Resources

We are planning the launch of a new mission acceleration grants program- grants for capacity building/TA. For our previous capacity building grantmaking, the Nonprofit Leadership and Effectiveness staff have made the funding decisions. It has been suggested that we form a grants committee to make these decisions. I have some concerns regarding this approach for these types of grants. Is anyone using a grants committee for capacity building grants? I’m curious to know how it structured including the types of folks that serve on the committee. Thanks in advance for any information or insights that you can provide.

Hello, We are exploring ways to improve our evaluation and learning as a partner. We are hoping to explore a platform that would go beyond a traditional reporting structure and would allow grant partners and community leaders to utilize something similar to a listserv to both inquire and share learnings from their work. We would love to hear about any successes and/or challenges in developing this type of resource, what platform might work, and if being a funder presented any barriers (thinking about power dynamics). Best,

Hello everyone, This is probably a perennial question for a lot of us, but I wanted to ask anyway and learn from your responses: - Does your foundation make any longer-term grants or engage in longer-term funding relationships with grantees through grants that are renewed over a number of years? - If yes, what does that look like? o Is it a well-defined program approach in which different types of grants are treated as automatic renewals or automatic multiyear grants? Or is it a funding mechanism your foundation has developed over time as a time-saver for the grantmaking staff? o Do you automate renewals? o Do you require anything different, any less or any more in the application or in the due diligence, from longer term or renewal grantees than you do from first-time or short-term grantees? o If you issue a formal agreement to your renewal or longer-term grantees, does that agreement look different from the one you would issue to a first time or one-time grantee? o Do you have a limit on how many times you will renew a grant? o What are some lessons learned about long-term renewals that you would be willing to share with other donors? Thank you for helping me think this through. All the best,

Good morning GEOList: We are a grantmaking and an operating foundation, and we collect a lot of data on connections between program cohort participants, and between participants and organizations in our grantmaking network. We are interested in hiring a consultant to help us clean and standardize the data, and answer questions like:  What does the network look like, within and between cohorts and organizations?  Have new connections developed over time?  Have existing connections been maintained and/or strengthened?  Are there more higher level interactions over time (e.g. professional rather than social)?  Where are the hubs/animators within the network? Where are the outliers? If you have worked with a firm that can provide social network analysis consulting, I am interested in hearing about your experience (good and bad) and to see any deliverables you are able to share.

Michael Reese Health Trust is looking to better articulate our foundation’s impact. As part of our revised grantmaking program, we are looking for a high-level dashboard (mixed quantitative and qualitative data) to report on progress by strategic program area that we will share with our Board. We noted a previous discussion on Dashboards in the GEO community in 2012, though some of the contacts and links are outdated. Would you be willing to share resources or templates that have been helpful for your foundation? Thanks for your consideration,

Hi folks, My work is going to start using live captioning to make our Zoom meetings and webinars more accessible. I wanted to ask whether anyone had any recommendations for affordable third-party live captioning companies? We have a simple 60-minute Zoom webinar with less than 30 participants happening early next week, so hoping to set this up ASAP. Thanks!

Do any of your foundations buy carbon offsets when your staff travels by plane? Thanks,

Hello! I am seeking info on practices around retirement contributions at family foundations in the $50M to $250M asset range. The specific questions are: 1. What is the total number of staff of the organization? 2. What, if any, contribution is made by the foundation towards the 401k/403b retirement benefits for staff? Thanks for any info!

Dear Colleagues, We are working with a group of foundations in Brazil to find best-in-class examples of what many call venture philanthropy, and we want to use as comparators initiatives that include most or all of the following characteristics: 1) tailored financing which includes BOTH grants AND impact investing through debt, equity, or other forms; and hybrid financial instruments; 2) high engagement of funders; 3) long term approach and stable investment over time of AT LEAST 3-4 years; 4) emphasis on strengthening capacity and partnerships to build self-reliance and resilience; 5) organizational support to develop skills, improve structures and processes, etc.; 6) intention and action on measuring and managing outcomes and impact; reflection and adjustment by funders and recipients together; and ideally 7) sharing learnings with the broader community. If you have good examples to share, whether they succeeded or failed in their aims, we would like to include them as cases. Thank you.

Hello, I’m looking to learn from funders that have set up advisory committees composed of external stakeholders – particularly from marginalized communities that the funder seeks to serve – to welcome input on strategy development and/or grant decision making. I’m aware of many of the community-led grantmaking models (see the list below for example, which was sent following a webinar NCRP did in 2017). I’m looking to expand my understanding of the landscape and add examples to a living document that I’m happy to share out. Thank you,