A Little Mission Creep Can Be a Good Thing
Posted on November 14, 2016 by Richard Marker
There are lots of practical and conceptual reasons to resist mission creep. So then, how can a little mission creep ever be a smart move?… Read More
NCFP Blog
Four Scary Things About Spending Everything
Posted on November 7, 2016 by Quixote Foundation
Exactly two months from now, Quixote Foundation will have spent its whole endowment other than a few funds needed to wrap up operations. Parts of this process have been pretty scary. Here are four fears we’ve faced and the reasons we’re still stoked, not spooked, about spending everything… Read More
Six Years, Six Important Lessons About Philanthropy
Posted on November 3, 2016 by Bruce DeBoskey
Throughout this process, I have learned many lessons about what works best. As I launch the seventh year of this practice and these columns, I would like to share six key lessons… Read More
Putting the Giving in Thanksgiving
Posted on October 27, 2016 by Jamie Forbes
This might hurt my mother’s feeling, but I can live without the creamed onions and the sweet potatoes covered with melted marshmallows. Despite their stubborn presence at our annual gathering, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s all about the things that I love: family, food, appreciation and giving… Read More
Update: Does NCFP have any recommendations for grants management software? Are there any that specifically help family foundations?
Posted on October 26, 2016
There are so many grant management software options to choose from, so we compiled a list. We reached out to each of these companies and they sent us a brief description of the technology they offer to their clients… Read More
Learn Foundation Law: Working with Government Officials
Posted on October 24, 2016 by Learn Foundation Law
Our Working with Government Officials course provides an excellent overview of both the tax and ethics rules involved to help family foundation leaders to stay in compliance with the law. … Read More
Family Foundations and Strategic Philanthropy: the Goradia Family’s Process
Posted on October 21, 2016 by Sapphira Goradia
Tasked with the responsibility of creating a strategic focus for the foundation, I realized that I had to take a step back and understand how my family’s values and beliefs informed their philanthropy… Read More
Hey Foundation Trustees, Come Get a Beer with Us
Posted on October 17, 2016 by Vu Le
We nonprofits work with program officers, and despite many of them being really nice and down-to-earth people, the power differential can make them intimidating and scary. This is how we nonprofit professionals imagine a meeting of (even scarier) foundation trustees:… Read More
Strategic, Responsive, or Both?
Posted on October 14, 2016 by Kris Putnam-Walkerly
Responsive grantmaking is being open to receiving proposals and ideas from any nonprofit, and allowing the nonprofits to drive the agenda. Requests are initiated by the nonprofit, rather than by a funder seeking them out. This doesn’t mean that a foundation doesn’t have core areas of focus, but that within those areas is wishes to be responsive to the needs nonprofits feel most keenly… Read More
The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation Signed the Divest Invest Pledge: Here’s Why
Posted on October 10, 2016 by Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
Recognizing the disproportionate impacts of climate change on low-wealth people and communities of color in the United States and around the globe, we signed the Divest Invest pledge, a global movement calling for investors "to divest from the fossil fuel industries deepening the climate crisis and invest instead in climate solutions." … Read More