I know, I know. This is a well-worn topic. I myself have been addressing it for years and I am far from unique in that regard. It is hard to find an experienced foundation professional or philanthropist who doesn’t know the limits of pure metrics as a sufficient measure of a worthwhile grant. But the idea doesn’t go away. There are still those who assume that if they can only get the right numbers, they will be able to compare the objective worth of ngo’s and nfp’s around the world. These measures would determine which group is a more deserving recipient of funds, which group uses contributed or granted funds more efficiently, and which are being profligate with the vast sums thrown their way by unsuspecting donors. Now - let us be clear: there is nothing wrong with data, if it is … Continue Reading
Seven Principles to Remake Philanthropy Overnight
"For foundations to live up to the spirit of repairing the world, we must speak about failure." "We have to get somewhere and fix something to be successful with our work... [to accomplish that] we need to talk about failure." "Failure is the most universal, and most common, human experience." "Philanthropy can take risks others can't." "Apparently everything we do works [as] we don't talk about failure." Grant Oliphant, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation, addressing the JFN Conference Last week's Jewish Funders Network Conference kicked off with an opening plenary titled, "Embracing Risk and Failing Well: Learning for Philanthropic Success." In TED-style talks, attendees heard from three thinkers with different points view about how funders can open their tolerance for risk and … Continue Reading
Working with Foundations: Never Taking Support for Granted
This article was originally posted on January 6, 2010. It is as applicable today as when written. A colleague called me and asked me to consult with her about an interesting situation. An organization she works with had been receiving support for a number of years from a well established foundation. There was a strong connection between the foundation’s staff and the organization’s professional staff and board members. Over the years the foundation expressed their commitment to the organization’s purposes and goals not only financially but also through their partnership in encouraging the growth and development of the non-profit agency. The foundation strongly identified with the organization’s values as well as their programs and felt a strong sense of pride in being able to … Continue Reading
The Outcome Debate Continues
I suspect that most readers will not be surprised to learn that I am pleased to see that we in the blogosphere are beginning to see some of my fellow philanthropy bloggers plead for a more balanced and reasonable view of effectiveness measures for non profit success. For the last few years, most of the noise has been from those who push for ever more sophisticated metrics, outcome measures, effectiveness indices, ratios, and the like. While well intentioned, read together, these attempts at applying some sort of “objectivity” to the grantmaking process and the results by the recipients have often served to straitjacket the process, force unrealistic and frankly meaningless and premature measures on npo’s/ngo’s, and distort the ability to get at what really matters. In fairness, much of … Continue Reading
Leveraging and Sustainability: A Way to Build Partnerships and Continuity
During the last week and a half I have been attending a series of meetings with a client who is an American Jewish philanthropist and funds a number of innovative and creative programs in Israel. He has a special interest in furthering the development of programs that focus on providing people with greater access to their rights and entitlements. The funding decisions he makes enable organizations to disseminate information so that people know more about the services they can receive and they have knowledge about those services. It has been a struggle in the United States and Israel to convince both public and voluntary organizations of the importance of making information accessible to clients of public and voluntary agencies and patients in hospitals in Israel. Over the last 30 years the … Continue Reading
Working with Foundations: Never Taking Support for Granted
A colleague called me and asked me to consult with her about an interesting situation. An organization she works with had been receiving support for a number of years from a well established foundation. There was a strong connection between the foundation’s staff and the organization’s professional staff and board members. Over the years the foundation expressed their commitment to the organization’s purposes and goals not only financially but also through their partnership in encouraging the growth and development of the non-profit agency. The foundation strongly identified with the organization’s values as well as their programs and felt a strong sense of pride in being able to contribute to the development of Israeli society through their support. The foundation’s leadership never … Continue Reading
Funding for Success
As many readers and those who have heard me speak and teach about grantmaking know, one of my mantras is that funders should “fund for success.” My intention in this formulation was to challenge the tendency of many funders to ask how little they need to give for a project. They often assume that a grant request is padded and the grantseeker has built in an expectation of a discounted grant amount. Funders are not unreasonable in thinking this way. It is certainly true that there is a long history of grantseekers assuming that they will never get all that they ask for so they pad. It is also true that funders want their money to go further so they choose to give less, but to more recipients. Reasonable. What is also true is a more challenging cultural reality. Let’s be honest. Most … Continue Reading
Raising the Bar Part 4: Grantee Collaboration and Foundation Alignment
by Benjamin Greene It is my hope that this series will provide insight and help for those seeking to establish or improve their relationships with philanthropic foundations, as well as for foundations seeking to advance the relationships they have with their grantees. For a more detailed introduction to this series, please see my previous posts (part I, part II, and part III). Foundations generally view their investments in individual grantees in the context of the foundation's larger mission and vision. The level of partnership between foundations and grantees can be advanced if organizations can demonstrate that, in some manner, they are able to benefit the other organizations or projects in a foundation’s portfolio. Further, foundation grantee partnerships are strengthened when both … Continue Reading
Raising the Bar: Examining the Increased Value in Foundation Grantee Partnerships Part III: Leadership and Strategic Planning
by Benjamin Greene It is my hope that this series will provide insight and help for those seeking to establish or improve their relationships with philanthropic foundations, as well as for foundations seeking to advance the relationships they have with their grantees. For a more detailed introduction to this series, please see my first and second posts. In times of uncertainty clear, pro-active and strategic organizational leadership and planning can ensure a foundation’s confidence in and help further its partnership with a grantee. In some regards, demonstrating a clear process of leadership and decision making can be nearly as important as the actual decisions that are being made. A process by which an organization successfully utilizes board oversight and expertise, as well as properly … Continue Reading
Raising the Bar: Examining the Increased Value in Foundation Grantee Partnerships, Part II: Transparency
by Benjamin Greene It is my hope that this series will provide insight and help for those seeking to establish or improve their relationships with philanthropic foundations, as well as for foundations seeking to advance the relationships they have with their grantees. For a more detailed introduction to this series, please see my first post. I begin this series on the topic of Transparency, because of its relation to the current culture of uncertainty. Although honesty or being forthright relate to transparency they are not completely synonymous. Transparency should be viewed as the ability to provide a clear and up to date picture of where an organization or project stands and is most likely headed. Therefore transparency is not just an organizational intent but a vital … Continue Reading
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