GrantCraft Goes Global
GrantCraft – a groundbreaking enterprise that equips grantmakers with an array of tools to help them hone their craft and be more effective – is moving from the Ford Foundation to the Foundation Center in New York and European Foundation Centre in Brussels, the three institutions jointly announced today.
The two organizations won the project through an open bid process in which the Ford Foundation and a committee of several peer foundations, including the Hewlett, Packard, W.K. Kellogg, and Gates foundations, weighed proposals from across the sector.
The Ford Foundation’s decision to award GrantCraft to the two – along with a $1 million grant – signals an expansion of the initiative’s reach to serve the growing community of professional grantmakers worldwide. Philanthropic giving across borders that addresses complex global issues such as peace, migration, and poverty is growing. The Foundation Center and European Foundation Centre will usher in a new phase in the development of GrantCraft to help grantmakers keep pace with the demands of this changing landscape and the evolving needs of stakeholders.
The Foundation Center is the leading authority on philanthropy worldwide. It plans to leverage its extensive experience engaging grantmakers and others around critical issues to broaden the GrantCraft community. “A key Foundation Center priority is to empower donors with the knowledge they need to be more strategic, efficient, and effective,” said Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center. “We are thrilled to add GrantCraft to our suite of tools and to be in a position to strengthen its value.”
The Ford Foundation has a history of incubating new projects like GrantCraft, which was launched in 2001 to fill a critical knowledge gap in philanthropy. Starting out with a small collection of case studies and examples that served as orientation materials for the foundation’s program officers, in the decade that followed, GrantCraft was developed into a vast store of practical wisdom aimed at helping grantmakers from all organizations get beyond the basics and work more effectively. Today, publications on 30 key issues that grantmakers face are available to more than 21,000 GrantCraft subscribers.