Your GMN Member Community
Community Managers: Jamie Amagai, Grants Administrator, The Summit Charitable Foundation; Ann Beier, Grants Manager, East Bay Community Foundation; Chui Chan, Grants Manager; Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust; Laura Cogburn, Grants Specialist, The Getty Foundation; Rocele Estanislao, Grants Management Administrator, The California Wellness Foundation; Rebecca Martin, Associate Director, The Getty Foundation; Kimberli Maultsby, Program Officer, Enterprise Community Partners; Christine Meek, Senior Program Officer, Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne; Cristina Yoon, Grants Manager, The Skoll Foundation
Why have a Member Community?
The GMN Member Community is your resource – this is the place where you can connect with other GMN members, ask for advice from colleagues, and share your experiences to help others meet challenges and solve problems.
Since we can’t always meet face-to-face, you can use the Member Community to develop relationships with colleagues in your area or those who work at similar types of grantmaking organizations located anywhere. GMN members are on call for help and ideas when your organization launches a new program; the IRS releases new guidelines for funders, or for guidance on how to streamline one of your grantmaking processes. You can also address questions and post resources for the entire membership.
You can read the latest GMN and industry news and view or post job listings from across the country. And, behind the Member Community is a team of dedicated volunteers working to enrich your GMN experience and keep you informed about what’s going.
What’s new?
While GMN has had an online community since 2002, the new Member Community launched in 2009 provides a more robust search functionality that allows you to easily find, share, and learn about relevant topics in grants management.
The membership database is integrated with the Member Community so you can quickly search for other members and also update your contact and organization information.
You have more flexibility in how frequently you are notified about community activities – you’re able to manage the notifications in more detail when new community discussions, committee work, and other content related to your membership becomes available.
You can dive right into your committees, regional chapters, and other groups to see the most recent activities and post new material to share with other team members. In addition, GMN volunteers can easily create and manage work groups when a new project arises.
What’s coming?
At the annual GMN conference in March 2010 the Member Community will have a booth in the Exhibit Area where you can check out features you haven’t tried yet and get some hands-on experience. We will also be presenting a conference session that will provide an overview of the Member Community for newer users, as well as greater detail for more advanced users to enhance and optimize your experience with this vital resource.
We welcome your feedback on what else you’d like to see or on different ways you’d like to be able to use the Member Community. jamagai [at] summitfdn [dot] org (Please email us your ideas). We hope to see you at the GMN conference, March 15-17, 2010, in beautiful Baltimore! More information about the conference can be found on the GMN website.