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Articles 1 - 30 of 47
Full-Text Articles in Business
Overcoming The Systemic Challenges Of Wealth Inequality In The U.S., David Peter Stroh
Overcoming The Systemic Challenges Of Wealth Inequality In The U.S., David Peter Stroh
The Foundation Review
The galvanizing public murder of George Floyd and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Hispanic people have put structural racism and its influence on wealth inequality in the U.S. into stark relief. As multiracial groups express outrage at these visible disparities, we risk missing the other side of the coin: that wealth inequality in turn fans structural racism. Moreover, as they reinforce each other, these two factors erode the social, economic, and political viability of our democracy. Understanding and then breaking this vicious cycle are essential to realizing our renewed commitment to a country that works everyone.
This …
Regional Inclusive Growth Through Systems Philanthropy In Essex County, Massachusetts, Lisa Payne Simon, Stratton Lloyd, Beth Francis
Regional Inclusive Growth Through Systems Philanthropy In Essex County, Massachusetts, Lisa Payne Simon, Stratton Lloyd, Beth Francis
The Foundation Review
In 2016, the Essex County Community Foundation forged a cross-sector coalition of business, community, and civic leaders to identify the Massachusetts region’s greatest challenges and to develop a strategy for action. Income inequality was identified as the county’s most pressing issue, and the foundation and its partners launched a systems philanthropy strategy to address that issue and stimulate inclusive growth.
The strategy involves a multipronged approach aimed at amplifying the county’s strengths, launching inclusive-growth initiatives, expanding workforce training and skill development to increase a broad target population’s earning potential and net worth, incentivizing and supporting small-business resiliency and growth, and …
At Your Service: Nonprofit Infrastructure Organizations And Covid-19, Christopher R. Prentice, Jeffrey L. Brudney, Richard M. Clerkin, Patrick C. Brien
At Your Service: Nonprofit Infrastructure Organizations And Covid-19, Christopher R. Prentice, Jeffrey L. Brudney, Richard M. Clerkin, Patrick C. Brien
The Foundation Review
This article examines the role played by nonprofit infrastructure organizations in assisting service-delivery nonprofits as they confronted the COVID-19 crisis. These organizations are differentiated by their service focus, but are united by a common mission to offer support to other nonprofits.
The service areas of nonprofit infrastructure organizations can be divided into three categories: those that support the nonprofit sector as a whole, those that assist nonprofit organizations and their staffs, and those that devote their resources to the communities or region they serve. For this article, leaders from these three types of organizations were asked to share their responses …
Editorial, Juan Olivarez
What Does It Take? Reflections On Foundation Practice In Building Healthy Communities, 2010–2020, Prudence Brown, Tom David, Anand Sharma
What Does It Take? Reflections On Foundation Practice In Building Healthy Communities, 2010–2020, Prudence Brown, Tom David, Anand Sharma
The Foundation Review
Foundation practice — how a foundation goes about its work — plays a significant role in determining the results of the work, particularly for foundations that take on roles that position them as part of the action rather than solely as sources of funds.
This article aims to build upon the lessons from past place-based work by examining the practices of The California Endowment as it designed and implemented Building Healthy Communities, a 10-year initiative to promote health equity. The initiative combined intensive investment in 14 historically disinvested communities with sophisticated state- and regional-level policy campaigns and coalition-building strategies to …
Measuring The Effectiveness Of Equitable Economic Development Strategies, Amy Minzner
Measuring The Effectiveness Of Equitable Economic Development Strategies, Amy Minzner
The Foundation Review
There is anecdotal evidence that equitable economic development activities can foster inclusive growth and unlock the full potential of local economies by dismantling barriers and expanding opportunities for low-income people and communities of color. These strategies are being used with increasing frequency, and advocates and funders are pressing for their use throughout the country. Because of this, there is a need to better understand the link between equitable economic development activities and their ability to foster equitable opportunities and resulting impacts.
Establishing this link will require a new measurement strategy because traditional measures of economic development effectiveness focus on communitywide …
Can Civil Society Be Inclusive? Strategies For Endowed Foundations, Irene M. H. Davids, Lucas C. P. M. Meijs
Can Civil Society Be Inclusive? Strategies For Endowed Foundations, Irene M. H. Davids, Lucas C. P. M. Meijs
The Foundation Review
Literature on inclusion and exclusion within civil society distinguishes two broad approaches: the managerial, based on the private sphere, and the democratic, based upon the public sphere. Regardless of the approach, however, the influence of cultural distance or proximity between endowed foundations and grassroots associations has remained understudied. This research aims to address this gap.
This article shares results of a quantitative comparison of the patterns of funding awarded by a regional endowed foundation in the Netherlands to immigrant grassroots associations and to other grassroots organizations. The results reveal differences in funding despite the foundation’s inclusive strategy. An exploration of …
The Aaacf Community Scholarship Program: A Strategic Approach To Building Community, Shelley Strickland, Carmen M. Mccallum
The Aaacf Community Scholarship Program: A Strategic Approach To Building Community, Shelley Strickland, Carmen M. Mccallum
The Foundation Review
Five years ago, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation decided to take a strategic approach to offering college scholarships that would address gaps in educational achievement among local students. To increase the impact of its scholarship program, the foundation shifted its emphasis from one-time awards to promoting degree attainment, and determined that the criteria for new scholarships would be based on impact data instead of donor intent.
The Community Scholarship Program awards multiyear scholarships to local students of color, students from low-income families, and first-generation college students, and provides them with a dedicated college success coach to help them successfully …
Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens
Moving The Needle Or Spinning Our Wheels? A Framework For Long-Lasting, Equitable Change In Education, Heather Mccambly, Eleanor R. Anderson
Moving The Needle Or Spinning Our Wheels? A Framework For Long-Lasting, Equitable Change In Education, Heather Mccambly, Eleanor R. Anderson
The Foundation Review
In the quest for equitable and lasting reform in postsecondary education, philanthropy’s great strength is its flexibility to make use of multiple strategies. However, as most grantmakers know firsthand, not all strategy combinations lead to lasting systemic change.
This article offers an actionable approach for designing and analyzing philanthropically funded movements in order to remake an area of educational policy or practice. It begins with a review of philanthropic literature that identifies the primary change strategies used by funders in the education sector. It then introduces a tool, rooted in organizational research, to understand and predict the circumstances under which …
Partnering For Postsecondary Success In Rural Texas, Allison Pennington
Partnering For Postsecondary Success In Rural Texas, Allison Pennington
The Foundation Review
Although students living in rural areas perform academically on par with their peers, they are less likely to complete a postsecondary credential due to geographic, economic, and other barriers. Greater Texas Foundation, a private grantmaker focused on postsecondary student success in Texas, fosters rural collaborations as part of its philanthropic strategy.
This article reflects on lessons learned by foundation staff from this strand of work. It describes innovative models for postsecondary support developed by the foundation’s rural partners, discusses the need to balance direct program support and capacity building, and emphasizes the importance of visiting rural communities in person.
To …
Advancing Social Determinants Of Health Through Investments In Postsecondary Attainment And Sustaining Employment, Melissa B. Eggen, J’Aime C. Jennings, Molly O’Keefe, Brandy N. Kelly Pryor, Leslie Clements
Advancing Social Determinants Of Health Through Investments In Postsecondary Attainment And Sustaining Employment, Melissa B. Eggen, J’Aime C. Jennings, Molly O’Keefe, Brandy N. Kelly Pryor, Leslie Clements
The Foundation Review
In 2018, the Humana Foundation shifted the focus of its work to the social determinants of health, with the key aim of promoting health equity. With this new focus came a recognition that larger, long-term investments would be needed to support strategies addressing upstream determinants of health. The foundation also recognized the need to co-create processes with communities to understand how to provide essential holistic supports.
This article explores one area of the foundation’s new efforts, the Strategic Community Investment Program, which focuses in part on postsecondary attainment and sustaining employment. The foundation partnered with the University of Louisville’s Center …
Emergent Learning: Increasing The Impact Of Foundation-Driven Strategies To Support College Enrollment And Completion, Kimberly Hanauer, Stacy Sneed, Bill Debaun
Emergent Learning: Increasing The Impact Of Foundation-Driven Strategies To Support College Enrollment And Completion, Kimberly Hanauer, Stacy Sneed, Bill Debaun
The Foundation Review
This article examines lessons learned as part of the continued development of the Get2College Pilot School Program, an initiative of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation, designed to test a strategy for increasing college enrollment among Mississippi students through greater college exploration opportunities and application and financial aid supports.
While a review of the first three years of the pilot found it had an impact on college-going culture at its eight participating schools, Get2College found no significant increase in college enrollment over the 2016–2018 academic years and a retrospective analysis revealed flaws in the program’s design and theory of change. In …
Scaling Rural Access: One Foundation’S Partnership To Expand Fafsa Completion Across Mississippi, B. Tait Kellogg, Ann Hendrick, Kierstan Dufour, Patricia Steele
Scaling Rural Access: One Foundation’S Partnership To Expand Fafsa Completion Across Mississippi, B. Tait Kellogg, Ann Hendrick, Kierstan Dufour, Patricia Steele
The Foundation Review
This article highlights Get2College, a program by the Woodward Hines Education Foundation that provide financial aid counseling to Mississippi high school students, and outlines a study that assessed efforts to scale the FAFSA completion initiative to increase the number of students statewide who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Get2College’s approach to scaling involved a partnership with the state’s rurally based community colleges and leveraged their established support networks to expand its outreach to the state’s often underserved students and increase FAFSA completion rates among that population.
In rural states like Mississippi, underresourced groups are sometimes left …
Investing In Mission-Driven Advocacy, Raymond Alqaisi, Carrie Warick
Investing In Mission-Driven Advocacy, Raymond Alqaisi, Carrie Warick
The Foundation Review
Philanthropy has a significant role to play in public policy advocacy, both in involving the individuals they support in advocacy and ensuring that advocates have the tools to be successful — not only in funding, but also in robust capacity-building assistance.
Looking at the work of the National College Attainment Network, this article explores how philanthropic investments can impact advocacy, in both financial and capacity-building support, through a recounting of a recent advocacy grantmaking initiative. It also details the key conditions conducive to policy change and the supports that were provided to grantees during the funding period.
As philanthropic leaders …
The Experiences Of A Foundation With A Limited Life: Benefits And Challenges, Lynda Mansson
The Experiences Of A Foundation With A Limited Life: Benefits And Challenges, Lynda Mansson
The Foundation Review
This article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of a limited-life foundation’s philanthropy practice. The strengths, including a sharpened strategic focus and sense of urgency, and the challenges, such as ensuring impact and dealing with grantee dependency, are also relevant when closing a program.
Drawing on reflections from the director general of the MAVA Foundation and learnings from foundations that have recently closed, this article also discusses how to prepare for the end date of a limited-life foundation. MAVA, a Swiss-based grantmaking foundation for 25 years, has a planned end date of 2022.
The article features key lessons for foundations considering …
Lessons From The Assessment For Learning Project: Strategies For Building An Authentic Learning Community, Heather Lewis-Charp, Daniela Berman, Sarah Lench, Tony Siddall
Lessons From The Assessment For Learning Project: Strategies For Building An Authentic Learning Community, Heather Lewis-Charp, Daniela Berman, Sarah Lench, Tony Siddall
The Foundation Review
This article explores findings from an evaluation of the Assessment for Learning Project, a grantee engagement strategy led by the Center for Innovation in Education focused on creating a learning community founded in continuous reflection and safety for risk-taking. The article shares the project’s model and approach, grounded in the core design elements of a field-facing learning agenda, grantmaking that leads with learning, and collective leadership.
This article highlights the Assessment for Learning Project’s practices, such as a Request for Learning rather than traditional Request for Proposals; a requirement that grantees provide formative feedback to each other; and public demonstrations …
Is More Always Better? A Reflection On The Dynamic Nature Of Nationally And Regionally Focused Funder Collaboratives, Jo Carcedo, Merry Davis, Megan Folkerth, Lori Grubstein, Chris Kabel
Is More Always Better? A Reflection On The Dynamic Nature Of Nationally And Regionally Focused Funder Collaboratives, Jo Carcedo, Merry Davis, Megan Folkerth, Lori Grubstein, Chris Kabel
The Foundation Review
Funding collaboratives allow foundations to align, increase effectiveness, and collectively address systemic issues. Such alliances are increasingly important in the quest for social change in the face of large-scale challenges like climate change, political polarization, and inequity, which require contributions from across sectors to create meaningful impact. An exploration of why such collaboratives form, how they evolve, and what impact they have offers insights for foundations interested in tackling such complex challenges.
The BUILD Health Challenge® is a funding collaborative that includes national and regionally focused funders working together to drive sustainable improvements in health. Through a reflective survey and …
Coherent Assistance In Education Improvement: How Foundations Can Help, Ann Jaquith, Rosa Chavez
Coherent Assistance In Education Improvement: How Foundations Can Help, Ann Jaquith, Rosa Chavez
The Foundation Review
Philanthropic organizations are experimenting with ways to support capacity building in order to scale innovations and leverage funding for greater social impact. Increasingly, philanthropies are also attending to their own organizational needs for learning in order to inform strategy, shape future work, and measure effectiveness.
This article shares the lessons of the Aligned Partners Project, a three-year study of a foundation-funded interorganizational collaboration to align the work of three technical assistance organizations to meet the needs of one school district. It identifies challenges to providing coherent assistance as well as grantmaking practices that could address them.
A foundation seeking to …
Turning Changemaking Inward: How One Health Philanthropy Transformed Its Grantmaking Approach To Drive Deeper Impact, Christina Ellis, Laura Pinsoneault, Sarah Deering, Jesse Ehrenfeld, Erin Fabian, Cheryl Maurana
Turning Changemaking Inward: How One Health Philanthropy Transformed Its Grantmaking Approach To Drive Deeper Impact, Christina Ellis, Laura Pinsoneault, Sarah Deering, Jesse Ehrenfeld, Erin Fabian, Cheryl Maurana
The Foundation Review
In 2014, the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment made a significant shift in focus to supporting adaptive rather than programmatic solutions to address critical health issues, and adopted a new approach that emphasized engagement with key stakeholders, recognizing the importance of contribution over attribution and requiring a long-term perspective on outcomes.
The endowment identified three new “changemaker” roles for itself, alongside new funding mechanisms and a set of conditions where positive change could be supported to influence health. While changemaking began as a description of the endowment’s strategic direction, today this philanthropic philosophy permeates all that …