ICF Launches ICFXchange, a Donor-Grantee Service for Baja California

ICF is pleased to announce an online service for its donors and grantees that will help to identify common points of interest, potential projects to support, and opportunities for volunteers. ICFXchange (http://www.icf-xchange.org) was launched in March 2006 thanks to the funding from an anonymous donor, the Reinhart Foundation and Wells Fargo Bank, as well as the hard work of ICF staff, particularly, Hong Shen.

Here, ICF has identified over 200 nonprofits that have proven leadership in their communities to address important local needs. A key feature of ICFXchange is its profile of qualified NGOs which donors can support. In many cases, good projects never reach the desks of potential donors due to lack of access to information, so ICFXchange was born.

ICFXchange has several advantages over traditional due diligence that donors might perform to assess their charitable giving options. First, ICFXchange allows nonprofit grantees to publish their profiles with past project successes and previous due diligence directly online. ICF offers comments and recommendations on each of ICF Grantee profile. ICFXchange helps ICF donors and registered users make giving decisions by offering them the latest available transparent grantee information. For those grantees that have a “Friends of?Fund at ICF, their direct online giving service is also available on ICFXchange.

Second, ICFXchange lists community needs, updated media articles with geographic and programmatic references, and links to other resources. ICFXchange also has links to ICF publications including the Needs Assessments for Baja California and Baja California Sur, as well as Blurred Borders, our cross-border research for philanthropic opportunities.

ICFXchange also features new project opportunities that grantees can update on a regular basis for donor consideration. The projects opportunities are classified by fields of interests and geographic reach, so that donors may easily browse among the project profiles to identify the projects that interest them. By providing direct and timely information about grantee projects that address current community needs, ICF hopes that ICFXchange will greatly encourage charitable giving and volunteerism.

ICFXchange is intended for use by ICF existing and potential donors to increase the level of communications, interaction, and accountability that they have with the nonprofit organizations in Mexico. In the future, ICF plans to offer expanded NGO information for other communities in Asia and the Americas where our foundation is active. ICFXchange is also designed to stimulate expanded giving through new online giving and donor-advised grant authorization capabilities.

We encourage our donors and friends to visit ICFXchange (http://www.icf-xchange.org) and to offer their comments. ICFXchange can also be accessed through ICF's home page. Please contact Anne McEnany at anne@icfdn.org or Hong Shen at hong@icfdn.org with technical difficulties or troubleshooting issues.