Impact is rarely achieved accidentally or immediately, especially when tackling some of life’s most complex challenges. Although some donors can point to single grants that achieved notable results, the people and causes around the world are especially in need of passionate philanthropists that pursue a particular impact with everything they’ve got. One donor describes the... Read More
It’s time to recapture what is powerful about giving. Philanthropy is more than just transferring money. It’s about using passion, knowledge, connections, dollars, and your voice to make change on important issues. Research by Exponent Philanthropy reveals two qualities that put funders on the road to change making: passion for an issue and a curiosity... Read More
Last summer, I read Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, having bought my copy in a New Hampshire bookstore, where the owner just happened to mention, “This book should be in the hands of every high school student in New Hampshire.” Halfway through the book, I understood what she meant... Read More
When should a foundation rescind a grant? How is the rescission accomplished? The obvious answer to the first question is that a funder should rescind a grant when the grantee fails to use the grant funds for the purposes for which the grant was made. Most commonly, such failure is because the grantee’s need for... Read More
My husband and I created The O’Grady Foundation and, after some trial and error, agreed to focus our funding on the arts in our New York City area. Although we support several major arts and cultural institutions in our region, we concentrate our efforts on smaller institutions with annual budgets of $3 million or less.... Read More
If your foundation encounters an organization struggling with its operations, how can you say no—declining or not renewing a grant—in a way that makes a difference? For our small family foundation, the facts were clear. Getting to those facts had not been easy: The board of directors of the nonprofit we were funding had not... Read More