Public Affairs Commons^™

Paying For Participation: Equitable Compensation Models For Community Co-Researchers, Jamie Zimmerman, Prabhneet Girn

The Foundation Review

Community-engaged research is increasingly central to philanthropic practice, yet funders rarely provide guidance for compensating community members who participate as co-researchers. This gap is especially pronounced for youth, who often face administrative, legal, and developmental constraints that complicate what “fair pay” looks like in practice.

This article presents findings from a mixed-methods comparative case study of three youth participatory action-research projects involving 44 youth ages 16–24 across varied organizational settings. Data were collected through youth surveys, focus groups, staff interviews, financial analysis, and document review.

Findings show that each model carries distinct trade-offs related to feasibility, transparency, and administrative capacity, …

Beyond Need: Exploring Readiness To Implement Change As A Predictor Of Nonprofit Capacity-Building Success, Bridget Y. Samuel

The Foundation Review

This mixed-methods exploratory study investigates whether organizational readiness to implement change predicts capacity-building success more reliably than the level of perceived need.

Using a six-factor readiness assessment measuring clear priorities, change management resources, time investment commitment, board engagement, systems infrastructure, and cash flow, data from 10 participating organizations reveal a significant correlation between readiness scores and early capacity-building outcomes.

The findings challenge three common field assumptions: that the greatest capacity-building need should drive selection, that capacity-building works uniformly across developmental stages, and that dysfunction can be addressed through “standard” capacity-building programming.

Considering Barriers To Funding Fiscal Sponsorship: Insights From Sponsor And Project Leaders, Elliot M. Zettas, Todd L. Ely, Fredrik O. Andersson

The Foundation Review

This study explores barriers to funding fiscal sponsorship based on interviews with 68 leaders of sponsors and sponsored projects. Findings reveal that funders’ limited understanding and restrictive policies contribute to negative sentiment and reduced grant access for sponsored initiatives.

Despite fiscal sponsorship’s administrative efficiencies and mission-focused benefits, funders often perceive sponsored projects as less legitimate, misunderstand sponsor roles, and resist covering sponsor cost allocations when framed as fees. Structural complexities — such as shared EINs and geographic mismatches — further impede eligibility for funding.

This article concludes with actionable recommendations for funders and sponsors, including staff education, updated grant guidelines, …

Moving Beyond Words To Action: A Practitioner’S Playbook For Achieving Collaboration Success, Tessa Lesage, Jonathan L. Romine, Jane Wei Skillern

The Foundation Review

This article argues that foundations must shift from acting as grantmakers alone to becoming active stewards of cross-sector collaborative networks.

Drawing from more than two decades of field experience and research each, the authors outline a framework for moving from collaborative rhetoric to action, identifying four essential and interconnected actions: fueling trust, elevating purpose, nurturing networks, and strengthening stewardship.

Through case examples, the article illustrates how authentic, trust-based relationships, shared goals, and relational network leadership can drive scalable, sustainable impact.

The article offers both a compelling critique of traditional philanthropic approaches and a strategic road map for how foundations can …

The Ai Contributor: A New Thought Partner In Systems Change, Jewlya Lynn, Rachel Reichenbach

The Foundation Review

Many foundations are making long-term commitments to advancing systemic change, continually adapting and refining their approaches along the way. An emerging and often underutilized tool in their systems change toolkit is generative artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is enhancing practices across philanthropy, often focused on increasing efficiencies and scaling or streamlining human tasks. What if we instead focus on what AI can do that is distinctly different from what a human can offer? In the world of systemic change, we continue to struggle with the complexity and intractability of systems and finding moments when systems can be shifted. AI can be …

Archetypes Of Ai Adoption: A Snapshot In Time Of Philanthropic Practice, Grace Lyn Higdon, Linda Raftree

The Foundation Review

The authors identified four archetypes describing philanthropic funders’ approach to AI: The Curious, The Doers, The Dreamers, The Skeptics.

The authors did not find major differences found across foundations based on their geographic location, though there were differences found based on their mission and values. Feminist and social justice funders in the Global South demonstrated more skepticism than others.

Even in seemingly benign or straightforward applications, AI systems demonstrate unpredictable behavior, leading to most foundations proceeding with caution.

The rapid pace of AI has meant that formal AI policies are rare, though foundations align on some common “red lines” that …

Philanthropy As Risk Capital: Shaping Trust And Learning At The Speed Of Ai, Nina Sabarre, Clara Bennett, Laura Chavez-Varela

The Foundation Review

As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes society, philanthropy is increasingly called to act as "risk capital" for the public good. But risk alone is not enough. Without rigorous, field-wide learning, philanthropy's bold bets may remain isolated and short-sighted, failing to catalyze the systemic change this moment demands.

This article draws on three sources of learning at Omidyar Network—an evaluation of The Tech We Want initiative, external strategy consultations with 29 stakeholders, and early learnings from a generative AI portfolio—to identify how philanthropy can uniquely "de-risk" AI innovation for collective benefit.

Through trust-based partnerships, ecosystem infrastructure support, and narrative change, these learning …

Funder Listening To Shift Power: Definitions And Context, Melinda Tuan, Rick Moyers, Gita Gulati-Partee

The Foundation Review

Listening in the context of philanthropy is a common colloquial term that can have many definitions, ranging from everyday conversations that inform foundation work to more formal opportunities for community engagement. Most foundations say they listen, but all forms of listening are not equally beneficial, and listening alone does not inherently advance equity. Listening, done poorly, can be performative and extractive. Listening well, in ways that advance equity, is done in partnership, requires a response from the listener to acknowledge what’s been heard and what will be done as a result, and ultimately shifts power to the community.

Fund for …

Evaluating Efforts To Shift Power Through Listening: Defining Power And Listening To All Sides, Sarah Stachowiak, Juan Clavijo

The Foundation Review

There are a variety of ways funders and nonprofits are trying to shift the power dynamics between those who typically have held it (i.e., funders and organizations) to those who have unique and important expertise: those most affected by the problems the social sector is trying to solve.

In this article, we share lessons from two evaluations that sought to understand how those who were being listened to experienced the listening process, exploring the degree to which people felt heard and their experiences of how, and in what ways, power shifted for them. One evaluation focused on the experiences of …

Forest For The Trees: Collective Accountability And Trust As Groundwork For Systems Change, Shaady Salehi, Pia Infante

The Foundation Review

Since 2020, trust-based philanthropy has gained momentum as a strategy to alleviate inherent power imbalances between funders, nonprofits, and the communities they serve. The cornerstone of the approach is a set of grantmaking practices, such as multiyear unrestricted funding and streamlined paperwork, that support nonprofit self-determination toward achieving impact goals.

At a deeper level, trust-based philanthropy is driven by core values that position funders as collaborators and supporters working alongside nonprofits to advance a more just and equitable society. This requires a radically different stance on accountability from conventional philanthropic norms. Rather than reinforcing a sense of one-way transactional accountability, …

The Weight Of Power: Reframing Evaluation In Philanthropy To Amplify The Voices Of Communities Of Color, Martena Reed, Blanca Flor Guillen-Woods, Kantahyanee W. Murray, Dabney Brice, Ashley Barnes, Liza Mueller

The Foundation Review

Philanthropy’s current structure and practices perpetuate a relationship with nonprofits led by people of color that can keep foundations removed from the work and keep these nonprofits fighting to stay effective and sustainable. When equitable and responsive strategies to support grant partners are implemented, however, relationships and power begin to shift.

This article explores the complexities of philanthropy’s relationship with POC-led nonprofit and grassroots organizations as mediated by evaluation and reporting practices. By critically analyzing these practices and power dynamics within philanthropy, it aims to uncover the root causes of disparities and establish a basis for creating pathways toward greater …

Goal-Free Evaluation: An Orientation For Foundations’ Evaluations – Updated 2024, Brandon W. Youker, Allyssa Ballard

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2014, has been revised for The Foundation Review with substantive additions, new examples, and minor updates.

Goal-free evaluation is a model in which official or stated program goals and objectives are unknown by the evaluator, serving as a counter to assessing impact solely according to goal achievement. Foundation-supported program evaluation, however, has historically focused on goal attainment as intuitively and inextricably linked to evaluation.

This focus has persisted despite the fact that goal-free product evaluations have been a norm for more than 75 years. Yet persuading funders to consider …

Raising The Bar — Integrating Cultural Competence And Equity: Equitable Evaluation – With 2024 Prologue, Jara Dean-Coffey, Jill Casey, Leon D. Caldwell

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2014, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

Whether implicit or explicit, social justice and human rights are part of the mission of many philanthropies. Evaluation produced, sponsored, or consumed by these philanthropies that doesn’t pay attention to the imperatives of cultural competency may be inconsistent with their missions.

The American Evaluation Association’s Statement on Cultural Competence provides those who produce, sponsor, and use evaluation an opportunity to examine and align their practices and policies within a context of racial and cultural equity and inclusion. The …

Internal Culture, External Impact: How A Changemaking Culture Positions Foundations To Achieve Transformational Change – With 2024 Prologue, Amy Celep, Sara Brenner, Rachel Mosher-Williams

The Foundation Review

Editor’s Note: This article, first published in print and online in 2016, has been republished by The Foundation Review with minor updates.

This article argues that a foundation’s internal culture is critical to achieving large-scale social change, but that efforts to build a changemaking culture too often are left out of strategy conversations.

While there is no one culture that suits every foundation, a particular set of characteristics must be present in those that seek largescale social change: a focus on outcomes, transparency, authenticity, collaboration, racial equity and inclusion, continuous learning, and openness to risk.

This article offers insights into …

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 …

Philanthropy’S Uneasy Journey Into Mental Health Grantmaking, Mallet R. Reid, Robert J. (Bob) Reid, Ximena Murillo, Anna Bobb

The Foundation Review

The increasing prevalence of mental illness and addiction in the United States has drawn considerable attention from grantmakers, which could catalyze the development and delivery of innovative approaches to these complex and difficult-to-treat behavioral health disorders. Relatively little is known, however, of the perspectives of these funders on how best to undertake this work.

To assist foundations in meaningful engagement with the field of behavioral health, this article shares the responses of 17 highly experienced behavioral health grantmakers to two research questions: What are the experiences of foundations that have funded behavioral health initiatives? What issues should be considered by …

Why Foundations? The Theory And Strategy Of The General-Purpose Foundation, Samsher (Sam) Singh Gill

The Foundation Review

As foundations increasingly grapple with the penetration of socioeconomic dissension into every facet of our country’s public culture, it has become difficult to evade the moral salience of whether philanthropic wealth aggregation and allocation reflect or even entrench the structures of material accumulation many now see at the root of declining support for liberalism across advanced economies.

This essay argues that contrary to growing internal and external anxieties about the role and legitimacy of general-purpose foundations in the United States, there is a sound theoretical expression of them as an essential institution in a liberal democracy. The core principle of …

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 …

Widening The Aperture: A Case Study Of Widening The Definition Of Evidence For Strategy, Jennifer James, Sandra Hilliard

The Foundation Review

The need to “widen the aperture” to consider different types and sources of evidence is paramount to sharpening grantmaking strategies that are in service of those we seek to serve. This article describes an underlying process of identifying and applying equity considerations in the evidence considered for strategy development in the context of a large, national foundation.

The aim was to develop a “common evidence base” — the core of which was a database library — and what was understood from the evidence was synthesized to bring together what was currently known, the edges of the foundation’s understanding, and emerging …

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 …

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 …

Evaluating Evaluation Policy In The X Foundation, Peter Dahler-Larsen

The Foundation Review

Evaluation policies, which are becoming increasingly important for philanthropic foundations, communicate internally and externally about how evaluations are planned, designed, and managed. An evaluation policy also prescribes how the use of evaluation systematically reflects the mission and role of a foundation. Not much is known, however, about how evaluation policies are developed and changed in practice. Few, if any, foundations have published an evaluation of their evaluation policy. This article, written by an external evaluator, describes how an evaluation policy was developed at a Danish grantmaker committed to supporting innovative methods in human services. Using this foundation as an example, …

A Promising Place-Based Collaborative Impact Investing Fund Strengthens Community And Informs Philanthropic Practice, Benjamin Kerman, Clara Miller

The Foundation Review

A recent evaluation of the Western New York Impact Investment Fund adds to the proof-of-concept literature regarding “doing good and doing well” while pointing to experience-based best practices in philanthropic impact investing. Born of a collaboration between regional and national philanthropies, the fund brings together corporate, individual, and philanthropic investors to deliver an inclusive impact investment mechanism. Founded in 2017, the fund evolved from concept to operating entity, focusing on mitigating capital gaps, longterm economic decline, and wealth divides.

Evaluation at Year 5 describes how the professionally managed, collaboratively governed fund has attracted and deployed capital, contributing to ecosystem improvements …

Out Of Crisis, Learnings Shape Future Grantmaking, Stacie S. Cherner

The Foundation Review

Like other philanthropic organizations during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jim Joseph Foundation took steps to loosen grant requirements, support CEOs and leadership teams, and provide funding for emergencies and innovations.

The foundation, which strives to bring consistent expertise with evaluation and research in untroubled times and whose mission is to foster effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews, has a unique perspective when reflecting on learning. So another area that required flexibility was in the re-examination of learning plans to take advantage of the “forced experimentation” imposed by the pandemic lockdown.

In March 2020, the foundation …

Youth And The Juvenile Court System: A Community Foundation’S Commitment To Integrating Voice And Community Expertise, Michael A. Yonas, Jennifer C. Sloan, Anna Hollis, Tiffany Sizemore, Kathi Elliott, Michelle Mcmurray, Jeanne Pearlman

The Foundation Review

The staggeringly disproportionate numbers of youth of color in the juvenile court system in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, compelled the Pittsburgh Foundation to launch the Youth Voices Juvenile Justice Pilot project. The initiative sought to learn from youth who have firsthand knowledge of the juvenile court system and from those at risk of such an experience in order to inform the foundation’s efforts to improve outcomes for youth.

This article outlines the foundation’s process for engaging youth and stakeholders in a meaningful way to improve its grantmaking and to better support systems change that leads to reducing youth court involvement through …

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 …

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 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 …

Sustainable Development Goals: Exploring A Foundation’S Contribution Through Text Analysis, Filippo Candela, Marco Demarie, Paolo Mulassano

The Foundation Review

Compagnia di San Paolo, an Italian grantmaking foundation, conducted a text analysis using a set of keywords extracted from grantees’ project descriptions to measure how successfully its work aligned with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and to identify interrelationships among the goals themselves.

This article describes the foundation’s research methods and shares the results of its analysis, which found significant contributions to the goals in a number of areas funded by the Compagnia and less alignment in others. The analysis is particularly noteworthy in its identification of an unintentional pattern of convergence between the foundation’s activities and the …

Making Health Equity Real: Implementing A Commitment To Engage The Community Through Fellowships, Saphira M. Baker, Mark D. Constantine

The Foundation Review

Between 2016 and 2019, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation jumpstarted its transformation from a health legacy foundation committed to increasing access to health care to one promoting regional health equity through a racial and ethnic lens. A central component of this new focus was the trustees’ decision to invite community members to inform and advance the health equity strategy through two distinct community fellowship programs — the Equity + Health Fellowships. These programs ultimately provided the foundation with a new language, benchmarks, and structure for welcoming broader community engagement.

This article highlights the outcomes of both programs, how the experience with …