One source of truth across every workflow
With Addepar as its portfolio management and data platform,
Tides can now manage hundreds of distinct fund structures
within a single platform, while maintaining consistent data
and reporting standards across the full book.
"Addepar gives us a single, reliable place to access
portfolio information," says Simba Chirara, Senior
Investment Analyst. "When a partner or a colleague from a
different team has a question, we can quickly go to the one
platform and verify the information with confidence. It has
made collaboration between our internal teams more efficient
by giving everyone consistent visibility into the same
information.”
That confidence in the data has freed the team to spend less
time validating numbers and more time acting on them.
Standardized reporting that drives donor engagement
Before Addepar, building each report was effectively a
standalone project. Now the team runs a consistent, repeatable
process anchored by Addepar's easy-to-use reporting tools
that include drag-and-drop report builders and customizable
branded templates.
"Having a comprehensive standard template that we can
replicate across every portfolio has been a game changer for
us," says Chirara. "Instead of rebuilding reports
one at a time, we run a consistent process that delivers the
same structure, quality and timely insights partners expect
across the portfolio."
That consistency has changed donor conversations and had a
significant impact on engagement. Chirara recalls a recent
example: "One recent partner meeting showed the
difference. This partner had been with Tides for several
years, and we were able to bring forward refreshed reporting
with comprehensive portfolio detail through Addepar. When
questions came up, we could use real-time drill-downs to
provide clearer answers in the moment. The next day, their
advisor let us know the partner was interested in doubling
their contribution.”
From assembling data to analyzing it
Tides has always run lean by design. Addepar helps make that
sustainable — absorbing the complexity that would otherwise
require a significantly larger team.
"Instead of just assembling data, we're analyzing
it, advising partners and supporting other teams at Tides
— deepening their engagement with our partners and moving more
resources to communities — thereby enhancing our partners’
impact," says Chirara. "The time we used to spend
building reports or gathering data, we now spend on what the
reports are telling us.”
He adds: "Lean teams are the ones who can least afford
manual processes. Institutional-grade technology is what lets
a small team operate at an institutional scale. Our experience
shows that a lean team can deliver reporting at a standard
comparable to much larger organizations.”
Visibility that guides capital toward impact
For Tides, portfolio visibility serves a deeper purpose: it
enables the organization to guide donors toward the impact
investments that align with their values. The team now uses
Addepar to pull up a donor's portfolio in real time, show
how investments are performing and use that transparency to
drive forward-looking conversations about where capital should
go next, which can yield a more equitable distribution of
resources.
"We're using Addepar to close the gap between us and
the larger platforms," says Holland. "A big part of
that is having that transparency and ability to access
information to guide conversations about how donors can expand
the reach of the capital to support more organizations with
deeper investments."
That visibility extends beyond internal operations and
provides transparency that fundamentally furthers Tides’
mission to shift power to historically marginalized
communities.
"Any tools that we can put in place that really help not
only us internally, but help our donors to have the
information that they need to shift their capital and direct
capital into where it's needed — visibility and
transparency are key to that," says Holland.
Lean teams are the ones who can least afford manual
processes. Institutional-grade technology is what lets a
small team operate at an institutional scale. Our
experience shows that a lean team can deliver reporting at
a standard comparable to much larger organizations.
Simba Chirara, Senior Investment Analyst, Tides
