Overcoming the challenges of running foundations through asset servicing

Running foundations in today’s climate can be a great challenge. On top of bringing to light its advocacies in what may sometimes appear to be a cynical world, foundations have to cope with tedious daily operational demands. Moreover, it must face the realities of engaging in cause-oriented work: The need to raise funds.

These challenges are often compounded by the limitations on the resources of these organizations. As a matter of principle, as well as a matter of commitment to their donors and supporters, foundations should put their cause above their other concerns. This means that they can only devote so much funds towards the functions happening behind the scenes: Human resource recruitment and development, procurement of the necessary equipment, rentals of facilities, deployment of marketing strategies, financial accounting, donor reporting, fund raising, among many others.

But the completion of all these tasks is just as critical to a foundation’s success. After all, the organization would be unable to carry through its advocacy work without funds, without people, without tools and technologies, without the support of partners, donors, the general public, and even the government.

This is where help from asset servicing firms comes into play. These firms provide middle and back office solutions that make accounting, documentation of activities and transactions, data management, tax reporting, and fund management so much easier to manage. They have the latest tools, as well as a pool of professionals who specialize in these domains, so that foundations need not invest so much resources into learning the skills,acquiring tools and manpower, and tedious paperwork.

Asset servicing firms provide various forms of assistance to foundations as they keep up with all these demands. They can take care of bookkeeping and accounting, financial report preparation, researching on possible sources of funding especially by monitoring grants, and determining avenues for growing the assets that may be invested. Because they handle this role for many other organizations, they can absorb the costs of middle and back office work, while their clients can drastically reduce the budget for staffing, and the use and maintenance of office space and equipment.

Furthermore, the foundation’s management need not be tied up to their desks crunching the numbers. Instead, they can devote their full attention to relating with potential institutional partners donors, or crafting strategies for organizational growth, and perhaps most importantly, engaging with their beneficiaries – the very reason for the foundation’s existence.

How Do Back to Back Games Affect DFS

Imagine losing a matchup for the week or from Daily Fantasy because one of your players was a DNP: Coach’s Decision. No injury or personal problems, just rest. Nothing is worse than having players who do not play because of limit restrictions or rest. This can unexpectedly cause you to lose daily or weekly fantasy matchups because of lack of playtime. Rest games do not affect player stats, so be aware when drafting players such as Dwayne Wade and Joel Embiid. When they play, they put up amazing fantasy stats. The risk for drafting them is how they sit back to back games, which is detrimental for all fantasy formats. At this point, any waiver wire pick up is more useful than a benched player.

Usually star players and veterans sit back to back games to preserve their energy for later games. This essentially cuts their stat line in half for the past two games. Especially when drafting players for Daily Fantasy or Draft Kings, be wary when drafting certain stars or veterans as they are at risk of getting scratched off the lineup.  On the flip side, this  presents an excellent opportunity to find a NBA daily fantasy basketball value play.  More times than not, the pricing algorithms will not raise a player's price due to the fact that he is now projected to start so you can get a starter at a reserve player’s price, thus easily allowing him to reach value relative to price.

Because they are sitting back to back games, this means that the team is most likely to have less games in the following week. In weekly fantasy formats, certain veterans and stars sitting now could hinder effectiveness in the future.  Any amount of missed games from players can cause fantasy inefficiencies, and should be taken note of when drafting or trading for these players. Although Dwyane Wade can produce amazing stat lines on paper, some nights he is as good as an injured player; do not reach too high for these type of players. Especially if they are known to sit back to back games, they can miss more than a handful of games throughout the season.