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Impact Investing: A Foundation’s 15-Year Journey to Catalytic and Direct Investments

October 11, 2016 Exponent Philanthropy / Investments

This post is an excerpt from the complimentary resource Essentials of Impact Investing: A Guide for Small-Staffed Foundations, created by Exponent Philanthropy and partners Mission Investors Exchange and Arabella Advisors. Want to align your investments with your mission? Download your copy >> By Jesse Fink, The Fink Family Foundation When my wife, Betsy, and I formed the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation [now... Read More

Creating the Funder Network I Needed

September 15, 2016 Claudia Baier / Impact and Evaluation

As representatives of grantmaking foundations, I imagine we all feel fortunate to work in a field that is both rewarding and challenging. We have colleagues who are respectful, smart, and devoted to making a difference, and most of us are lucky to have dedicated boards that support our activities. Working for a smaller-staffed foundation also... Read More

Lending Support: Keeping Your End Users in Mind

September 13, 2016 Mark Larimer / Administration

Support, aid, assist, champion, encourage… however you put it, to support = to help. This is a subject I’m pretty passionate about. In fact, exceptional client service and support is our top priority here at Foundant, and we hire employees with this in mind. We can always train someone to use our grantmaking software, but... Read More

Creative Grantmaking Done Legally

August 25, 2016 Ruth Masterson / Grantmaking, Tax and Legal

Your foundation can be extremely imaginative while still keeping its grantmaking straightforward. Or it can take full advantage of the tax code’s flexibility to make grants that are more complicated—and still perfectly legal. Our goal is neither to encourage you to stay simple or to get complicated with your giving, but to help you be aware... Read More

Lessons From Our Foundation’s Nonprofit Mentoring Program

August 22, 2016 Carrie Avery / Grantmaking

Rick Nahmias started Food Forward without any intention of becoming a nonprofit executive director. A photographer, Nahmias was moved by the mirror issues of U.S. hunger and food waste that he documented in his work. He started bringing volunteers together to pick fruit from backyard trees in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley that would otherwise go... Read More

5 Tips for New Foundation Staff

August 18, 2016 Jenna Wachtmann / Administration, Grantmaking

When I started my job as a program officer at Ball Brothers Foundation a little over two years ago, I knew I had a lot to learn. There were technical aspects of working for a foundation that I knew I’d need to master (grant files, legal dos and don’ts), and it was also important for... Read More