There’s no question: listening to your community is a key factor in good grantmaking. This survey offers your foundation a structured opportunity to learn from your grantees and applicants, identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, and set up your board and staff for productive conversations that increase your foundation’s effectiveness. Here’s what you... Read More
The Getting to Impact Discussion Guides are designed to help you facilitate discussions among your board members or local community of grantmakers with one purpose: to explore and strengthen a commitment to impact with your giving. The first discussion guide helps you understand impact, the importance of pursuing it, and a basic framework for achieving... Read More
Site visits are one of the best ways to make grant decisions because in essence, site visits are a living, breathing grant proposal. These visits give you the chance to connect directly with the organization’s board and staff, discover things that can’t be learned from a written proposal, and clarify information that is important to... Read More
For foundations, making an impact requires good planning, intentional work toward a goal, and a drive to keep learning and improving. Evaluation is a critical tool along the way. This primer makes the case for evaluation as a powerful tool for your foundation. It will: Define impact and evaluation. Discuss the many reasons to incorporate... Read More
This discussion guide helps you understand the benefits of focusing your foundation’s giving. It also offers tips for choosing a focus based on consensus, which is a critical step for achieving greater impact. The topics covered in this guide include: Five reasons to define a focus. Focusing with greater ease. Settling on a focus. The... Read More
New staff members can offer your foundation an opportunity to deepen its capacity, broaden its perspective, and increase its impact. In this primer, you’ll find an overview of the issues a foundation should weigh at each step of the hiring process. These steps include: Recruiting Interviewing Setting compensation Hiring New employee orientation Whether you are... Read More