How will you use your resources to achieve your purpose?
At its core, grantmaking brings your objectives to life to create good for others. Your philanthropic strategy is the roadmap to achieve your desired social impact.
How do you define equity and how much emphasis do you place on advancing equity within your organization and through the grants that you make? How diverse is your board and staff, and how inclusive are you of other perspectives in your decision-making around grants, governance, and overall policy? This Content Collection includes a variety of perspectives and tools for
This Content Collection includes resources describing how a foundation's spending policy and organizational objectives are linked to development of a cohesive and integrated investment strategy, as well as sample policies and other related advice.
In this unprecedented time of increasing needs and decreasing financial resources how can family funders support their closest grantees to more efficiently and effectively accomplish their critical missions? Volunteers are a vastly underutilized yet virtually unlimited resource that can expand and enhance nearly every area of an organization. However, to effectively tap volunteer resources requires creating a culture that values
This Content Collection shares perspectives from nonprofit leaders and foundation colleagues on the challenges of power dynamics in family philanthropy, and possible solutions for how to address these issues.
Whether working in a funder collaborative or finding ways to better partner with the grantees you support, collaboration and partnership is often at the heart of effective and impactful family philanthropy. This Content Collection includes a variety of stories of funders engaged in successful collaborations, as well as tips and tools for how to make the most of your relationships
Modesty may make some families reticent, but others point to the potential for good in the family name and reputation. Many families have learned to take explicit advantage of what can be a useful grantmaking tool. The family name can garner respect, or at least attention. It can act as an imprimatur of sorts, particularly when the family encourages grantees
Community foundations can be a trusted resource and partner to philanthropic families. They help families solve practical issues such as geographic dispersion and can provide deeper support around issues such as community problem-solving and family succession planning. This NCFP Featured Search provides a range of examples of these partnerships. Know of other good resources to include here? Please let us
This Content Collection features a series of guides and resources on advocacy and lobbying from Learn Foundation Law, a free first-of-its-kind resource for private and family foundations, as well as NCFP webinars and other resources on advocacy grantmaking strategies. Also included is research on the rate of return on investing in advocacy strategies, as well as case studies of a
The great American writer Vernor Vinge once said, “Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.” What Vernor is saying is that even the smallest things can be hugely impactful. There are so many colloquialisms for this truth in the English lexicon: ripple, domino, snowball, chain reaction, the parable of the mustard seed, etc. As a grantmaker, no matter
