EverTrue: The Startup Dream I Was Searching For

Lisa Skinner
04/07/2014

For those of you that have read my colleague Meredith’s recent blog post and have heard about all of the brightly colored pants being worn here at EverTrue, I can’t say they are a part of my wardrobe just yet. But I can say that I am just as much in love with EverTrue.

The road I took to EverTrue is a long and scenic one. With lots of big brand marketing experience (thus the lack of fun, colored pants in my wardrobe), I got the itch to make a change to a role in an organization where I would really make an impact. Let’s face it—if you are 1 of 45,000 no one really notices if your work gets done, and done well. So I made the move to Zmags, another tech startup here in Boston. Very quickly I realized I had caught the startup bug; I loved the work I was doing, the people I was doing it with, and the difference I was making. Every day.

But things didn’t go so well for Zmags and with the sale of the company came a change to the team, and I found myself in the market for a new position. I knew I wanted to work for a tech company in Boston, but it couldn’t be just any company. I had to have a connection to the company’s vision and mission and feel at home with the team.

This was easier said then done. There were a lot of false starts.

But then I got the call that started my love affair with EverTrue. My first conversation was with Elisabeth Bentel Carpenter: the woman, the myth, and the legend (as Meredith so aptly described her). I was impressed with her experience and education but even more impressed with her energy, enthusiasm, and belief in what EverTrue is doing and where it could go.

It was clear from the start that the entire EverTrue team is passionate. Passionate about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. And I wanted to feel that passion as well. As we moved through the interview process it started to become apparent that maybe (just maybe!) they were falling in love too—they were in need of my experience and skill set. That’s always a good thing when looking for a new position and is kind of a requirement for any successful job search.

So, I checked off that box and decided to accept the invitation to meet with a few more members of the team (I couldn’t wait actually). And for me, that meeting sealed the deal that I hoped was coming. The team is smart, insightful, hard-working and extremely committed to the cause of building relationships in pursuit of a better world. And just a few days later, the call came and I was officially a member of the EverCrew!

Now I just need to get myself some bright pants…

Endowment Spending & Growth Calculator

Enter your fund's current value and adjust the return, spending, and inflation sliders to see how its value in today's dollars changes over time.

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4. Continue to Steward Donors

Your relationship with the donors who give to your endowment doesn’t end when you secure their gifts. Because your endowment exists to make a difference in the long term, your supporters will want you to keep in touch about its progress. Ongoing stewardship means keeping donors updated about your endowment’s performance and impact. A report that strengthens your relationship with donors should cover:

The fund’s balance at the start and end of the year
Spending amounts and allocations
How the fund’s returns compare to your investment targets
A short narrative detailing the specific impacts the endowment achieved

Create a report for each endowment rather than sending an identical document to everyone. A donor who endowed a scholarship wants to hear about the students it supported, while a donor who endowed a building fund wants updates on construction projects.

5. Upgrade Your Endowment Management Tools

Your endowment management tools should make applying your spending policy across every fund easy. Investing in dedicated software is especially useful as your endowment grows. Handling unitization in spreadsheets might work for a few funds, but as you begin to manage dozens or hundreds of gifts, dedicated software can save your team time spent manually calculating gains and losses for each one.

Why Nonprofits Need Dedicated Endowment Management Software

Dedicated endowment software brings accuracy and consistency to every part of the management process, from tracking individual funds to improving security. See how these solutions compare to a spreadsheet-based approach:

nfographic table outlining the information below.

How These Methods Compare:

In managing your endowment with traditional spreadsheets, you may see:

High administrative burden: Manual entry across disconnected systems
Limited security and audit footprints: Reduced version control and audit trail visibility
Difficulty with donor transparency: Spreadsheets provide only static data that is difficult to turn into custom results.

By using dedicated software, you are likely to find the following improvements:

Lower administrative burden: Automated fund tracking and calculated allocations
Enhanced security and audit footprint: Audit-ready reconciliation with clear tracking
Greater donor transparency: Connects with reporting platforms

Dedicated endowment management software keeps your organization compliant while freeing up the time your team once spent manually managing spreadsheets.

Secure Your Endowment with Balance by EverTrue

Effective endowment management begins with excellent accounting. Balance by EverTrue handles unitization, applies spending rules, and produces audit-ready reports, so your team can spend more time on the donor relationships that built the fund in the first place.

Turn your data into a clear picture of long-term impact. Combine accurate fund accounting with donor reporting that showcases impact.
Connect with the tools you already use. Pair Balance with Impact by EverTrue and ODDER by EverTrue to create and deliver compelling digital endowment reports that you can send to donors with ease.
Know where every fund stands in real time. Check market values, gift history, and available spending for any fund. Then, share view-only versions with your team, so everyone stays informed.

With Balance, your team can stop spending all your time on manual management and instead add balance to your endowment workflow.

Additional Resources

To learn more about managing your endowment and other ways that technology can help your organization, check out these additional resources:

Webinar: Building a Seamless Relationship Between Endowment Finance and Advancement. In this webinar, we cover the keys to un-complicating your institution’s financial endowment reporting process. Explore how building a connection between your finance and advancement teams can lead to happier donors and happier staff.
The Best Alumni Management Software Solutions in 2026. Alumni management software allows your university to maintain an active community that supports your school in a number of ways. Review top software solutions.
Donor Segmentation: How Organizing Donors Boosts Retention. What is donor segmentation, and how can you use it to boost retention? Learn the need-to-know information in this guide from EverTrue’s fundraising experts.

Less stress, higher endowment funds. Discover how Balance provides the organization, security, and accuracy your endowment needs. Request a demo.

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