Improving and Stregthening Grant Making Organizations


Book Description

The issues facing today’s grant makers are significant. Although foundations provide only part of the support for nonprofit organizations, obtaining foundation support is often thought to help in raising other forms of support from individuals, corporations, and government. Today, grant makers are questioning how they select grant recipients, how they assess success in their grants, and how they measure their own management. The answers to these and more questions are still being formed. The goal of this issue is to share the questions and invite others to join in suggesting solutions to improve and strengthen grant-making organizations. The chapters in this issue can be read as loosely interconnected and building on one another. They include an historic overview of grant-making and grant-seeking; views of governance and how mission can be attained through talented grantsmanship; an examination of the principles and practices for effective grantmaking from the Council on Foundations membership in the council; and the benefits of self-evaluation as it has been applied at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as a way to increase transparency, accessibility, and accountability. Other chapters look at the process from knowledge management to knowledge builing; development of a common language and performance standards for private foundations; foundation ethics, the growth of the online sector of philanthropy, and philanthropic choice and donor intent. This is the 45th issue of the quarterly series New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising.







Funding Effectiveness


Book Description

From Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)--a community of grantmakers dedicated to building strong organizations--comes a guide to promising practices in capacity building. Written for leaders of both grantmaking and nonprofit organizations who are dedicated to improving the sector's effectiveness, Funding Effectiveness offers a compelling collection of essays from many of the most highly regarded practitioners in the field. Throughout the book these experts share their personal and their organizations' lessons learned in the area of organizational effectiveness, and they offer practical suggestions and action steps for implementation.




Community Visions, Community Solutions


Book Description

How to foster community problem solving: Filled with fresh ideas, concrete strategies, wisdom from the field, compelling case studies, and contact information, Community Visions, Community Solutions provokes both thought and action, fosters new ideas, and leads to solutions. This book is for community, independent, public, family, or corporate foundations; federated giving organizations; government agencies; corporate giving programs; capacity building providers; independent consultants; management support organizations; for-profit consulting firms; intermediary organizations; retired executives; community support organizations; state associations of nonprofits; research groups; staff or trustees of a nonprofit; and academic institutions. Benefits you'll get include a three-step process for laying groundwork for community-wide change, pros and cons of different community governance strategies, three strategies for funding solutions, a list of community support organization dos and don'ts, case studies, and an extensive resource list for further reading. This book is the second in a series of funders guides developed by Fieldstone Alliance and GEO. The series is aimed at strengthening nonprofit organizations, the communities they serve, and the nonprofit sector through effective grantmaking.




Strengthening Nonprofit Performance


Book Description

Get the most out of your grantmaking Authors Paul Connolly, Vice President, Conservation Company, and Carol Lukas, President, Fieldstone Alliance, synthesize the most recent capacity-building practice and research into a collection of strategies, steps, and examples that funders can use to get started on or improve their funding to strengthen nonprofits. Who this book is for: Funders new to capacity building, looking for step-by-step guidance; Funders with years of capacity building experience, looking for new approaches and examples of other funders' approaches; A range of grantmakers, including venture philanthropists, community foundations, family foundations, corporate foundations, and government funders; Funders wishing to expand their work to address community needs locally, nationally, or outside the U.S; Consultants, trainers, management support organizations, and other capacity builders. Benefits you'll get: Learn compelling reasons for investing in capacity building; Understand the basic types of capacity building activities; Find out what other foundations are doing; Get a range of costs for various types of support; Clarify your roles and responsibilities in using power and resources, developing expectations, and coordinating with others; Follow a 4-step process to develop, implement, and evaluate a grantmaking plan for capacity building; Choose among 7 widely-used strategies for building the capacity of nonprofits; Discover how to coordinate the roles of funder, nonprofit organization, and capacity builder; This hands-on guide also includes dozens of examples, worksheets, and contact information for organization assessment tools, capacity building providers, and publishers. Get Strengthening Nonprofit Performance and build the capacity of nonprofits and ultimately, the communities they serve.




Strengthening Grantee Effectiveness


Book Description

Operated as a pair of philanthropic funds, the Hyde Family Foundations works to improve the quality of life in Memphis. In order to counteract persistent socioeconomic and racial barriers and improve opportunities for underserved families in Memphis, the foundations have made improving the city's education system a priority of its grantmaking. Each year, the foundations award grants totaling over $10 million; of this amount, $4 million is designated to K-12 education initiatives. Hyde and Sloyan hoped the foundations' grantmaking would, over time, spur improvements that could demonstrate what is possible in a city that shares many of the political, social and economic challenges of other large, urban communities. Recognizing that a grantmaker is effective only when its grantees are effective, this case study is intended to help funders consider ways of promoting "effective grantees," one of Grantmakers for Education's Principles for Effective Education Grantmaking. The case study illustrates a number of practices--including the importance of ensuring strong leadership at grantee organizations, brokering relationships between grantee organizations and donor and civic leaders, providing technical assistance, convening community stakeholders to support grantees, creating learning communities to link and network grantees, and setting clearly defined goals and performance expectations for grantees--that can support and build the capacity of grantees and lead to greater impact. In addition, it underscores the importance of human capital, talent and leadership to grantee success, whether the grantee is a nonprofit organization or a publicly funded school or institution. (Contains 7 exhibits and 8 footnotes.).




Governance and Strategic Philanthropy in Grant-Making Foundations


Book Description

This book discusses the role of grant-making foundations in supporting local communities, and how effective governance can contribute to greater success of the social projects they finance. The book considers the extent to which granting foundations act as social investment banks or strategic philanthropists, and identifies possible areas of evolution and improvement in the granting process of foundations similar to other innovative firms. It seeks to explore the possibility of foundations becoming a reference point in the Third Sector for innovativeness and risk taking.




Functional and Funded, Revised Edition


Book Description

You're a staff member, board trustee, community volunteer or consultant doing the hard work to rai$e money so your nonprofit can keep going, keep pursuing its mission. Maybe you're thinking about chasing after grants, scattering proposals around, or trying to figure out whether you should set up that crowdfunding campaign, or... Whatever you're up to, it's not getting any easier out there with all the other groups competing for attention and money. This is where Harvey Chess comes into your picture. His ongoing work is in and around nonprofits, including grant makers. He's best known as a seasoned trainer delivering highly regarded funding proposal development workshops for years. He fully understands the challenges you confront in trying to support your organization - and has distilled his experience into a one-of-a-kind book for you, Functional and Funded, Securing Your Nonprofit's Assets From The Inside Out. His book concentrates on helping you overcome resource development and sustainability challenges. You'll have the opportunity to front and center tactics that separate your nonprofit from the crowd by distinguishing it as substantial, enterprising and resilient. Putting aside much of what passes for conventional wisdom in fundraising, you're presented with a potent alternative - business as unusual - when making the case for financially supporting your nonprofit. Everyone reading and then applying the uncommonly strong strategy at the heart of this book will upgrade skills to secure assets for their nonprofit while strengthening the organization at the same time. How? Still not convinced? Read on. First, the days of only seeking grants are over! The book's Nonprofit Engine contains the diversified components of financial assistance your organization must now seek out to keep running. You'll be offered the tools to develop absolute clarity in building the sharp core funding proposal to use and refine to tell your nonprofit's story every time you reach out for funding. At the same time, you will discover - or rediscover - that the characteristics of a strong nonprofit organization and a strong funding proposal share common ground. You'll come away from business as unusual with a strong nonprofit inside; a strong proposal outside. You want nothing less when it comes to competing for resources. The book includes three real life funding proposal variations, along with comments about what makes sense and what doesn't in each. A chapter, The Funding Marketplace, details how and where to locate sources of potential financial support for your organization. You'll find external links to facilitate solid, detailed follow-up research. Finally, there's a Tool Kit - the components of which you can and should reproduce - intended to bring to life the book's sub-title, Securing Your Nonprofit's Resources From The Inside Out. "...what you get here is invaluable practical advice distilled from a distinguished career as a fundraiser, grant maker and trusted advisor to nonprofits of all types and sizes," along with "... delights in challenging conventional wisdom..." Tom David, consultant in the craft of grantmaking, philanthropic strategy, evaluation, and organizational learning




Giving Done Right


Book Description

A practical guide to philanthropy at all levels of giving that seeks to educate and inspire A majority of American households give to charity in some form or another--from local donations to food banks, religious organizations, or schools, to contributions to prevent disease or protect basic freedoms. Whether you're in a position to give $1 or $1 million, every giver needs to answer the same question: How do I channel my giving effectively to make the greatest difference? In Giving Done Right, Phil Buchanan, the president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, arms donors with what it takes to do more good more quickly and to avoid predictable errors that lead too many astray. This crucial book will reveal the secrets and lessons learned from some of the biggest givers, busting commonly held myths and challenging the idea that "business thinking" holds the answer to effective philanthropy. And it offers the intellectual frameworks, data-driven insights, tools, and practical examples to allow readers to understand exactly what it takes to make a difference.




Corporate Grantmaking


Book Description

In the past few years, there has been an extensive re-evaluation of the way in which American institutions interact with and demonstrate their concerns for communities of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Pacific Islander Americans, and Native Americans. One issue under reassessment has been the adequacy of financial resources dedicated to strengthening these communities through employment preparation, health, community improvement, education, arts/humanities, and basic human services. As part of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's (NCRP) mission to encourage corporate grantmakers (and other philanthropic institutions) to be more responsive to the needs of disenfranchised communities, NCRP has initiated a series of surveys to determine the scope and extent of corporate support for Racial/Ethnic grantmaking patterns of the top corporations in the U.S. This survey is analysis of the Racial/Ethnic grantmaking patterns of the top 25 publicly-held corporate profitmakers of 1988, according to Forbes magazine. Co-published with the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.