Year End Already…Wow

In this season of reflection, our whole team extends a hearty THANK YOU to all of you. Through your questions, wisdom, and leadership, we have had an unprecedented year where we released two guides—one on being #OpenForGood and one on participatory grantmaking—two leadership series papers covering diversity, equity, and inclusion and community philanthropy, 40 (yes, 40!) blog posts, and numerous videos and podcasts. Most recently, we launched the third in a suite of five case studies on capacity building this past Wednesday. We’ve also been a part of a dozen conference sessions and several articles to continue to drive intentional reflection in philanthropy.

My favorite success of the year, however, is not one that most of you could see. It was a shift that happened internally at Foundation Center. We’re getting smarter about working towards our mission of advancing knowledge about philanthropy. Across our programs, services, and products, I’ve seen a really exciting shift from offering data to offering insights. There’s a broader appreciation for various learning styles and more intentional links across the spectrum of work that we do for both funders and nonprofits. We’re not working in a bubble anymore, because we can’t. GrantCraft has certainly played a role in evolving our broader culture and catalyzing candid conversations about important topics, and I’m excited by it. Philanthropy only moves forward when every piece is working together, and we’re doing our best to practice what we preach.

Next year, we want to publish more case studies in partnership with a consultancy (see our series announced last month), more leadership series papers, and continue to grow our body of videos and blogs. If you might want to partner on any of these fronts, please email us this month with your interest.

We also want to continue engagement around the resources we and our knowledge services colleagues have recently developed. If you would like to support efforts tied to participatory grantmaking, youth philanthropy, funding for U.S. democracy, and more, please also be in touch; we will happily accept any year-end grants you’re looking to make.

Wishing you and yours a restorative, reflective, and healthy end of 2018.

With gratitude,

Jen

This letter originally appeared in GrantCraft's newsletter. To stay updated with our newsletter and special alerts, sign up here.