Multiyear funding—support that funders commit up-front for multiple years—is a key to strengthening nonprofit effectiveness, capacity, and impact. These grants guarantee income streams, lessening the time grantees need to fundraise so they can better carry out their missions. When many foundations are cutting grant budgets and reducing their number of grantees, committing scarce funds for... Read More
This post originally appeared on the Foundation Source blog. Many private foundations fund specific organizations multiple times over several grantmaking cycles. Doing so can help continue a particular charitable program or project, or simply provide a subsequent round of general operating support. As organizations seeking continued support (“returning grantees”) are viewed in a different light than first-time... Read More
A full version of this post originally appeared on Resilia’s company blog. Most funders already understand the importance of supporting nonprofits with capacity-building resources “beyond the grant” to help them achieve their mission. But where do you begin as a funder with many areas to focus on? One clear area of focus is fundraising. While... Read More
On a cold day in February 2015 at a board retreat on the coast of Maine, the board of directors of the Emanuel and Pauline A. Lerner Foundation made a big decision. After five years of funding nonprofits in Maine focused on civic engagement, cultural tolerance, and women and children, the board decided to take... Read More
As foundations strive to make meaningful change in support of their missions, understanding what leads to philanthropic impact is crucial. In the 2023 Foundation Operations and Management Report, foundations named insufficient grantmaking impact as one of their top challenges. In this blog, I’ll discuss a few factors that drive impact, as well as strategies for... Read More
Program related investments (PRI) are loans, loan guarantees, or other types of investments made by a foundation to support a charitable purpose. They’re also a powerful and flexible tool to add to your foundation’s toolkit. A PRI can count toward a foundation’s distribution requirement if it meets the following federal criteria: They serve a charitable... Read More