With so much interest in giving to their communities, it makes sense that many small foundations work with local community foundations to achieve their charitable goals. This primer describes how your small foundation can work with a community foundation to fulfill your mission and goals. It highlights how community foundations can help you: Expand your... Read More
Ramping up giving offers your foundation a number of opportunities, including deeper stakeholder engagement, extended reach and influence, new funding strategies, and greater impact in your interest area. This primer is designed to help foundations like yours thoughtfully and responsibly plan for a significant ramp-up in giving and/or adjust to a sudden infusion of assets.... Read More
Your foundation needs policies in order to operate. Yet, the word policy can send some board members running. This primer walks you through 11 policies your foundation should consider and offers tools to empower your board as it works to fulfill the foundation’s mission. The policy topics covered in this primer include: Attending fundraisers Board... Read More
New staff members can offer your foundation an opportunity to deepen its capacity, broaden its perspective, and increase its impact. In this primer, you’ll find an overview of the issues a foundation should weigh at each step of the hiring process. These steps include: Recruiting Interviewing Setting compensation Hiring New employee orientation Whether you are... Read More
Although most foundations choose to not compensate board members for routine board service—creating or revising foundation policies, overseeing foundation operations, attending board meetings, and more—one size does not fit all. For some small foundations, culture and assumptions, or specific strategies and rationales, lead the board to compensate its members. This publication reviews: The laws and... Read More
To highlight the current state of lean funder evaluation, this report provides an overview of the evaluation methods funders use most often, what they find most useful, how those techniques play out in practice, and how funders use evaluation information to support their work. This report expands on data presented in Exponent Philanthropy’s 2020 Foundation... Read More