Resources for Grantmakers

Resources for Grantmakers ~ June 2012

In This Issue

General Philanthropy

Health

Corporate Philanthropy

Advocacy

Family Foundations

Education

Nonprofits

General Philanthropy

Giving USA 2012 Report just released
The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and Giving USA released The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2011 on Tuesday. In its 57th publication, the report aims to take a pulse of yearly giving to charitable organizations. The report indicated that last year saw an overall 4 percent increase (.9 percent when adjusted for inflation) in giving. Read the free executive summary for full details.

Generating Change

An online toolkit for funders that includes the initiative framing paper, case studies, videos and other resources for grantmakers interested in exploring investments in nonprofit talent and leadership development. The tool kit also provides an opportunity for funders to share their ideas and experiences with one another to further their effectiveness.

Collaborative Funding for Greater Impact

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations' Collaborative Funding for Greater Impact explains the mechanics of forming and managing a co-funding partnership and offers takeaways for how this experience can apply to other communities.

Learning to Lead

This report from the James Irvine Foundation provides practical tools to help you take on leadership roles in your community, with insights and experiences from a variety of community foundations.

Sizing Up

This report from the James Irvine Foundation provides advice and examples on best to structure staff to achieve your mission while controlling your operating budget and achieving financial stability.

The Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook

Idealware's Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook shows how to develop policies and practices for your organization.

LearnPhilanthropy - The Field-wide Hub for Grantmakers Learning is now on-line. LearnPhilanthropy is designed to bring the growing community of learners and learning providers together, in a central hub, to share resources and insights on good practice. And they're creating a first-of-its-kind philanthropy data model to support content sharing and analytics across multiple organizations. They think there are some important network effects that can flow from this -- making it easier to find high-quality resources, identify the gaps in what's available, and encourage new resources and learning opportunities where they are most needed.

Getting Started with Online Grant Applications

This ebook provides practical tips for moving your organization to online applications.

Evaluation

Four Essentials For Evaluation
GEO offers grantmakers a practical perspective on how to increase the capacity of their organizations to tap the transformative power of evaluation for learning. With key questions, guidelines and action steps, this new guide equips grantmakers to tackle evaluation for learning with "four essentials": Lead, Plan, Organize and Share.

Strategic Philanthropy: Guide to Evaluation

Drawing from a review of best practices, interviews, and examples from a variety of case studies, this paper addresses why philanthropists think about evaluation, gives an overview of the major trends and practices in evaluation, and provides suggestions on how philanthropists can make evaluation effective for their work.

Health

Better Outcomes, Lower Costs: How Community-Based Funders Can Transform U.S. Health Care
Mark Kramer and Dr. Atul Gawande discuss the untapped potential for community-based funders to transform the cost and quality of health care in the United States. Individually, these funders have the opportunity to make a profound and lasting impact on the health of their communities; together, they have the opportunity to create a national movement to achieve better outcomes at lower cost.

Corporate Philanthropy

Increasing Impact, Enhancing Value: A Practitioner's Guide to Leading Corporate Philanthropy
The Council on Foundations released a seminal report for the corporate philanthropy field. The guide offers original field research and a new platform for corporate philanthropy, and provides clear and practical paths forward for the future of the field and the role of corporate foundations. Download the executive summary and full report.

Four Top Corporate Giving Programs
Take a look at the some of the most comprehensive corporate giving programs nationwide. These corporations offer diverse giving programs, generous limits, online submission portals, and allow nearly all 501(c)3 organizations and educational institutions to participate.

Public Policy

Bolder Together
This report from California Civic Participation Funders, explores the potential of funder collaboratives to effect policy change by describing a project led by the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in partnership with ten other funders to increase civic participation in California.

Family Foundations

Why Family Foundations Lose Their Way: A Founders' Guide to Long-Term Philanthropic Success

This report discusses dangers and mistakes in establishing and running a family foundation.

Education

A Summary of Findings on Teen Dating Violence Behaviors and Associated Risk Factors Among 7th-Grade Students
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson and Blue Shield of California foundations, this report describes the risks, prevention, and long-term consequences of electronic dating abuse among pre-teens.

Nonprofits

Funding Nonprofit Technology to Support Innovation
What does it take for an organization to innovate the way it delivers services? The answer may not be what you think; our research shows that significant dollar investments in technology are not necessarily the best way for nonprofits to improve their effectiveness.