I once sat on the board of a nonprofit organization that had undertaken what eventually became an award-winning planning process for its property holdings. This effort engaged all staff and board and generated lots of creative energy from the surrounding community. Within a couple months after completing the plan, staff recommended a capital improvement inconsistent... Read More
We’ve had the great pleasure of serving as the grantmaking and foundation management partner for Kathleen deLaski and the deLaski Family Foundation for the past three years. The foundation brought us on to help it adapt its mission, vision, and goals in a way that makes the most of the current board’s knowledge, networks, and... Read More
Several months ago, Exponent Philanthropy and partners Mission Investors Exchange and Arabella Advisors released Essentials of Impact Investing: A Guide for Small-Staffed Foundations. Below is an excerpt from the complimentary and actionable guide, geared to foundations with few or no staff that want to align their investments and missions. By David Wood, Initiative for Responsible Investment The early stages... Read More
Foundation surveys often ask if the foundation is operating with a limited life span, or in perpetuity. The choice is typically presented as a binary one: Did you set a time limit, or are you going to be around for eternity? There is a third choice, however, if perpetuity is not mandated in the foundation’s... Read More
Producing audit-ready financial records for a private foundation can be an intimidating task—even for financial professionals. With fiscal year-ends that may differ from a calendar year (they do at roughly 50% of private foundations according to Thomas F. Blaney, CPA, CFE and partner, director of foundation services at PKF O’Connor Davies)—there often is no simple 12-month... Read More
For more than two decades, Foellinger Foundation has provided capacity building grants to nonprofits in Allen County, Indiana. We are proud to support the external work those organizations do in our community, and we are equally proud to support the important work they do internally to improve their effectiveness. In 2018, we reflected on the... Read More