Client Story
Ontario Trillium Foundation
How one of Canada’s largest grantmakers became the first foundation to invest in outcomes and deliver on the promise of bias-free assessments.

A SmartSimple Unite user
Client since
2015
Type of giving
Grants
Current platform
SmartSimple Platform 3
Previous platform
Custom-built
Key challenges
- Previous grants management system couldn’t accommodate new strategy and vision for the organization
- Finding technology that would enable a new outcomes-based model, virtual workforce and volunteers and increase objectivity in decision-making
Key requirements
- A cloud-based grantmaking solution to efficiently manage their programs
- Capture and measure outcomes on the impact of investments
- Implement a bias-free assessment process for local volunteers and staff
- Centralized, convenient access to information by staff, board and local volunteers
At a glance
About the Ontario Trillium Foundation
The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is a Government of Ontario agency and one of Canada’s largest grantmakers, having awarded $115 million in grants to 645 projects in 2019 to help build healthy and vibrant Ontario communities. The Foundation’s investments are driven by Priority Outcomes within six Action Areas, based on 12 of the indicators used by the Canada Index of Wellbeing (CIW) for measuring changes in the wellbeing of Canadians.

Ontario Trillium Foundation


Transforming to a more objective grantmaking strategy
OTF was tasked with advancing their grants management system in order to reflect the multi-faceted nature of their evolving giving efforts. Beth Puddicombe, Vice President of Community Investments had this to say of the undertaking: “How we were funding was working, but as we went through the processes, we became aware of a lot of opportunities to enhance transparency and build more effective and efficient processes. In reviewing the state of the grants management field, we knew we needed a different solution than what we had been using.

Ontario Trillium Foundation
A more strategic approach towards measuring outcomes
In their revamped approach to investing in communities, OTF focused on not only which nonprofits they funded, but how they funded them and what they funded them for. As such, they were able to better define community problems and measure solutions. In OTF’s new investment model, funding is assessed through six Action Areas, based on 12 of the indicators used by the CIW. These Action Areas are addressed by supporting different kinds of projects being undertaken by the right nonprofits who are experts in the field in which the projects are identified and funded. However, OTF’s internal processes did not yet support this new model and needed to evolve in order to stay in line with these new practices. This was especially important so that the Foundation could more effectively measure their funding outcomes. Blair defined OTF’s mission by saying, “We needed to have more action and less talk to enable the provincial government to see the real impacts our grants were having.”



“Working closely with Gen3, they configured SmartSimple’s platform to start with the data collection source of research and narrowed it down to six Action Areas that addressed community health. Within each action area, they strategized priority granting outcomes.”
Beth Puddicombe, Vice President of Community Investments and Project Lead,
Ontario Trillium Foundation
Executing on a new strategy through technology
To effectively track and measure all of their giving efforts while still building a final strategy, OTF needed technology that could enable them to continuously adapt to a then still evolving strategy. This required different layers of planning. “We needed to needle down on the variance of change data collection pieces, starting from a high level and going down and down,” says Beth. “Working closely with Gen3, they configured SmartSimple’s platform to start with the data collection source of research and narrowed it down to six Action Areas that addressed community health. Within each action area, they strategized priority granting outcomes.”

A successful launch
Change is hard, no matter how much better a new model might be. It can often still take time for all stakeholders to understand it and adapt to it. “We were able to get everyone on board much quicker by telling people why we were changing our model and we were easily able to do that with our comprehensive system,” says Beth. This was a chance for all OTF’s staff to move focus away from who was processing the grants to what the actual outcomes were. “Our process design was focused on the embedded data model that allows us to capture and support our reporting activities and other work processes to become more data-driven and evidence informed,” says Blair. By having a clear strategy and design for a solution for supporting it in place, user adoption and change management was much more streamlined, and their stakeholders could better understand the new model’s mission and application.

A future-proof platform to weather unknowns
COVID-19 threw a wrench in everything, and the world now operates much more differently than any industry could have anticipated. However, with a cloud-based system set up to be accessible and managed remotely, OTF was able to respond to the unprecedented situation without disruption. “Since everything on Platform3 is in the cloud, no one missed a beat. We have staff across the province, so our system was built knowing assessors would not be located in the same place. During COVID-19, it has allowed us to easily offer flexibility to staff and grantees.” says Beth. “Our work with Gen3 and SmartSimple, along with having everything in the cloud, has been a huge asset,” continues Blair.Ready for whatever comes next
With a strong strategy in place, and a clear method of data collection and outcomes measurement, OTF is able to now fund organizations even more effectively. They have made their vision of a more streamlined and objective grantmaking process and their mission of better tracking funding outcomes come to fruition, despite a year full of unprecedented challenges. Now with their eyes to the future, they’re looking to make their system even better. “We’re always trying to find efficiencies and, [with] digitization in mind, that includes working on our website where all interested parties can find information about OTF funding and start an application on it,” says Beth. “Now with the ability to pivot and make changes as we need to, we’re better equipped today to handle a situation like COVID-19 and adapt to any changes that come our way,” says Blair.

“Now with the ability to pivot and make changes as we need to, we’re better equipped today to handle a situation like COVID-19 and adapt to any changes that come our way.”
Ontario Trillium Foundation