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Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

  • 1.  Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 10 days ago

    Good morning,

    We are considering moving to Fundriver for our endowment management software and would appreciate feedback from current or former users.

    We currently manage a pooled endowment (just under 1,000 individual funds) primarily in Excel.  Fundriver will be my first experience using an endowment management software.

    For those using Fundriver:

    • How has it performed for pooled/unitized endowments?
    • How complex was implementation and data migration?
    • How well does it handle spending policies and allocations?
    • Any limitations or challenges we should be aware of?

    I greatly appreciate any feedback you are comfortable sharing.



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    Elizabeth Sinor
    Director of Finance
    California State University, Fresno Foundation
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 9 days ago

    Elizabeth, if your endowments are in excel today, fundriver will make a world of difference for you.  We implemented about 6or 7 years ago and it has delivered and done more than excel could ever (forget about the errors inherent in excel).  Implementation is not difficult.  Just make sure you understand your endowment details well.  It automatically unitizes. We don't use pooled funds but it has the capability. Has handled all of our spending policies we had before implementation.  Hurry and get it done. You'll regret you waited too long.



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    Derrick Antwi
    AVP Business & Finance
    Capital University
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 9 days ago

    I highly recommend Fundriver.  We implemented it years ago and haven't looked back since.  The implementation was not difficult. We changed to a hybrid spending policy a few years ago and it handled the change without an issue.  It has made handling the unitized pool much easier and we aren't worried about spreadsheet errors.



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    Nancy Combs
    Associate Vice President for Finance & Assistant Treasurer
    Grinnell College
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 9 days ago

    We implemented Fundriver in 2019.   We transitioned from another endowment management system that was not working for us.   We have pooled/unitized endowments (1700+) and multiple spending rules, including a custom rule.   Fundriver automates the unitization and calculation of spending as well as allocation of administrative fees.   Implementation was straightforward and we received excellent support from the Fundriver staff.  Post implementation, customer service continues to be excellent.    



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    Gina Lankswert
    Director of Administration
    University of Louisville
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 9 days ago

    I echo everyone's praise. We've been using it for 6 or 7 years now.  As long as your Excel data is clean and you understand the nuances of your different funds, your implementation should be painless.  Their Support after implementation is great too.  Good online help articles to browse through and very responsive if you need to submit a question or ticket.  They have a lot of reports delivered right out of the box and you can create your own too.



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    Tanya Landgraf
    Director of Finance/Controller
    Buena Vista University
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 9 days ago

    Been with them for almost 18 years and highly recommend. The spending allocation options are great. Our endowment was not unitized precious so we set everyone to 100. It was effortless. The monthly updates do not take long. They are great to work out issues with you. 



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    Valarie Van Vlack
    Assistant Vice President and Treasurer
    Texas State University
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 8 days ago

    Elizabeth, Fundriver is excellent software for maintaining endowment fund valuations in a consolidated investment pool. I also recommend Adavico software as another solution. Both are great alternatives to spreadsheets. Good luck with the transition.



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    Mary Wheeler
    NACUBO FARM Author and Consultant
    NACUBO Consultants and Speakers
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 8 days ago

    Hey Elizabeth,
    NGU just implemented Fundriver this year and it came recommended by our auditors. We are still tweaking the setup as we discover more about some of our endowment requirements, but it was quite easy to set up. The implementation folks for Fundriver did a wonderful job helping navigate all the information needed and set up all the components with us. As we discovered nuances with the complexity of our endowments, their implementation folks helped with that, making the implementation exceptionally smooth. We are just getting started, but it seems to manage the spending policies well and the allocations too if you stay within the policy you set up. However, you can easily manually edit the allocations and spending transactions as needed. At this time, the only limitation we have seen is their manpower for setting up our general ledger accounts in their system so we can easily generate an entry for our ERP system and we use Jenzabar. We are still waiting for this part to be completed, and we started implementation in October. I will say it is far better than using a spreadsheet and I would recommend it.



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    Brenda Peavy
    Controller
    North Greenville University
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 8 days ago

    The Medical College of Virgina Foundation went live with Fundriver in early 2020 after looking at several solutions for moving our unitization proces off of Excel sheets. The implementation process took several months and we had a few bugs and kinks to work through but overall, once we got the system up a nd running, we've been mostly please with the product and the product support. MCVF uses Fundriver to unitize our endowment pool that currently holds just over 1300 endowment funds with just over $930M in investment assets. MCVF also uses fundriver as one of our "customer portals" for our 350+ campus end-users that need quick views into their endowment and current-use fund balances and available spendable income numbers. We use fundriver as a unitization tool, information portal, and a general ledger tool to create the journal entires that we import into our financial management system (currently SAP S4/HANA - prevously Blackbaud FE). We are hppy we made the switch from the Excel nightmare we previuusly used.

    David Silver, CPA MBA

    MCVF VP & CFO



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    David Silver
    VP for Finance and Administration & CFO
    Medical College of Virginia Foundation
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 8 days ago

    TCU was already using Fundriver when I got here in 2017. I echo everyone's compliments of the product, and especially want to emphasize the excellent customer service we receive. It's rare that I have an issue, but when I do, their team resolves it promptly. They also guided me through the implementation of the spending module several years back.



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    Christopher Lawler
    Director of Endowment & Gift Accounting
    Texas Christian University
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 7 days ago

    Elizabeth:

    Hampden-Sydney recently implemented Adavico.  It is working well.  The implementation process was relatively painless.  I recommend you look at Adavico.

    Best.



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    Gary Ometer
    Vice President for Business Affairs & Finance
    Hampden-Sydney College
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 6 days ago

    Elizabeth,

    We are in the process of implementing Adavico and so far it's been painless. I would recommend looking at this service, as well.



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    Karen Tumlinson
    Vice President for Finance & Operations and CFO
    Hendrix College
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 6 days ago

    Hi Elizabeth, I was not part of the original selection and implementation, but I took over an installation of Fundriver that had not been maintained and was not operating properly. The Fundriver support team was very helpful in providing me guidance and instruction to make corrections to configuration settings, create business processes to interface transactions and get reports. If your endowment has many funds, the tool is a vast improvement over spreadsheets. It is very forgiving if you discover errors or omissions in previous years and provides for quick corrections and recalculations across multiple fiscal years. 
    I've implemented many software applications and taken over implementations that aren't performing. I've learned that before you even get to deciding which application you are going to choose, the best implementations are those where the requirements, business processes, and what your objectives are thoroughly documented. Once you done that, then you'll be ready to evaluate whether which application will be the best fit for you. Good luck! Let me know if you need any other help or suggestions.



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    Shawn McCown
    Consultant
    NACUBO Consultants and Speakers
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 5 days ago

    Furman University uses Fund Driver for our endowment.  We have been on it for many years and have been happy with how it handles spending policies and allocations.  I cannot speak to the implementation because that happened way before my time at Furman.  Overall, we have no concerns.

    Susan Maddux

    VP Finance & Administration



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    Susan Maddux
    Vice President of Finance & Administration
    Furman University
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 5 days ago

    We've been using Fundriver (now called Balance) since 2016.  We were using an in-house endowment management system to track our funds, but with more complex spending requests and the need to update our legacy system, we decided to look into Fundriver.  The implementation process took a few months once we decided to onboard, but a good amount of that time was reconciling on our side so that we were starting with good data.  We have a handful of spending rules that they were able to set up for us fairly easily, and they were very responsive to any questions we had.  Happy to set up a call if you want to discuss in more detail.



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    Matthew Sykes
    Manager of Endowment and Investment Accounting
    Dartmouth College
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    Original Message


  • 16.  RE: Thoughts on Fundriver Endowment Management Software

    Posted 5 days ago

    We converted from a complicated excel spreadsheet to fundriver in 2015, so we are in year 11 of using it and have been very happy. We have about 1250 funds unitized across 5 different pools, with our endowment having over 1200 alone. They have a built in rule for Osher funds if you have those. It has handled all the odd spending rules we have sent their way, and when we have had to add one, they have worked with us in a test db to ensure its working correctly before it goes into our production db. Conversion was not difficult. We have been very pleased working with their team and the software itself. Highly recommend. Let me know if you have any specific questions.



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    Kierstin K. Sykes
    Executive Director, Gift Services & Accounting
    Controller, UC San Diego Foundation
    Gift Services & Accounting
    University of California San Diego
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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