“We were looking for a partner who understood the nuances of grant-making and could provide expert guidance throughout the implementation process. ImagineCRM’s experience and ability to share best practices were instrumental in ensuring our Salesforce setup was both effective and aligned with our mission.”

— Dwayne Montaque, RF Catalytic Capital

Introduction to RFCC and Dwayne

RF Catalytic Capital Inc. (RFCC) is a charitable offshoot of the Rockefeller Foundation that was established in 2020 with the mission of aggregating capital from foundations, impact investors, businesses, governments, and other like-minded funders to support collaborative solutions addressing global challenges.

With a new organization comes a new team, and the organization hired Dwayne Montaque to join RFCC as the Infrastructure Lead. He was tasked with building the foundational systems and processes necessary for the organization's operations. His role was crucial in setting up a robust infrastructure to manage relationships, track funding, and ensure seamless operations.

RFCC serves as a collaborative hub and streamlines the grant-making process providing benefits for funders and grantees. It brings together a range of stakeholders with impact and grant capital and can pool resources promoting collaborative philanthropy. RFCC also provides core infrastructure support including legal, grants and contracts, finance and accounting, donor and project management and takes on fiduciary and legal responsibility of the pooled resources. Projects vary in size and scope thereby different levels of support from RFCC are offered—from aggregating capital for projects, incubating projects and spinning projects off to be incorporated on their own.

We interviewed Dwayne to hear his thoughts on implementing a new CRM and what was behind getting it right.

**Building Infrastructure**

As a newly established charity, RFCC required a robust system capable of managing complex grant-making and collaborative efforts from the outset. The team needed a reliable system because of high-profile projects like Testing for America, the first pilot that allowed COVID-19 testing in school programs to get kids back into school safely— with thousands of schools relying on the program’s success.

The organization needed a scalable solution to support its expanding operations. The initial manual grant-making processes led to inefficiencies, highlighting the need for a more advanced system to manage both the flow of funds and relationships with various stakeholders.

“RFCC, as a brand new organization, was thrust into high-stakes grant-making with programs like Testing for America, where the success of safely reopening thousands of schools hinged on our ability to manage complex funding and reporting. Our initial manual processes were unsustainable, leading us to quickly realize the need for a robust, scalable system to handle the influx of funds and streamline our interactions with numerous stakeholders.”

— Dwayne

**Infrastructure Creation:**

As a new organization, RFCC needed a solution designed explicitly by grantmakers for grantmakers, forming the backbone of their comprehensive infrastructure.

This platform was essential for efficiently managing their growing operations, including setting up systems for grant-making processes, fund aggregation, and effective collaboration with multiple stakeholders.

Experience and best practice

RFCC needed a Salesforce partner with deep expertise in the nonprofit sector who could not only implement the system but also share best practices and guide the organization through the complexities of the setup. Given their unique requirements and rapid growth, it was crucial to have a partner who could tailor the solution to their needs and offer insights based on proven strategies.

"We were looking for a partner who understood the nuances of grant-making and could provide expert guidance throughout the implementation process. ImagineCRM's experience and ability to share best practices were instrumental in ensuring our Salesforce setup was both effective and aligned with our mission."

Choosing Salesforce and ImagineCRM

Dwayne kindly shared with us the reasons behind choosing the platform, he noted:

“Salesforce was chosen as the core platform for RFCC due to its versatility and ability to handle complex, enterprise-level needs.”

RFCC was drawn to Salesforce because of its robust CRM capabilities, which allow for comprehensive tracking of engagements, both inbound and outbound. Salesforce's flexibility and the wide range of applications available within its ecosystem made it an ideal choice for an organization looking to scale quickly while maintaining a high level of customization.

**How Salesforce Has Helped RFCC**

Salesforce has significantly transformed how RFCC operates. It has streamlined processes across the organization, allowing teams to work collaboratively rather than in silos.

The platform provides an enterprise-wide view of all interactions with partners and grantees, ensuring that RFCC can manage grants and contracts efficiently. Salesforce also supports RFCC in its mission by enabling real-time tracking of project impacts and facilitating transparent communication with grantees.

Benefits of Having Salesforce

The benefits of Salesforce for RFCC have been multifaceted, shared Dwayne; here are some of the benefits the RFCC has gained:

Efficiency: Automating the grant-making processes has significantly enhanced RFCC's operational efficiency, eliminating time-consuming manual tasks that previously bogged down the team. This automation has freed up valuable time and resources, allowing the team to shift their focus from administrative duties to more strategic initiatives that drive the organization’s mission forward. By streamlining these processes, RFCC can manage a larger volume of grants with greater accuracy and speed, ultimately increasing their impact.
Transparency: Salesforce has revolutionized how RFCC interacts with its grantees by providing a platform where the status of grant requests can be tracked in real-time. This transparency fosters stronger relationships by informing grantees at every process step, reducing uncertainty, and enhancing trust. Clear and open communication is now standard practice, ensuring that both RFCC and its partners are permanently aligned, which is crucial for effective collaboration and long-term success.
Scalability: As RFCC continues to grow and take on more ambitious projects, Salesforce has proven invaluable, offering a scalable infrastructure that adapts to the organization's evolving needs. The platform’s flexibility allows RFCC to manage increasingly complex operations without the risk of outgrowing its systems. Whether handling more grants or integrating new programs, Salesforce provides the scalability needed to support RFCC’s expanding mission and future endeavors.
Professional Development: Implementing and working with Salesforce has provided RFCC's team members with a unique professional development opportunity, significantly enhancing their skill sets in a highly competitive field. Gaining proficiency in Salesforce improves their current job performance and adds a valuable credential to their resumes. This experience has empowered the team, making them more adept at leveraging technology to achieve philanthropic goals and positioning them for future career advancement within the nonprofit sector.

**Why ImagineCRM?**

When choosing a Salesforce partner, it’s crucial to choose a partner who understands your organization's work, ethos, values, mission, and ways of working.

As a nonprofit or foundation, it is important to think about the partner as an extension of your team, a team that will bring their experience to the table to shape your project based on best practices and knowledge.

Dwayne shared: "We chose to work with ImagineCRM and Daisy because they were flexible, patient, and committed to growing with us as we built out the RFCC.

Their grants management expertise and willingness to collaborate closely with us made them the right partner for our needs. They guided us through best practices, advised on technology solutions, and were willing to try innovative approaches, which was crucial for a new organization like ours."

An impactful partnership:

The partnership between ImagineCRM and RFCC has proven to drive huge amounts of impact, and the benefits of using Salesforce have shone through the team's efforts to collaborate on social issues. They now have more tools at their fingertips, one system that is a single source of truth, and the ability to work from anywhere across the world, sharing data, reports, and more with collaborative partners and funders.