The Children’s Guild Foundation focuses its funding in Western New York State on services that improve the lives of children with special needs and their families. Recognizing that Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) are where these children begin their lives, the foundation set out to achieve impact at the earliest stage of life. With two... Read More
Before taking on the work of philanthropy and grantmaking, I was a gubernatorial appointee in charge of environmental policies for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The first Governor I worked for used to keep a sign prominently displayed on his desk. It said, “Today is opportunity day. Do something!” What a great attitude for those of... Read More
Originally appeared on TPI’s Deep Social Impact blog (August 3, 2016) The recent USA Giving Report shared the good news that last year there was an increase in international giving stemming from the U.S. However, many people still see barriers to global giving. Those obstacles include the fear of corruption and dollars being wasted, the... Read More
Small funders have a limited amount of grantmaking capacity and, to be impactful, must think about how to use those funds strategically to help their key nonprofit partners become more stable and proficient. This requires the funder to develop a more familiar relationship with the grantee—understanding its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats—and be prepared to... Read More
As funders, we are expected to measure things: dollars given, grants distributed, organizations served, and what results. These are all familiar metrics. But what if we reconsidered our attachment to these metrics? What if instead of expecting a specific outcome, we pursued a promising hypothesis? This is an accepted practice in other fields, such as... Read More
Originally published by Forbes (February 19, 2018) Are you damming up philanthropic progress by paralyzing decision making and workflow? Nature abhors a bottleneck. Take a look at any stream or river and you’ll see what happens when debris piles up. The water will eventually find a way around, over or through, and the results can... Read More