Funder Case Study
HouseUS Case Study: How a Two-Person Fund Moves $1.8M Annually
Key Results
Meet Martha: Running Grantmaking Operations Solo
Martha is the Development and Grants Associate at HouseUS, a lean intermediary pooled fund focused on tenant organizing across the United States.
With an annual budget that directs 86% of funds straight to grantees, HouseUS operates with two full-time staff members and a small team of consultants, making efficiency essential to their mission.
HouseUS supports tenant organizing at the local, state, and national level as a pathway towards housing justice and durable, lasting tenant power. Their grantmaking operates on a rolling basis, typically moving from application to funding in just under four weeks.
"I've never met any other fund that's as lean as we are," Martha explains. "I do think that our JustFund relationship really helps us maintain that leanness, which is one of our biggest values."
The Team’s Situation
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The Challenge: Supporting Grassroots Groups Without Creating a Burden
Martha understands what small, emerging grantees experience because HouseUS itself applies for funding as an intermediary fund. She's filled out applications in clunky, custom-built systems where even going over the word count by two letters forces you to rework everything.
She knows the grantee organizations they work with often have just one or two staff members who are organizing across several campaigns and juggling community work with constantly full inboxes. Complex portals only make it more difficult for first-time grant applicants to complete forms by deadlines, especially if a grantee has never worked with philanthropy before:
"When your budget is that tight, when your size is less than half a million ... you don't have time to spend two weeks in an application portal trying to figure out how to write pieces in there and how it works," Martha notes.
For Martha personally, doing things manually meant tracking 20 applicants through every step of the process. She was following up multiple times just to get finance forms completed, and double-checking: Did I send them an invite? The right email? Are they on the right path?
Before using JustFund – and even today when moving money outside the platform – Martha often faced a frustrating 2-3 week timeline just to collect banking information and sending funds:
"That process used to take me between two to three weeks to get a grantee through the 'please give me your banking information' stage," she explains.
Those manual processes created unnecessary friction at the exact moment when grantees should be receiving support.
The Impact: From Administrative Burden to Strategic Partnership
Since working with JustFund, Martha has experienced transformation on both personal and organizational levels.
There’s no more of the constant follow-up that used to consume her days.
"It's really helpful to have JustFund as that follow-up because then we don't have to do a lot of it. It’s very reassuring to know that there's another team that's worrying about that."
She also has confidence in her process management. Instead of an 8-step manual process, Martha now manages about 3-4 steps with built-in checks.
"You can see it halves the amount of time that I spend figuring out the application process for folks."
All those eliminated steps – the applicant tracking, the reminder emails, the docket compilation, the status updates – add up quickly:
"My guess is it probably saves me at least 10 hours of work just from the JustFund team holding all of those pieces for us per grant cycle," Martha explains.
Most importantly, Martha now has the freedom to focus on what truly matters. With administrative tasks handled, she can dedicate more time to strategic program development, relationship building with tenant organizations, and development work that expands HouseUS's capacity to grant.
"We have more time for fundraising and programmatic work which leads to even stronger tenant organizing across the country.”
Organizational Impact: Doing More With Less
HouseUS has been able to maintain their two-person team while growing their grantmaking. A few of the platform’s features have helped with that:
CC functionality on all emails means Martha sees every communication
Having an automated invitation and award platform replaces manual processes
Custom templates auto-populate amounts, eliminating typos in award notices
Streamlined disbursement services through Bill.com integration
"The invitation and award platform is so easy to use, it's all fully automated. So as long as I type in the right amount, everything else is simple, easy, and I don't have to think about it."
But perhaps most important to Martha has been the improved grantee experience – not just making it less burdensome for them to apply, but expanding their access to funding.
Through JustFund's network, HouseUS expanded opportunities for their grantees who have:
Discovered and applied to emergency funds they didn't know existed
Received additional grants beyond HouseUS funding
Connected with other aligned funders
Martha now receives end-of-year reports showing how much additional funding their grantees have raised through the platform: "It's really interesting to see our grantees are actually expanding and receiving more grants afterwards."
Evaluating Other Options
For Martha, an intuitive and reliable grantmaking platform is essential to keeping work moving smoothly.
"When a platform is this thoughtfully designed, and so integrated in your systems, it's hard to imagine changing platforms. Everyday that I use JustFund is another day I can focus on the substance of the work rather than tracking the grantmaking process."
Their continued use of JustFund comes down to three core factors:
Grantee experience: "Our grantees know this portal, they understand how this works. It's so streamlined for grantees. They still have your questions that you had asked before."
Values alignment: "JustFund doesn't see the funders as their only clients. Even though we're the ones who are paying for the application process, the customer journey for them is about the grantees."
Ease of use: Unlike portals with word count limits that won't let you exceed by two letters, or systems requiring consultants to navigate, JustFund was straightforward.
A True Partnership, Not Just Software
Perhaps most importantly, Martha doesn't experience JustFund as just a tool, but as an extension of her team.
"I really feel like Katie, who's our Client Success Manager, adds time, capacity, and brain space to our projects and our program."
Responsive product development: When HouseUS requested the ability to be CC'd on all award emails, JustFund built the feature. "They built it. It took them a couple months, but they were able to do it."
Speed and flexibility: "I think they take seriously what it means to move at the speed of trust. We need this money out by this day, and they're able to make that happen."
Continuous improvement: "I think what is really about the relationship that we have built over the last three years is that JustFund responds to our needs. A lot of times when you're working with a software platform that's so integral to your work, you constantly check to see if there is something that's better out there. Instead, JustFund has continuously gotten better."
The Bottom Line: Values-Aligned Grantmaking at Scale
For a small team moving nearly $2 million annually while maintaining their commitment to grassroots tenant organizing, the partnership (and the 10 hours saved per cycle) makes all the difference:
"We've developed such a deep partnership with JustFund. I have a lot of trust with their team, and so I trust them to do the best thing for our grantees … I also trust them to meet me where I need them to, and give me the flexibility that I want and the speed I need.”
For Martha and HouseUS, the decision to use JustFund comes down to shared values about what philanthropy should be.
Martha B., Development and Grants Associate
Key Learnings
With the help of technology, the organization's 2-person staff was still able to grow its grantmaking capabilities.
Grantees benefit from an easy-to-use portal and expanded access to other aligned funding opportunities within JustFund's network.
Eliminating administrative burden allows staff to dedicate more time to strategic program development and relationship building so the organization can make a bigger impact.
When HouseUS asked for a new feature, JustFund delivered in just a few months.
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