September 2017 - Page 13 of 32 - Exponent Philanthropy

September 2017 Resources

Rescinding Grants

When should a foundation rescind a grant? How is the rescission accomplished? The obvious answer to the first question is that a funder should rescind a grant when the grantee fails to use the grant funds for the purposes for which the grant was made. Most commonly, such failure is because the grantee’s need for... Read More

Q&A With Foundations During the Great Recession

Three Exponent Philanthropy members shared how their foundations were forging ahead during the Great Recession of 2008: Henry Berman, president and trustee, The Edith Glick Shoolman Children’s Foundation, New York and Massachusetts; Billie Hall, president and CEO, Sunflower Foundation, Kansas; and Mari Brennan Barrera, vice president, Eos Foundation, Massachusetts. Where do you find energy and... Read More

Put Your Money Where Your Mission Is

“Foundations experience the moment at different times,” writes Jed Emerson in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. For the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, it was the 1980s; for the F.B. Heron Foundation, the mid-1990s. In both cases, the foundations recognized the division, even conflict, between their investments and their grantmaking. The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation focuses... Read More

Provide General Support or Not?

Project funding often is more appealing than general support funding because projects are time limited and focused. It is easier to evaluate whether a project has met its goals. In addition, project budgets are smaller than overall organizational budgets, and thus your grant provides a larger percentage of needed funds. Also, new projects make sense... Read More

Minding Your Ps and Qs

There is always room—and a need—to keep learning, adapting, and improving. Embrace continual learning People learn in different ways: through formal training, conversation, coaching, reading, doing, and, most often, through a combination of all these. It’s important to develop a learning agenda for yourself and your organization, including the most effective and feasible ways to... Read More

Making Global Grants

“There’s almost no strictly ‘local’ philanthropy anymore,” says Exponent Philanthropy member Betty Curtis of the Atkinson Foundation in California. “As we become aware of how totally and globally our economic, social, and political lives are intertwined, we have the opportunity to design our grantmaking accordingly.” Even modest grants can have significant reach in developing countries.... Read More