How DOEN Foundation drives social impact with Optimy

The DOEN Foundation supports pioneers who are committed to a green, social and creative society. In 2020 the DOEN foundation started a new fund: The PostcodeLoterij Buurtfonds. This initiative supports small neighborhood projects, aiming to improve neighborhood cohesion and quality of life. Today the PostcodeLoterij Buurtfonds easily manages hundreds of applications from start to finish with the help of Optimy.

The DOEN Foundation believes in a green, social and creative society. DOEN supports innovative initiatives of pioneers and gives them a flying start. In this way, they can inspire others and show that change is possible.

The Foundation supports initiatives that focus on 3 themes:

• Green: The capacity of the planet is the starting point;
• Social: Everyone can participate, where people work together and help each other with respect for individual needs and possibilities;
• Creative: Art and culture occupy a central place based on the conviction that a society cannot do without them;

In addition, in 2019 and 2020, they created a new project that focuses on the ‘Climate and Food’ spearhead. This project aims to support ‘food precursors’ that enable the transition to a new food system that is good for people and the planet.

The team does very seldom need IT support when they want to modify something in the forms or workflow, compared to other solutions. “Now, we have the flexibility to adjust everything on the go and ensure that it’s aligned with our strategy,” they celebrate.

In fact, the grantmaking management with Optimy goes beyond just collecting and selecting the best applicants. Optimy users can even schedule the grant payment within the tool, and the DOEN Foundation has been taking advantage of this feature. Once the team approves the project, an automated process starts. Optimy’s tool sends an automatic communication to the Foundation’s banking environment, so there is minimal need for manual tasks.

Now, the team finally has time to focus on what they care about the most, enabling social impact: “PostcodeLoterij Buurtfonds is a great success, we have a huge amount of applications! Good thing that Optimy helped us design an idiot-proof process.”