Exponent Philanthropy recently revised The Foundation Guidebook, our signature publication for those new to foundations or philanthropy. Below is an excerpt from the 128-page resource. Get your copy >> Many foundations use a combination of methods to settle on a focus. Once you consider the approaches that follow, it is important to recognize when you may... Read More
As a foundation, it can be difficult to find ways (beyond making grants) to support our grantees and, at the same time, improve their visibility in their communities and the wider world. With this challenge in mind, the foundation’s board of directors and I developed a two-pronged project inspired by a webinar I attended in... 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
I work for a foundation that is modestly young in the national grantmaking sector. At about four years into its current field, we can’t quite say we’re the new kid on the block anymore, but we’ve certainly seen a rapid amount of structural change since we first launched. Transitioning from a scholarship fund to an... Read More
Small funders have limited grantmaking capacity and must think about how to use those funds strategically to help their key nonprofit partners. When a funder can offer a nonprofit partner a fully-sponsored organizational assessment process led by a qualified consultant, it can be an instructive experience for both the grantee and the grantmaker. Whereas larger... Read More
After Victoria Hewlett was raped at a fraternity party while attending Utah State University, she knew that healing would, at least in part, come through working for changes at the University that would help protect other students from abuse and assault on campus. Like many survivors of campus sexual assault, Hewlett sought to hold Utah... Read More