of 990s. It also has data from foundations in Canada, the UK and Australia." Clive Pedley Advancement Officer Auckland University of Technology "FoundationSearch has been an invaluable tool in our team learning about the opportunities and avenues to approach US Foundations for funding of world class research at AUT University in New Zealand. The system has been easy to use and the initial training and advice from Customer Support has been very helpful. We are looking forward to capitalising on this initial progress and making great gains for our researchers and academic leaders in conjunction with foundation partners in the future." Maureen S. Martin Director, Foundation Relations University of Michigan "We do all love this database. It’s awesome." Lisa Wilson Director of Foundation Relations Belmont University "About 90% of what we've received so far came from using BIG Online, with the remainder being proposals already in process. Every proposal I currently prepare is a result of or is enhanced by my research with BIG." Cheryl Fulton Executive Director Camden House "Camden House has benefited greatly from the FoundationSearch and related services. We are a small non-profit in a rural area with limited resources. This product allows us to reach out into the world to broaden our financial base. Our community is not industry oriented so this software helps us find the foundations that may help our mission. We have been in business for 18 years as a domestic violence agency now we can expand to help homeless women and children in our community. Foundation Search brings the world to us. Thank you for helping us to reach our goals." Dave Kaser Former Administrator of the Watertown Christian School Watertown, South Dakota Watertown, SD "Just a note to let you know that we received another $5,000 grant! That makes $27,500 total over the past year. Have a blessed day. Thanks again for getting the ball rolling for us…" Suzanne Fleming Registered Dietician Memorial Hospital KS "Our hospital recently purchased FoundationSearch and BIG Online, and we are very pleased not only with what the sites allow us to accomplish, but also the customer service. The staff are very friendly and willing to help, and I've always had a 'real live person' answer the phone. FoundationSearch is allowing us to simplify the research in our quest for grant funds, saving us many hours of labor." Brittney Nelson Grants Northside Independent School District "The BIG Online database is very helpful and I’m very glad we have a subscription for this resource. Thanks also for all your help! You’re very knowledgeable!" Pamela Gignac JMG Solutions "As a fundraiser and a prospect researcher for over 15 years, I have found that BIG Online takes you to the next level of research and enables me to focus on fine-tuning the details they provide and get out there to fundraise. BIG remains true to their commitment of boiling down information for you into a profile format and the links to other sources of information on the internet are great!! I highly recommend adding BIG Online to anyone's repertoire of research sources." Frances Jones Donna Independent School District "If there’s something I’m looking for and can’t find, I just call Susan (her BIG Online Fundraising Support representative)." Maria Machado Executive Director Shared Housing Center "I must admit that at first I was hesitant about the investment, but I know it was the right decision. It has made that part of my work responsibility so much easier. FoundationSearch offers so many “easy” ways to use the database that you really don’t have to bother the support team. But when you do complicate the research, the staff is there to support you and your needs. We have raised over $50,000 in new Foundation money and now with the new management component – I know we can do more (I won’t have to keep looking for the post-it notes I scribbled on!). I rave all the time about FoundationSearch to my Board and colleagues." Maria Semple Principal The Prospect Finder, LLC http://www.TheProspectFinder.com "I have found FoundationSearch to be very comprehensive in locating funders. Nonprofits of all sizes can benefit from their easy-to-use search features, export capabilities and their Foundation Manager. They also make it easy to locate newly established foundations so you can find your community's newest philanthropists. Their money back guarantee enables even the smallest of nonprofits to give them a try." Turk (John) Thacher
President Baker Industries PA "I love your application/program. We bought in on your six month guarantee, and darned if I didn't find a foundation where one of the trustees was married to a college classmate of mine--needless to say we received a very nice grant from them." |
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