Business Commons^™

Leading With Values: Grants Management And The Case For More Consistent, Effective Grantmaking Practices, Elizabeth Myrick, Nikki Powell, Tonia Bain

The Foundation Review

This article identifies and explores a set of philanthropic priorities and aspirations that are widely shared by grantmakers today, and examines how the notion of shared values might inspire a fieldwide pursuit of more consistent, effective, values-driven grantmaking practices.

To study the relationship between grantmaker values and grantmaking practices, a survey of more than 300 organization members of PEAK Grantmaking, a national association of specialists in grants management, asked how the respondent foundations’ values influence their work. The results of the survey not only provided an overview of common values, but also captured reports from grantmakers on how their organizations …

Resilient Funders: How Funders Are Adapting To The Closing Space For Civil Society, Chris Allan, A. Scott Dupree

The Foundation Review

The closing space of civil society around the world over the last decades has created profound challenges for funders. Many analyses of how to respond to this reality focus on advocacy and promoting enabling policy environments. Few consider key practices of resilient funders that enable them to continue to operate under shifting political circumstances.

Increased adaptive capacity along three dimensions – varied procedures, multiple strategies, and an adaptive environment – promotes the flexibility to weather the shocks and stresses of tightening restrictions and increasing violence. Within those dimensions, funders are finding that three characteristics of resilience are especially critical: flexibility; …

Less Is More: How Grantmakers Are Using Simple Financial Metrics, Hilda H. Polanco, Luther K. Snow

The Foundation Review

This article explores how the Financial Health Analysis Tool can bridge the gap between the capacity of grantmakers to conduct financial analysis and the need to incorporate financial considerations into both grantmaking and ongoing engagement with grantees.

The tool presents four years of key financial indicators in graphs and charts that create a kind of dashboard of a nonprofit's financial health over time. This small set of simple metrics highlights patterns and trends that can help grantmakers and nonprofits see how the financial management of an organization is advancing its mission and strategy.

Using a series of interviews with a …