Case Study: Ontario Trillium Foundation achieves bias-free, outcomes-driven, paperless grantmaking with SmartSimple Cloud

How one of Canada’s largest grantmakers became the first foundation to invest in outcomes and deliver on the promise of bias-free assessments

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), one of the world’s largest grantmakers, needed to shift from a custom-built system to an outcomes-driven, bias-free grantmaking model that could support a virtual workforce and hundreds of local volunteer assessors. Their legacy platform couldn’t capture outcome metrics, enable objective assessments, or provide centralized access for staff, board and volunteers, so OTF selected SmartSimple Cloud (SmartSimple Cloud for Government Funding) to underpin the transformation.

SmartSimple Cloud, configured with Gen3, delivered a purpose-built cloud grants management system with an embedded data model, standardized survey tools, and business intelligence/knowledge management capabilities. The platform made OTF’s granting and reporting process completely paperless at go-live, enabled bias-free assessments and objective comparisons across funding streams, and supported remote assessors during COVID-19 — improving evidence-based decision-making and allowing clearer measurement and storytelling of impact across OTF’s $115M+ annual investments (645 projects in 2019).

Ontario Trillium Foundation

Beth Puddicombe

Vice President of Community Investments and Project Lead