At Exponent Philanthropy, we believe lean foundations can drive significant change through thoughtful strategies and meaningful community engagement. Malcolm MacLeod, board chair of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, recently shared how his foundation has embraced these practices to achieve transformative outcomes. He discusses this in depth on a recent episode of The Catalytic Podcast: Supercharging Impact:... Read More
Exponent Philanthropy’s Foundation Fundamentals aim to assist you in starting your philanthropic journey with Exponent Philanthropy. Before diving into your grantmaking, there are several questions to consider. How will you operate your foundation? How will you manage your foundation’s assets and investments? What tax and legal issues should you address? Once you have answered these... Read More
Imagine a foundation with $10 million in assets. To meet the 5% distribution requirement, it must allocate $500,000 each year. While foundations take great care in managing their grant distributions, what happens to the remaining $9.5 million? This section will help you understand how foundations manage investments, including who oversees the money and key fiduciary... Read More
So, you’re building a foundation board. Now what? A strong board is essential for a well-run foundation, no matter its legal structure. As a board member, you play a crucial role in shaping policies, setting expectations, and ensuring good governance. This page will walk you through everything you need to know—from onboarding new members to... Read More
We’ve interviewed dozens of lean funders at various points during their equity journeys over the years. Through those conversations, emails, and a review of documents, policies, and practices, we were able to create a rough map of the lean funder’s equity journey. This journey has four phases: Thinking about equity Making policy changes Building trust... Read More
The most frequent equity question lean funders ask us is: How do I engage my board in racial equity work? Unfortunately, there is not an easy nor straightforward answer. As we interviewed foundation boards and staff across the country in various phases of equity work, we heard two main approaches to engaging the board in... Read More