Eye on FDO

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to "Danger," the winner of our Foundation Directory Online Grantseeker's Best Friend Photo Contest. More than 600 ballots were cast and over 100 of you chose this photo as one of your top five favorites. Danger's photo was submitted to us by Cathy Chang of the Climate Project in Nashville, Tennessee. Danger is a Maltese/Yorkshire Terrier mix and, according to Cathy, he's the Climate Project's "office puppy." As the winner of our contest, Cathy and the Climate Project will receive a free, one-month extension of their current FDO subscription.

Thanks to everyone who submitted photos and participated in the voting. You helped make our contest a stunning success!

 

2009 Grants

As I search FDO Professional today for grants authorized in 2009 [Search Grants Screen: Year Authorized = From: 2009], I find 5,969 individual awards. Many of these grants were reported to us electronically by grantmakers that recognize the fact that currency is extremely important to grantseekers. Without the cooperation of these eReporters, many of these recently awarded grants would remain unknown until tax returns were filed, processed by the IRS, and released to the public. Currently, 256 grantmakers are participating in our eGrant Reporting Program, submitting grants lists to us on a regular basis: quarterly, annually, even monthly.

FDO Talk

Back in April, I mentioned that the headline of my most recent blog entry was now appearing on the left side of the FDO Home Screen in the blue Eye on FDO box. You'll notice that we're now displaying the headline of the most recent post to FDO's message board, too. Look for it in the blue FDO Talk box, directly underneath the box for Eye on FDO. So, the next time you log in to FDO, take a peek at what people are talking about. If it's a subject you're interested in, click on the headline to go directly to the latest post and join the discussion.

While I'm on the subject of FDO Talk, I'll remind you that our message board is a great way to connect, communicate, and network with other Foundation Directory Online subscribers. Feel free to ask for advice, share a favorite strategy, or just keep up with the latest dialog. As with most message boards, you can initiate new conversations or participate in ongoing ones. You can also search several years worth of message board posts by keyword or key phrase. Check out FDO Talk today. Your fellow grantseekers will be happy to hear from you.

Polls Are Open!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our Foundation Directory Online Grantseeker's Best Friend Photo Contest a huge success so far. We received more than 100 photos portraying dogs of all shapes and sizes from FDO users located around the country and around the world. If nothing else, this contest proves a point: people love their dogs!

The submission period has now come to an end but the fun is just beginning. Whether you entered the contest or not, take a few minutes to visit our polling page and view all the photos we received. Then, select your top five faves and cast your ballot. We'll tally all the votes and the owner of the winning dog will receive a free, one-month extension of their current Foundation Directory Online subscription.

Statistical Update

Here's the latest FDO Professional statistical update:

• 98,170 grantmakers
• 492,489 trustees, officers, and donors 
• 1,637,227 grants
• 3,580 companies
• 584,740 keyword-searchable 990s

Dog Photos

Thanks to everyone who submitted a photo for our Foundation Directory Online Grantseeker's Best Friend Photo Contest. On the FDO Home Page, you'll now see a small slideshow featuring all the photos we've received. To see a larger version of the slideshow, click the View Larger link.

If you haven't yet entered the contest, there's still time to do so. Please e-mail one photo of your dog to dogphotos@foundationcenter.org and include your name, your organization's name, and your dog's name. We'll add your photo to the slideshow and at the conclusion of the submission period FDO users will vote for their favorites. The owner of the winning dog will receive a free, one-month extension of their current Foundation Directory Online subscription.

Again, thanks for all the great photos! Be sure to check out the slideshow and stay tuned to find out when and how to vote.

FDO News

Don't forget to catch up on the latest major developments and more with FDO News. In the April edition, read all about our new search fields; learn about the new economic crisis information that we've added to FDO; hear about our Grantseeker's Best Friend Photo Contest; and discover the benefits of our grantseeker training courses.

Final Days to Upgrade

Today, a short message. So short, in fact, it could be a Twitter tweet.

Thursday is the final day to upgrade your subscription to Professional and receive a free copy of the 2008 edition of Philanthropy Annual.

Calling All Dog Owners!

When we rolled out FDO's fresh new look in 2007, one of the first aspects of the new site design that subscribers commented on was its dog-centric motif. People love dogs, and this theme really struck a chord with many of our users. Well, the dogs aren't going away any time soon, and now we want to add some new dogs to the pack—yours! I'm pleased to announce our Foundation Directory Online Grantseeker's Best Friend Photo Contest. Here's how it works:

1. E-mail one photo of your dog to dogphotos@foundationcenter.org and include your name, your organization's name, and your dog's name
2. We'll post all photos online and at the conclusion of the submission period FDO users will vote for their favorites
3. The winner (the owner, not the dog) will receive a free, one-month extension of their current Foundation Directory Online subscription

This friendly competition is one of the ways we'll be celebrating the ten-year anniversary of Foundation Directory Online in 2009.

May the best pooch win!

Eye on FDO: One Year Later

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Eye on FDO. Whether this is your first visit to the blog, or you've been a regular since day one, my hope is that Eye on FDO is meeting the objective it was charged with when it was launched one year ago today: to keep you current on everything subscribers need to know.

As I mentioned in my very first blog post, feedback is extremely important to us. So we designed Eye on FDO to serve not only as a platform for communication between myself and the FDO community, but also as a forum for two-way communication. Then, as now, I encourage you to post comments to my blog entries and make suggestions for improving Foundation Directory Online.

Speaking of milestones, earlier this year I blogged about the fact that 2009 is the ten-year anniversary of FDO itself. Read my next post for details about one of the ways we'll be celebrating.