Philanthropy has a new champion. Her name is MacKenzie Scott. Recently, Scott announced that in her relatively short time in philanthropy, she’s given $1.7 billion to 116 nonprofits. Many of the organizations are devoted to equity, and those organizations are largely led by women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people. While the amount represents a... Read More
The Chapel Hill Foundation, based in Plattsburgh, New York, in the Adirondack foothills and on the shores of Lake Champlain has a dual mission: enriching the lives of children, and meeting the challenges of an aging society. We’re a small foundation with assets under $2 million, and annual grants totaling about $75,000. One of our... Read More
In recent years, we have collected data on how our community of lean funders is responding to the pandemic. In April 2020, we surveyed members on what they planned to do. We shared those findings in this report. The next year, our 2021 Foundation Operations and Management Survey (FOMS) collected more detailed information on how... Read More
This Op-Ed originally appeared on the Ball Brothers Foundation website. The threats we face in the digital world are evolving at a frightening pace. From phishing schemes and ransomware attacks to identity theft and deepfake impersonations, the list of cyber threats keeps expanding. As technology advances—and the internet becomes ever more integrated into our daily... Read More
Take Oprah’s visit to a slum in Mumbai. One can assume that Oprah had positive intentions in her visit, yet, when the piece aired, a palpable tone of judgment and comparison to her reality offended many. When she asked a family about its small home—“I don’t mean to be offensive, but does it feel crowded?... Read More
Originally appeared on GrantCraft’s blog (May 6, 2015) A former colleague and friend at a small education nonprofit recently called to pick my brain about the role of site visits from a foundation perspective. She was in the midst of planning a visit with a local program officer. A $10,000 grant was on the line,... Read More