Resources for Grantmakers - June 2013

In This Issue

Upcoming Programs

General Philanthropy

Education

Public Policy

Corporate Philanthropy

Evaluation

Impact Investing

Nonprofits

Upcoming AGF Programs

July 11

Connecting a Multi-Generational Workplace

July 15

Funding Voter Registration and Get Out the Vote Efforts in Arizona

July 16
Expanding the Impact of Corporate Grantmaking: Corporate-Foundation Funding Collaboratives

July 18

Health Funders - details to come!

General Philanthropy

Partnering for Impact: Combining National Knowledge with Regional Leverage for Local Impact [PDF]

This report documents the experiences, successes and lessons learned from a partnership between a regional association in Baltimore and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The document suggests that regional associations are natural partners with national funders because of their local connections and knowledge.

Natural Allies: Philanthropy and Civil Legal Aid [PDF]

Civil legal aid for families living in poverty has often been an overlooked partner in philanthropic efforts to improve the bedrock economic, social, and health conditions for low-income people and communities. However, this report contends that now is the time to use it as a grantmaking tool to ensure basic access to justice for all.

Smarter Relationships, Better Results: Making the most of grantmakers' work with intermediaries

Grantmakers often work with intermediaries to extend their reach and impact. This publication offers insights from intermediaries about the grantmaker practices that help or hinder their effectiveness.

What are Foundations For?

This forum of noted nonprofit and philanthropic minds such as Pablo Eisenberg, Rick Cohen, and more, offer their responses to the prompt that philanthropic institutions are plutocratic by nature. Can they be justified in a democracy?

Foundation Source report presents findings about the 98% "super-majority" of U.S. private foundations in 2012
The 2013 edition of Foundation Center's Annual Report offers a first look into the 2012 investment and grantmaking performance of private foundations with less than $50 million in assets. This is one of few reports to do so because most foundation research looks only at the wealthiest grantmakers.

Practices That Matter
A new report explores streamlining trends, successes, barriers, and perceptions. Most importantly, it prescribes the way forward for grantmakers that want to match their practices to their values in supporting nonprofit missions.

Anatomy of a Partnership: Lessons from the Quality of Place Initiative

A report by the Environmental Funders Network, a project of the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Philanthropy Center, highlights the results of an innovative three-year grantmaking program in which a group of funders pooled $1.5 million to invest in 16 nonprofits with missions to enhance the connections between people and place across Maine and strengthen the state's economy.

Age-Friendly Communities [PDF]
This report from Grantmakers in Aging and the Pfizer Foundation explores the movement to create community for all ages to grow up and grow old in America. This document serves as an introduction for private and public funders.

Foundation Transparency: What Nonprofits Want [PDF]

Despite varying public opinion on the importance of transparency to foundations, the nonprofits that are seeking and receiving funding think it matters. So the Center for Effective Philanthropy surveyed nonprofits that receive grants from larger foundations to better understand their perspectives.

Foundations Moving On: Ending Programmes and Funding Relationships
Exits are inevitable. Funders move on, and relationships with grantees, partners, or investees change along the way. Exit decisions and strategies are complicated, so GrantCraft has highlighted best practices for funders.

Leveraging the Power of Foundations-An Analysis of Program-Related Investing

Program-related investments (PRIs) are gaining attention from foundations for their potential to meet charitable purposes while generating financial returns, but their use remains limited, a new study by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy finds.

The Philanthropic Landscape 2011
The Philanthropic Landscape in an annual examination of the latest available data to bring you analyses of four key grantmaking trends in U.S. philanthropy: giving that specifically benefit underserved communities, social justice philanthropy, core support and multi-year funding. Each fact sheet includes a list of top funders for each type of giving by share and total amount.

Foundation Funding for Native American Issues [PDF]
This report supports and expands on the research conducted in 2004, Large Foundations' Grantmaking to Native America, by Sarah Hicks and Miriam Jorgensen. This report revisits (and in some areas expands on) the data analyzed.

Coming Out From Behind the Desk: Redefining the Role of Funders

"Coming out from behind the desk means extending the boundary of our authority beyond the limits of our perceived roles. We have to be creative enough to see the opportunities to be leaders, coaches, and partners, and we have to be courageous enough to seize the opportunities to work in productive and meaningful ways."

Infographics for Outreach, Advocacy, and Marketing: From Data to Design

Idealware's new report is a guide to help organizations think through the process of understanding and creating infographics. In it, we cover what defines an infographic and help you create one that presents your data in a compelling and easy-to-understand way. We've also included a number of examples of infographics, both good and bad, to make the point clear.

Education

Arizona Rural Educators Speak: What Teachers Really Need to Teach Science and Math and How you Can Help [PDF]
This PDF tells the story of rural educators in Arizona. Science Foundation Arizona conducted a survey of 13 rural counties to find out what superintendents, principals and teachers need to fully implement Arizona's Common Core Standards and Next
Generation Science Standards.

Public Policy

Assessing Advocacy
Advocacy is a risky business with no guarantee of success. Nevertheless, grantmakers can use a quantitative framework to help them decide which advocacy programs to invest in, and advocacy organizations can use it to determine which approaches might be most effective.

Giving More. Making Change. A Journey in Progressive Grant Making [PDF]
In 2012 the French American Charitable Trust (FACT) made final grants to its portfolio of grantees. As planned, the foundation spent out its endowment as part of a strategy to have the most impact within a fixed period of time. They developed a website to document FACT's work, principles and its impact over almost 18 years of existence.

Native Voices Rising Report
Native Voices Rising is a joint research and re-granting project of Native Americans in Philanthropy and Common Counsel Foundation intended to focus philanthropic attention on the need for increased investment in and sustained support for grassroots community organizing and advocacy in American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.

Corporate Philanthropy

Seven Practices of Effective Employee Volunteer Programs [PDF]
Research indicates that Employee Volunteer Programs that achieve high impact for both the community and business follow seven practices - read about them in this guide from Points of Light Foundation.

Evaluation

The Robin Hood Rules for Smart Giving
Foundations need to better understand how to evaluate the costs and benefits of projects that nonprofits want to start, two economists argue in a new book, The Robin Hood Rules for Smart Giving. Michael Weinstein, senior vice president at the Robin Hood Foundation, a grant maker that fights poverty in New York, and Ralph Bradburd, a Williams College professor of political economy.

Impact Investing

2013 National Impact Awards
The NCRP Impact Awards celebrate those foundations that have shown leadership, innovation and commitment to being a part of efforts to solve the country's toughest problems.

Nonprofit

The Funders Guide to Supporting Technology: 10 Ways to Build Your Grantees' Tech Savvy, created by Idealware in partnership with a number of foundations, is a resource to help foundations better understand how they can support more nonprofits-and do more to support their existing grantees-through technology capacity building.

Nonprofit Finance Fund 2013 State of the Sector Survey Results

Nearly 6000 respondents from nonprofits across the country shared the details of how they are adapting their organizations and finances to economic conditions. The 2013 survey reveals that 2012 was a year in which organizations either made or planned to make significant changes in order to cope with mounting economic stress.