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In cities across the nation, a few enjoy rising affluence while many struggle to get by. This situation is created in part by the practices of traditional economic development. Current trends threaten to worsen, unless we can answer the design challenge before us. Can we create an economic system—beginning at the local level—that builds the wealth and prosperity of everyone?
CSR executives have difficult jobs. They are expected to be strategic, aligned with business priorities, and focused on results. Yet success often requires navigating ever-changing expectations and a maze of competing priorities. This strategy toolkit, developed by FSG in partnership with CECP, identifies three tools for clarifying your strategy and transforming your portfolio.
The Silicon Valley Out-of-School-Time Collaborative invested in a cohort of regional nonprofit organizations to sustain and strengthen their ability to serve more students with stronger academic and social-emotional programming. A midcourse evaluation of the collaborative showed that grantees were stronger, programs were better and are reaching more students, and funders had adopted new, collaborative grantmaking practices. A second phase of the work was committed to more flexibility –– letting grantees drive the group’s planning and learning efforts, and manage consultants, budgeting and group communications. Grantees also opted to redirect the focus of the collaborative from capacity building to program development and evaluation, with the added goal of sharing effective afterschool and summer program models with others, both inside and outside the region.
What comes after “strategic...?” If you said, “planning,” you’re not alone. And for many leaders of community foundations, especially small ones who don’t have the time or money for a big process, anxiety is the feeling that follows. If that’s the case, this guide is for you.
Building a Culture of Capitalization in Your Organization, is written for nonprofit arts organizations and shares findings from NFF's study of 36 capital grants made by the Kresge Foundation between 2010 and 2012.
Recommendations for Capital Grantmakers, is written for arts funders who are looking to make smart and impactful investments.
This whitepaper examines the latest data to identify trends in social justice philanthropy among family foundations.
Essentials of Impact Investing: A Guide for Small-Staffed Foundations addresses those challenges and highlights those opportunities. The guide demystifies the process of designing and implementing an effective impact investing strategy, offering advice, tools, and real-world examples of impact investing by foundations with few or no staff.
This publication provides information on 11 benefits and conversation-starters about philanthropic advocacy and lobbying. Specifically, it answers your questions about legal rules and provides concrete examples, templates, resources, and tips.
There is widespread and growing recognition in the nonprofit sector about the importance of evaluation — not only for measuring impact, but also for improving programs and better serving communities. While grantmakers generally see evaluation as necessary, most are not yet investing enough resources in this area.
How do low-income communities learn to advance economically and build wealth? Low-income communities and communities of color, in challenging structural economic and social inequality, have historically grappled with tensions inherent to development. Who participates in, directs, and ultimately owns the economic-development process? In creating and sustaining new, inclusive economic institutions, how do community members cultivate and pass on skills, commitment and knowledge—especially among those who have long faced barriers to education and employment? And how should communities strike an appropriate balance between utilizing local knowledge and accessing outside expertise?
Case study from Philanthropy New York documenting the formation, challenges and ultimate success of the Education Funders Research Initiative – an unusual funder collaborative that brought together funders for and against charter schools, funders with different views of testing and accountability, and funders with vastly different approaches to supporting education reform to identify and advance shared priorities.
This publication takes an in-depth look at what it means to open our learning and evaluation practices to grantees, other funders, community members, government agencies and others involved in the work.
This toolkit includes a number of tools for Steering Committee Working Groups as they form, determine strategic direction, develop implementation plans, and identify measurement indicators.
The 86,000 private foundations with less than $50 million in assets account for 98% of all foundations in the United States; however, data about this “super majority” is scant because most private foundation research looks only at the wealthiest 2% of grantmaking philanthropies.
A special issue of Responsive Philanthropy devoted to what philanthropy can do to combat implicit bias, or the way in which our unconscious minds shape and contribute to our thoughts and actions. A diverse roster of authors explores how this phenomenon both affects the many challenges we as a society face and its implications for how philanthropy addresses these issues.
Strong leadership is critical for effective social sector organizations, yet the sector chronically underinvests in its leaders. This publication synthesizes findings from new research conducted by the authors and offers recommendations for grantmakers.
Under-resourced communities are going without because nonprofits can't meet demand. Americans —particularly those in low-income communities—are still struggling to secure jobs, affordable housing, and healthcare. Nonprofit Finance Fund’s 2015 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey focuses on the underlying causes of these dynamics by exploring the programmatic, financial, and operational issues facing nonprofits across the U.S.
Donating money to modify public thinking and government policy has now taken its place next to service-centered giving as a constructive branch of philanthropy. Many donors now view public-policy reform as a necessary adjunct to their efforts to improve lives directly. This book was written to help donors navigate the obstacles of public-policy philanthropy.
In Supporting Grantee Capacity: Strengthening Effectiveness Together, GrantCraft look at how funders approach building capacity with grantees. Through examples from foundations ranging in size, mission, and geography, we explore various strategies for capacity building and the types of awareness that funders can choose to incorporate in decision making to facilitate informed, thoughtful judgments about strengthening organizations.
