Resources

Hi GEO community-- The Sobrato Family Foundation team is interested in learning about how foundations have structured their capacity-building grantmaking. Do you have a separate team (which partners with program teams) to manage grants to improve grantee capacity? Or does the program team manage the grants themselves, with a capacity-building team as a resource to support and advise these decisions? We’re interested in learning about the range of ways this support is structured within foundations, so would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Thanks in advance,

Hello Everyone, We're heading in to a new phase with our board and are looking for a coach. We'd like the coach to help them figure out what kind of board they want to be and how they will structure the division of labor and decision making. Have you worked with anyone you would recommend that has experience with family foundations or an expertise in board governance? Thank you!

Hi all, Our agency is working to update our document retention policies, and I was wondering if anyone could share your document retention schedule—and any policies your agency has regarding inactive applicants? (e.g. if someone dies or stops applying, when—or do—you purge those files?) For us, this question is most pertinent for electronic records in our grant portal, because the hard copies pretty much sort themselves out in three or six years. Thanks so much,

We are looking to update our staff (CEO, COO, Directors, Program Staff) self assessments. Would you please share your templates and questions?

Greetings GEO Friends! Hoping this note finds everyone in good spirits as spring sets in. I’m wondering if any of you know of any fellowship programs that you could point me to, either within philanthropy or more broadly within the social sector? We have a few we are looking at but want to expand our reach to include others. Specially, we are hoping to see examples that invite fellowship from senior leaders who are well-established in their careers. Thanks in advance for any examples that you may have!

Hello GEO community, we have a question for the group. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is seeing an increase in nonprofit organizations in subsidiary relationship to another nonprofit. How have other foundations worked with these organizations? A specific example would be a parent subsidiary relationship where there is an umbrella nonprofit organization with a 501(c)(3) designation, and two subsidiary organizations, each with their own 501(c)(3) designation and boards. These organizations, while sharing a commonality of purpose do not have a common history. All three organizations have indicated that they would like to apply for grants. Assuming an organization would normally only be eligible for 1 grant per granting period plus 1 collaboration grant, would each of the organization be eligible to apply for 1 grant and would the entirety be eligible to apply for a collaboration grant. If you have experience with this type of organizational structure, please share how you are handling the multiple requests.

Hello GEO Community! We are looking for examples of foundations with deferred maintenance and other capital funds – not major capital grants, but things like software upgrades, IT and other important equipment replacements, facilities repairs and maintenance, etc. Some examples of projects that exemplify the type of funding we’re wondering about are: replacing all the carpeting at a community health center and buying new commercial washers/dryers for a transitional shelter. But we are interested in foundations that might set aside funds for annual grants such as these to existing grantees and wondered if there were other foundations out there doing this and if they did it via RFP or other procedure. Thank you for any advice!

GEO Community, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta (CFGA) is interested in learning about post-grant award site visits. Currently, CFGA conducts site visits during application review where some of our Board members and donors may attend with staff. We are considering shifting their engagement to after an award has been made. Do any of you conduct post-grant award site visits in lieu of in cycle site visits? If so: · What is the process for the post-grant award site visit? · Do you feel it is more beneficial than an in-cycle site visit? · When do you conduct the site visit – 3/6/9/12 months after grant is executed? · Is the site visit part of the organization’s End of Grant report? · Do you let Board members or donors attend with staff?

Hello Colleagues, We are looking for examples of successful approaches that you may have used within your organizations to strengthen inclusive culture. Certainly hiring, promotion and evaluation are important areas to examine. More importantly, we'd like to learn about your experiences strengthening those informal ways that we work together, communicate, and make decisions every day. This might encompass establishing a common D & I vision, baselining the current organizational state, and/or providing staff/leadership training or coaching.

We’re looking to revamp the questions on our applications and reports. We are especially interested in examples that are aimed at systems change, advocacy, capacity building, etc. Anyone able to share?