Funding Research for Advocacy
How a commitment to effective messaging research helped reframe the debate around freedom to marry and win greater support.
Foundations - Articles
New and innovative ideas for leaders of foundations (more)
Pay-What-It-Takes Philanthropy
Grantmakers should provide enough money for nonprofits to pay for all their operations, not just programs and services.
Funding Infrastructure: A Smart Investment for All
Why building a strong philanthropic and nonprofit infrastructure matters to social impact, and how donors can support it.
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Making Markets Work
Foundation leaders consider the strengths, limitations, and potential of program related investments (PRIs), a form of impact investing intended to further a foundation’s programmatic and charitable goals.
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If We Want Our Funding to Change the World…
Grantmakers and nonprofit leaders at the Donors Forum—an annual convening in Illinois to advance social change institutions—discuss the real cost of running an effective nonprofit and why it is essential for grantmakers to support indirect costs.
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Great Management Creates Great Impact
Philanthropist Josh Bekenstein of Bain Capital explains how philanthropists unwilling to cover nonprofits’ indirect or overhead costs are missing the opportunity to completely support that organization’s mission.
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What’s Wrong With Grantee Evaluation?
Emmett Carson, founding CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, discusses the importance of seeing evaluation as a partnership between foundations and grantees.
Four Questions to Ask Before You Engage with a Network
Funders want to create big change by using networks for social impact. But where to start?
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Elusive Yardstick
Steve McCormick, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, discusses one of the biggest challenges in the nonprofit world - how to evaluate progress and success.
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Defining Risk in Philanthropy
Steve McCormick, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, discusses what risk really means to both nonprofits and foundations, and why foundations should take more risks.