Your EaseKMS: A Template for Greater Productivity

Design a format for your EaseKMS. The folder structure is for resources used by your Team.

The original folders @EASE provided included:

  •         Instructions
  •         Decisions
  •         Forms
    • Forms file names are indicative of their purpose and the output they provide
      • IE Labels and Thank You Letters (The small ‘m’ indicates they are merge documents.)           
      •         mLabel5162Arial12UandL.docx  
      •         mThxsMemoriam.docx
      • The naming conventions used should tell the precise purpose of the resource.
  •         DonorCommunications
    •   Subfolders for high-value donors linked to the donor through the Communications folder
  •         GrantProposals
    • Subfolders for an organization where proposal documents have been created.

Each folder except for DonorCommunication and GrantProposals should remain flat with no subfolders. ** Exceptions to this might be a Course or Programs Folder or Volunteer coordinator requirements.

Additional Folders:

Folder Purpose
eReceipts Used by @EASE
PDFReceipts Used by @EASE
NewsArticles Articles written by your Communications Articles written about your organization Articles of interest regarding the services you offer
GrantText Common paragraphs of text used to build grant proposals
VideoClips Videos used for promotions and thank you videos used with Donate Now.
PledgeCommitments Commitments made by donors. These may be scanned documents linked to the donor through their Communications tab on their donor record.
Graphics Signature files, logo, other graphics used for promotional purposes.
Policies&Procedures Policies and procedures used by your organization to ensure staff understand need to know information about the rules employed by the charity.
Photos Major gift photos … not the golf tournament photos unless the photo is significant.
Presentations Powerpoint and other types of presentations
PromoDocuments Promo pieces used for special events
CapCpnNotes This is an example of what we did for one client running a capital campaign. Where notes were more lengthy than a Dickens entry, we added a document in this folder with their name … ie Williams John … which was used for additional notes. This prevented the need for individual folders while managing all notes. Each document was linked back to the donor’s Communication tab.
Your suggestions??
Volunteer Forms used by the Volunteer Department
VolCommunications More information as required by the volunteer coordinator.

Policy Manuals

Policy manuals can be segmented by topic and placed in the KMS for easy access and updates.

An example is the HR manual. When this is segmented by topic area, changes can be updated and accessible immediately by the staff looking for information.

Backup

By maintaining the EaseKMS as part of the EaseResources folder, this information can be backed up frequently ensuring valuable resources are not lost.

One Common System

Leaving staff members to determine where they want to house specific electronic files is a recipe for disaster with multiple copies, inaccurate updates and just good information being lost.

Maintenance

The EaseKMS can be maintained by clearing old resources. Where a charity wants to keep some past files for historical purposes, an Archive area can be set up to shadow the EaseKMS setup.

Training

As new staff members are hired an introduction to how information is managed is important as well as monitoring to ensure clusters of files are not saved on local folders.

Kaizen

We believe in continuous improvement where the charity now has the opportunity to invest in improvements as provided by staff. This needs to be done in a managed format, but one we strongly support.

As a philosophy, Kaizen is about building a culture where all employees are actively engaged in suggesting and implementing improvements to the organization. In truly lean charities, it becomes a natural way of thinking for both managers and employees.

The foundation of the Kaizen method consists of 5 founding elements:

  •         teamwork,
  •         personal discipline,
  •         improved morale,
  •         quality circles, and.
  •         suggestions for improvement.

Outcomes

When charities invest in systems which support their fund development staff, time will become more valuable as team members become more efficient and effective.