Foundations are always looking for leverage. Where and how can we invest our limited assets to get the best returns? Will our grantees survive these times of shrinking resources and growing needs? As investors in the nonprofit sector who look for innovative ways to maximize our efforts, we must challenge ourselves to better support and... Read More
Lana Vento Charitable Trust (LVCT) recently tailored its grant process to fit a local theater’s organizational capacity and reflect the size of its grant. Read about the steps it took to minimize the theater’s paperwork and maximize its time spent on programs. For the past 7 years, Lana Vento Charitable Trust (LVCT) awarded Pistarckle Theater... Read More
Five years ago, The Belk Foundation looked very different than it does today. When I was asked to come on as the foundation’s first full-time director, the objective from the board was clear: help us connect this 80-plus-year-old foundation more fully into the community, so that we may better understand the impact of our grantmaking.... Read More
Not all that much good comes with getting older, but one exception is time spent with the best teacher of all: experience. After 27 years in foundation philanthropy, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to learn firsthand some important lessons, and today I share a key one: Publishing your guidelines, and generally being transparent about... Read More
Before I came to the PIMCO Foundation, I worked in the nonprofit sector for six years. Year one changed my career trajectory, and years two through six provided formative life experiences. I have vivid memories of my time in nonprofit, from counseling youth to meeting donors to schlepping t-shirt boxes up and down and around... Read More
At seven years old, Treven Treece of Morristown, Tennessee, decided he wanted to go to college. He would be the first in his family to do it. With no one to guide him, Treven had no idea how college worked. He applied to the University of Memphis and, as a first-generation college student, won a... Read More