Tending to old issues in new ways...

Drowning in Paperwork, Distracted from Purpose
This new report, developed by Project Streamline, a collaboration of grant maker and grantseeker organizations, tackles the field's enduring challenge of crafting useful grant application and reporting requirements. How do grant makers determine what information they need to conduct due diligence and learn from their grantees? If grant makers use a one-size-fits-all approach, will it pull grantees' focus from mission to paperwork? The research findings look at the efficiency of current systems and offer four core principles and practices grant makers can implement to cut the fat from the process. Visit Project Streamline's website for the full report, or scan the executive summary for a quick view. [PDF - 2 pages]

Philanthropy's New Passing Gear: Mission-Related Investing
A Policy and Implementation Guide for Foundation Trustees, by Steven Godeke with Doug Bauer, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, March 2008
This new guide from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors takes a comprehensive and practical look at how foundations can undertake investment activity that generates social impact in addition to financial return. Reflective and accesible — without loosing any of the nuance. Complete with mini-cases and useful tools. [PDF - 132 pages]

When and How to Use External Evaluators
By Tracey A. Rutnik of the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers and Marty Campbell of The James Irvine Foundation
This short guide can help new grant makers think through working with external evaluators for the first time. It offers key questions to keep in mind when hiring and managing evaluation consultants, and talks about how to work with them to shape evaluations into something more than a grantee report card. Also suggests realistic expectations and timeframes for each stage of evaluation. 

"Replication" Local Style: A Philadelphia Story
Replicating a successful program is neither straightforward nor easy. And, of course there is no one way to do it. The Summer 2007 edition of Grantmakers in Health’s newsletter, Inside Stories, looks at how one foundation helped to re-imagine a highly successful West coast grantee’s school-based program, Students Run L.A. (SRLA), into a community health program, Students Run Philly Style (SRPS), for an East coast grantee. Emphasizing that the process is not like following a recipe, grantees as well as program officers describe the surprising ways that local context – including community-based systems, local political interest, to say nothing of weather conditions and terrain – more than the program model, helped to shape each program’s mission, rate of growth (and success), and impact on the lives of young people. [PDF - 6 pages] 

Accelerating our Impact: Philanthropy, Innovation and Social Change
By Katharine A. Pearson, The J. W. McConnell Family Foundation
View this if you are interested in conceptual and practical frameworks for grantmaking that nurture social innovation, including reflective practice in complex situations, evaluation and research, and private-public collaborations for sustainability. Katherine developed this paper in counsultation with a longtime McConnell grantee and collaborator, Vickie Cammack, of the PLAN Institute for Caring Citizenship. Together they explore the mindset of social innovators, including “patterns of activity” that support their ability to create a lasting impact.

A Social Justice Discussion Guide for Community Foundations
Nancy F. Johnson and Betsy Martin, Community Foundations of Canada
Read this guide if you are looking for practical ways to start conversations at your community foundation about the roots of social inequity and the role community foundations can play in bringing about a more just social framework. Part of the Building Capacity for Social Justice series by Community Foundations of Canada, the guide has social justice “success stories,” questions to promote discussion, and suggestions for how to take the dialogue to the next level.

NET GAINS: A Handbook for Network Builders Seeking Social Change
By Peter Plastrik and Madeleine Taylor
In this new handbook, more framework than step-by-step guide, Plastrik and Taylor lay out principles for building flexible, useful networks. A range of firsthand stories give readers plenty of examples of what network building looks like on the ground. Along the way, the authors make a strong argument for why networks, developed in tandem by grant makers and nonprofits, can lead to more effective social change programming. 

The Output Outcome Downstream Impact Blues
Terry Smutylo, Director, IDRC
Sarah Earl at the International Development Research Center sent us this karaoke sing-along when we released our evaluation series. As she notes, "it's a light and fun way to start a discussion about the serious challenges associated with evaluating the effect of development interventions. Impact is the result of many actors and factors, and it challenges donor agencies to be honest about the results of their work." 

Evaluation and Foundations: Can We Have an Honest Conversation?
Tom David, formerly of The California Wellness Foundation
Based on 18-years' worth of experience in the field, this reflection piece considers evaluation from the different perspectives of all involved in the process. It puts forth hard questions in a straightforward and provocative way. [PDF - 5 pages] 

The Capacity Building Challenge
Barbara Kibbe, Vice President for Program & Effectiveness, The Skoll Foundation
This essay, part of the Foundation Center's Practice Matters series, addresses theoretical issues involved in capacity building from the standpoint of a seasoned professional. Covers topics from collaboration to dissemination, discussing how capacity building can sharpen and focus foundation goals while working to achieve them. Smart and sensitive. [PDF - 18 pages]

On General Operating Support
Paul Brest, President of the Hewlett Foundation
This short essay carefully and helpfully presents the case for making grants for general operating support. In addition to defining terms and framing the debate surrounding core support grants, the piece discusses their role and strategic importance within the larger field of philanthropy. [PDF - 11 pages]

Investing in Capacity Building
Barbara Blumenthal, Lecturer on Public & International Affairs, Princeton University
Based on interviews with more than 100 grant makers and other philanthropy professionals, this book is an in-depth examination of the why and how of capacity building. While we recommend checking out the whole book, here we’ve excerpted a chart that illustrates how the book frames discussion and comparison of nine different capacity building programs. 

The DOs and DON'Ts of Working with Local Funders
Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers
This report shares advice from the field for national funders who seek effective partnerships with local philanthropies. This article is brief and straightforward, presenting the reflections of grant makers speaking from their own experience. [PDF - 5 pages]

Marketing Your Knowledge
Williams Group, commissioned by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
This report is clear and conversational in discussing some innovative strategies grant makers can use to share knowledge within the field. The piece is based on interviews with philanthropy professionals on the challenges and advantages of disseminating information — the resulting advice ("Ten Practices that Work") is smart and provocative.
[PDF - 19 pages]

Disaster Grantmaking
Council on Foundations and the European Foundation Center
This thoughtful, nuanced, and clear report makes thought-provoking distinctions between short-term and long-term aid and closely analyzes responses to many kinds of disasters. The piece starts with a framework
featuring eight main recommendations, and develops them through anecdotes both informative and compelling. [PDF - 42 pages]

A Funder's Guide to Evaluation
Peter York, for Fieldstone Alliance and GEO
Taking a new tack to evaluation, this book works to expand our conception of what it can and should do. York offers real insight and helpful techniques as to how evaluation can be a valuable learning tool for both funders and nonprofits. Lots of practical tools and ideas any funder can use straightaway.