Before becoming executive director of a small foundation in Binghamton, NY, Catherine Schwoeffermann worked in a museum as a cultural anthropologist and curator of folk arts. While at the museum, she also served on grants panels at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Washington, DC, and at the New York State Council on... Read More
When you make a $10,000 grant, the value to your grantee may be $9,000. When you make a $20,000 grant, the value may be $17,500. Grantees incur costs preparing your grant application. Time is money, and it takes time for nonprofits to fit language to your unique questions and format, and customize financial documents to your specifications. Nonprofits... Read More
How do we make the biggest decisions in life? How do we decide to get married? Have a child? Begin a new career? Start a business? How do organizations such as foundations transform themselves? Sometimes change comes from deliberate planning—a weighing of pros and cons, mapping out scenarios, looking at the different considerations (financial, practical,... Read More
Contributing your full self, the best that you can be, is important in any kind of enterprise. In small-staffed philanthropy, it’s essential. Small funders who’ve made significant, outsized impact often say the knowledge, relationships, “street savvy,” and reputation they leveraged played the crucial role. They will say, “Money wasn’t the most important thing. It was... Read More
Many Americans don’t believe we matter in a system where powerful interests seem to make the rules. Almost half of eligible voters don’t even turn out for elections. Feeling powerless may be our most common self-deception, and our biggest danger. As leaders like Eric Liu remind us, we have tremendous power, if we recognize it... Read More
Many people say the U.S. government imposes too many regulations and too much paperwork on our economy. Although everyone doesn’t feel this way, it’s a pretty common refrain. One arena very free of government requirements is foundation grants to public charities. Yet many people who work in foundations and many professional advisors to foundations—attorneys, accountants, and consultants—are... Read More