Resources

Good morning, At Global Fund for Children, we are exploring creating an online community space for our partners working with children and youth around the world. I would love to hear from our GEO community what has been your experience in launching and managing an online community of partners? What's worked? What hasn't? Right now, we have experience with some of our regional cohort groups using Whatsapp. We've heard back from some partners that they are interested in a more unique dedicated space (so not a Facebook or LinkedIn group). Would also love to hear any experiences with specific platforms, especially those that allow for a multilingual community. (From my research, there are few available!). A note on some of the objectives and potentials we're seeing with an online community space: • Facilitate network building within and across regions and issues • Share resources and events created by partners and Global Fund for Children • Create a library with capacity development resources • Share time-sensitive opportunities for funding, training, and advocacy • Generate conversation online and virtually about timely issues • Keep partners connected even if no longer grant recipients Thanks so much in advance for sharing your experience! I'm also happy to set up a time to chat or for a group of us to share experiences, depending on the response.

Hi all, We are exploring how/if to adjust our PTO policy due to COVID (and just generally) and I’m interested in the following: • Do you allow staff to carry over unused vacation days? o If so, is there a time by which they have to use those days? • If you do not allow carryover days typically, are you allowing it in 2021 due to COVID? o If so, are you placing restrictions on when days must be used and/or how many days may be carried over? • How many vacation days are new staff allotted? • What does accrual look like (at what point do staff accrue more days, how many days, etc.?) • Do you allow employees to “buy” vacation time? Is unused vacation time eligible for pay out? Thanks for your input!

The St. David’s Foundation is in the process of re-evaluating when site visits with our grantees are conducted, and the purpose of those visits.  Currently, we conduct site visits for large grant requests, as part of our due diligence process.  We are considering revising this to move site visits to after the award is made (disconnected from due diligence) and to put more of a focus on joint learning.  We are interested to learn from the experiences peer foundations who use site visits to further their work, specifically: What is the overall purpose of the visit? Do the site visits occur before or after the grant is made? What topics are generally covered during the visit?  If you feel your site visit process adds significant value to your work, what components create this value?  What practices should be avoided? Thank you in advance for sharing your practices and ideas.   Kimberly McPherson

We’re seeking info about what foundations might be doing with regard to remote work stipends to acknowledge and compensate the costs staff are incurring for working from home. We’re trying to get a sense if there might be something like an “industry standard” developing for such a stipend.   Thanks for your insights, Georganna 

Hi there - as we plan for next year we are looking at how long we fund the organizations in our portfolio. We don't have any rules about this. A large number of organizations have been in our portfolio for 6 years or more. I am thinking about how to balance long-term commitment with bringing in new partners in a context where I can't increase staff. Would appreciate any examples of how folks manage this. Thanks! Lisa

Hello Colleagues, We are in the process of evaluating our grant thresholds for what our President/CEO and program staff can approve and what grant requests go before our grants committee. Can you please share what amounts (grants under a certain dollar amount) you are able to approve through staff? Looking forward to learning from you!

Hello Colleagues, Our Foundation is preparing to celebrate our 50th Anniversary and great work is already underway! I’m reaching out to ask about your experiences with celebratory grantmaking – special programs or projects that you launched, particular grants (any specific sizes, focus, etc.) that were awarded, and/or new priorities that were identified in partnership with a celebratory milestone -- Looking forward to learning from you and your experience! Wishes of health to all!

The Patterson Foundation is interested in learning from funders who are supporting COVID testing sites, contact tracing, or vaccine work. This is specifically related to undertaking direct work testing/contact-tracing/vaccine research rather than recovery or economic support work. Appreciative of any insight!

Good afternoon! We would like to encourage grantees to include us in their promotional materials for programs/projects/initiatives that we have funded. I’d like it to be a “kit” with various marketing verbiage and tools (like our logo) that we can send via a link to our grantees after a grant cycle, either hosted on a webpage or other “all-in-one” vehicle to make it very easy for them to pull the language or logo they need, with minimal support from our team. Do any other foundations have a promotional kit like this and ask grantees to include their foundation’s name/logo in their marketing and PR? If so, I’d appreciate knowing how you word this to your grantees, what tools you provide, and how you share those tools with grantees. Thanks!

The Mary Black Foundation will be undergoing a RFP process for Investment Firm this fall. We would like to use a consultant to help us through the process of soliciting and reviewing proposals. Do you have any recommendations for this service? Many thanks for your feedback!