This is post two of a weekly series that will highlight infographics showing trends in mobile.
From the famous “Zach Morris Block Phone” to the modern day iPhone 4S, improvements to mobile devices come around as often as your next alumni reunion!
In this post EverTrue features an infographic on “Mobile Phone Evolution” from the team at Wilson Electronics.
Some entertaining facts:
• The “flip phone” was first produced by Motorola in 1989
• Color screens were first introduced in 1997 from Siemens
• The Motorolla RAZR, sold more than 130 million units, becoming the best-selling clamshell phone in the world
• The LG Optimus 3D is the world’s first full 3D smartphone
What’s your favorite phone on the list? Do you remember any of the ones below?
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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0%8%
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5 yrs25 yrs
Value in 10 years
$0
In today's dollars
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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:
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:
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.
