Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Risks In Grantmaking: A Study Of Australian Foundations, Daniel Archibald, Reza Tajaddini, Mary Dunkley

The Foundation Review

In the pursuit of more effective giving, the nonprofit sector has been increasingly advocating for foundations to take on more risk in their grantmaking. This article investigates the risk experience in the charitable funding process and the approaches taken to mitigate unwanted risks. Failure to adequately manage such risks can negatively influence the legacy of a foundation and the effectiveness of the programs and projects it funds.

Particularly, this article contributes to the improvement of managing the risks that arise in the grantmaking process by identifying those key risks faced by different types of foundations, thus helping to prioritize the …

Full Issue Vol. 15 Issue 4

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Reconciling Philanthropy’S Role In Disruption And Revolution: Hard Lessons From A Community-Driven Power-Building Strategy To Achieve Health Equity, Kien S. Lee, Courtney Ricci, Mia Ramirez

The Foundation Review

This article shares The Colorado Trust’s experience with Community Partnerships for Health Equity (CPHE) after initiating a resident-led strategy for systems change and encountering the myriad challenges to its implementation that ultimately led to exiting the initiative.

The CPHE strategy intended to fund community members directly instead of working through the nonprofit sector in the state, and thereby shift power from nonprofit organizations to residents. It eventually involved more than 20 communities across Colorado and created change in certain communities — from filling service gaps and creating local partnerships to shifting local systems.

The Trust had good intentions in its …

Coopen: An Open Innovation Process Triggering Collaboration Between Ngos And Innovators In Africa — The Case Of Fondazione Cariplo And Fondazione Compagnia Di San Paolo, Fulvio Bersanetti, Alessandro Masciadri, Ilaria Caramia, Cristina Toscano

The Foundation Review

This article explores how the two main Italian foundations of banking origin, Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, are internationally contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda through Coopen, a cross-fertilization process between nonprofit organizations and the innovation ecosystem.

Guided by the United Nations 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals, which identify innovation as a focal point in SDG 9, the foundations recognize the value that product, process, and methodological innovation can bring to Italy’s international development cooperation sector and its partnerships.

Coopen encourages the development and implementation of innovative solutions in Africa to respond to specific …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Place-Based Philanthropy With An Adaptive Lens: Actively Balancing Community-Driven And Foundation-Driven Orientations, Douglas Easterling, Tanya Beer, Kristen Burwell Naney, Mina Silberberg, Laura Gerald, Adam Linker

The Foundation Review

With place-based philanthropy, a foundation provides extensive, long-term support for a comprehensive mix of programs within specific communities, with the expectation that this will produce benefits at a communitywide level. One of the key questions in designing a place-based initiative is how much the foundation will control local decision-making.

In some initiatives, the foundation dictates the issues that community groups must address and/or the nature of the planning process that will be used to develop solutions. This sometimes produces ineffective or irrelevant solutions. In contrast, other initiatives allow local groups considerable discretion in naming the issues and choosing the solutions, …

Evaluating Food Waste Management In Melbourne Businesses & Effects On Food Insecurity Remediation, Elinor Kops

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research paper aims to understand the presence of sustainable food waste management in food retail businesses, as well as the importance of food donation to the success of food insecurity remediation organizations in the city of Melbourne, Victoria. Intensive in-person, online, and over-the-phone interviews were conducted in two categories: food retail businesses (subcategories being supermarkets and restaurants) and food insecurity remediation organizations. Of the 133 businesses contacted, 16 food service businesses were interviewed, and three food insecurity remediation organizations were interviewed. A survey was utilized for food retail businesses that received a single response in the supermarket subcategory; data …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

The Practice Of The Equitable Evaluation Framework™: Context And Introduction To The Special Issue, Marcia A. Coné, Jara Dean-Coffey

The Foundation Review

Welcome to the special issue of The Foundation Review.

For many, this is an introduction to the Equitable Evaluation Framework™, and how some folks in U.S. philanthropy are reimagining evaluation, learning, and research through its practice. For others, you’ve been in practice of the EEF alongside us and other individuals and organizations and are, thus, represented in the offerings shared from your colleagues.

Over the past three years, in partnership with many, we’ve engaged in exploring, puzzling together, and sharing what it means to “be in practice of the EEF.” While impossible to convey the depth, breadth, and richness of …

Learning Circles As A Tool For Participant- Owned Evaluation, Virginia Roncaglione, Chan Brown, Jennifer James, Courtney Huff

The Foundation Review

Learning circles are an approach where individuals with a common interest meet regularly to learn from each other about a self-identified topic in a format chosen by the group. Honoring a group’s collective wisdom, centering participants’ learning needs, and prioritizing relationships and trust are all features of learning circles. This practice is of increasing interest to funders and evaluators as a tool for practicing learning and evaluation aligned with the Equitable Evaluation Framework™.

Kansas Health Foundation and its strategic learning partners, Innovation Network and Harder+Company Community Research, are exploring learning circles in two of the foundation’s initiatives: Integrated Voter Engagement …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Tfr 15.3 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Learning, Unlearning, And Sprinkling In: Our Journey With Equitable Evaluation, Jane Mosley, Leigh W. Quarles, Jason L. Williams

The Foundation Review

The Health Forward Foundation recently completed a two-year journey with the Equitable Evaluation Initiative as a practicing partner. This partnership provided us with the support to push for change that better aligned with our new focus, prioritizing racial equity and economic advancement.

The partnership also allowed us to explore a number of questions fundamental to our work in learning and evaluation: what we really know about the impact philanthropy is making in our communities; how we can explain that to board members, and how we honor the personal experiences of the people we serve.

In this article we discuss our …

A Journey Into Equitable Practice: Doing More, Doing Differently, And Doing Better, Bree Bode, Sarah Panken, Annie Murphy, Marci Scott

The Foundation Review

The mission of the Michigan Fitness Foundation is to encourage and facilitate active lifestyles and healthy food choices through education, environmental awareness, community participation, and policy leadership. The article shares how a three-year engagement with the Equitable Evaluation Initiative led the foundation to see its grantmaking, programming, and evaluation practices anew through an equity lens.

Through naming and noticing the ways in which traditional grantmaking has contributed to the inequities that philanthropy seeks to address, the foundation was able to change its own way of working — specifically by going beyond the standard written grant proposal to actually sit with …

A Team's Journey Toward More Equitable Philanthropic Research And Evaluation Practices, Kimberly A. Spring, Maria Fernanda Mata, Jeffrey Poirier, Allison Holmes, Amir François

The Foundation Review

This article describes the journey of the Research and Evaluation team at the Annie E. Casey Foundation to develop an approach that would allow us to rethink and deepen how we, as funders of research and evaluation, center equity in our practice.

In particular, we explain how, through this process, we began to focus on what it means to orient research and evaluation toward participant owners and came to examine the assumptions, expectations, habits, and values that we held. These experiences have presented us with opportunities to learn and be open to new ways of engaging in our work.

We …

In Conversation: Two Community Foundations In Dialogue About Their Equitable Evaluation Framework™ Practice, Madeline Brandt, Kelly Casey, Jean-Marie Callan, Joel Hicks-Rivera, Kim Leonard, Madeline Nguyen, Elena Tamanas Ragusa, Cierra Stancil, Kimberlee Salmond, Becky Seel, Kate Szczerbacki

The Foundation Review

This conversation between staff at the Oregon Community Foundation and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving shares how we are infusing the Equitable Evaluation Framework™ into our practice as we aim to be less extractive, shift power, and honor all ways of knowing and being as valid. In sharing this conversation, we want to pull the curtain back and offer a behind-the-scenes view into the conversations, realities, and challenges involved in doing this kind of work.

We sat down together for 90 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, and the following is a rough transcript of our time together. The intention …

The Factors Contributing To The Resilience Of Thailand's Social Welfare Nonprofit Organizations Since The Onset Of The Country's Prolonged Political Crisis In 2005, Narttana Sakolvittayanon

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2005, nonprofit organizations in Thailand, a transitive country, have experienced survival challenges due to social, economic, and political changes. This study aims to explore the organizational attributes of nonprofit organizations in Thailand that contribute to resilient capacity, which is an ability to survive and continue providing goods and services to fulfill missions when facing challenges. The research questions of this study are what factors have affected the resilience of social welfare nonprofit organizations in Thailand since the onset of the country’s prolonged political crisis in 2005? And to what extent do theories of nonprofit resilience in advanced liberal democracies …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting On 20 Years, Kennedy Musyoka, Emily Irungu, Margaret F. Sloan

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Tfr 15.2 Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

How Foundations In An Aligned-Action Network Start To Move To Equity In Philanthropy: Findings From A Year Of Observations And Interviews, Jamie Levine Daniel, Tuyen K. Dinh, Laurie Paarlberg

The Foundation Review

Community foundations across the United States hold a powerful role in leading meaningful social change toward an equitable future. Despite their unique leadership role at the intersection of place, race, wealth, and inequality, we understand little about how these foundations understand and implement efforts that are responsive to issues in their communities, especially those that have been historically marginalized. This article examines how community foundations within an aligned-action network are engaging in philanthropic efforts through their shared commitment to advancing social and economic mobility. Using data from interviews with foundation staff, network meeting observations, and network documents over the course …

From Philanthropoid To Foundation Professional: Reflecting On A Century Of Staff Role Development In U.S. Private Foundations, Michele Fugiel Gartner, Tobias Jung, Alina Baluch

The Foundation Review

Scholarship on foundations has tended to focus on the organizational level or their societal roles. Less attention has been given to foundations’ internal dynamics. Thus, how the roles of foundation staff have developed and evolved has been largely overshadowed. To better understand this development, this article focuses on the individual professional. After a review of a century of research on foundation staff roles, this article maps and synthesizes four research periods highlighting the impact of philanthropic events on role evolution, demonstrating a movement from amateur traditions to emerging professional influences. Then, it critically reflects on the literature, particularly its U.S.-centricity …

Exploring Flexibility In Philanthropic Funding For Place-Based Efforts To Improve Community Health: Reflections On A New York State Multisite Initiative, Beth C. Weitzman, Courtney Abrams, Bronwyn Starr, Irfan Hasan, Amy Shire, Brian Elbel, Carolyn Berry

The Foundation Review

Place-based efforts represent a key approach for philanthropies committed to addressing social determinants of health. This article shares insights and reflections from an experience funding and evaluating the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, a $22 million, six-year, place-based effort by two grantmaking foundations in nine geographically and demographically diverse communities across New York state. The initiative aimed to facilitate healthy living by fostering environmental and policy changes to enhance access to nourishing, affordable food and effective spaces for physical activity. Strategies to attain the goals were identified by actors most familiar with local community conditions. The funders provided substantial technical assistance, opportunities …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Systems-Change Philanthropy: It’S Essential, And It’S Our Responsibility, Emily Bhandari, Alison Mohr Boleware, Octavio N. Martinez Jr.

The Foundation Review

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health’s mission is to transform how communities promote mental health in everyday life. Policy engagement — fundamental to improving the social and structural determinants of mental health — has always been a strategic priority for the foundation, which has become a trusted resource for mental health and substance use policy issues in Texas. Yet, the state’s mental health and substance use policy community is limited in size, capacity, and training.

To address that reality, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Policy Academy and Policy Fellow Initiative was launched to invest in a mental health policy …

Community Building As A Philosophy, Not An Initiative, Anne C. Kubisch, Kasi Allen, Max Gimbel

The Foundation Review

What happens when a foundation invests in community building for the long haul? The Ford Family Foundation, a rural embedded funder in southern Oregon, has made that transition over the past decade. The result is a transformed organization with a 10-year strategic plan focused on helping rural communities build the futures that they want to see — places where children and families can thrive.

The foundation is pursuing community building not as a stand-alone strategy or “initiative,” but as a philosophy that guides local community development efforts based on capacity building and grantmaking based on partnerships. The shift to a …