Five Tips to Enhance Your Use of the Exchange

When we face a new challenge, one of our first instincts is to reach out to someone for advice. By collaborating, sharing resources, and discussing common challenges, you and your peers multiply your impact and advance the common good.

The Philanthropy Exchange is an online platform devoted to foundation professionals to collaborate, share, and learn within a community of peers, that includes archiveible and searchable discussion boards and libraries. It is so much more than just a list sever.

Here are the five tips on how you can enhance experience on the Philanthropy Exchange:

1. Connect with a Network of Passionate People – The Exchange hosts eight open communities (including the new FIX Exchange) and seven private communities. Each community features a discussion board and library of resources from members who have subscribed to that interest area community. You can join communities that fit your interest by clicking on “Communities" in the tool bar and selecting "All Communities." Click “Join” to the right of communities that you would like to join. Additionally, as new interest areas develop, new communities will be launched.

2. Search Previous Discussions and Files Shared – The Exchange offers immediate access to samples and best practices. Over 8,300 public posts and 1,250 files have been shared since the launch of the Exchange 18 months ago. The search feature combs discussions and library files for relevant content.

3. Showcase the Work Your Organization is Doing – Gain exposure and expand your reach by sharing your expertise, issue papers, case studies, and research with peers who are doing similar work. The 1,250 files shared on the Exchange have been downloaded more than 32,714 times. The information and experiences shared on the Philanthropy Exchange are respected and valued by all participants.

4. Put a Face to a Name – Colleagues are more likely to answer questions thoughtfully and quickly when a post is accompanied by a profile picture. You can even use LinkedIn to populate your profile. Go to your profile, look for the header that reads "Import from LinkedIn," and click on the blue button titled "Import Your Info.

5. Update Your Email Communication Preferences – Real-time posts can be difficult to reply to and can clog up your inbox. Updating your subscriptions to a daily digest means you will receive one e-mail every morning with any posts from the previous day. (No e-mail is sent if no posts are made.) You can change the your e-mail frequency by selecting “My Profile” in the main menu, clicking “My Settings”, and selecting your email preference in the drop down menu below “Notifications."

Get the most from the Exchange by visiting exchange.cof.org and logging in with your e-mail and password for the Council’s website. If you don’t recall your username or password e-mail Membership@cof.org.

Also, anyone who is a staff or board member of a member organization is allowed access to the Philanthropy Exchange. If you have a new staff person or other team members who are not currently on the Philanthropy Exchange, please have them contact Membership@cof.org.

If you have any questions or would like a personal tutorial on the Exchange, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at Jodi.Meier@cof.org.