Comments on: How to Best Support Grantees http://www.tacticalphilanthropy.com/2010/04/how-to-best-support-grantees Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:42:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sushma Raman http://www.tacticalphilanthropy.com/2010/04/how-to-best-support-grantees/comment-page-1#comment-8843 Sushma Raman Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:12:07 +0000 http://tacticalphilanthropy.com/2010/04/how-to-best-support-grantees#comment-8843 Thanks, Kris for your response. Given that the majority of U.S. Foundations are not staffed, not all foundations view their role in this light. (individual foundations have differing views on support beyond the grant based upon their own missions and structure.) Many nonprofit organizations appreciate the leveraging of connections but don't always find assistance that is more directive, to be terribly useful, given the power imbalance between funder and grantee. Thanks, Kris for your response. Given that the majority of U.S. Foundations are not staffed, not all foundations view their role in this light. (individual foundations have differing views on support beyond the grant based upon their own missions and structure.)

Many nonprofit organizations appreciate the leveraging of connections but don’t always find assistance that is more directive, to be terribly useful, given the power imbalance between funder and grantee.

]]> By: Kris Putnam-Walkerly http://www.tacticalphilanthropy.com/2010/04/how-to-best-support-grantees/comment-page-1#comment-8839 Kris Putnam-Walkerly Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:18:33 +0000 http://tacticalphilanthropy.com/2010/04/how-to-best-support-grantees#comment-8839 Sushma, Thanks for your post. It saddens me to think that a nonprofit's "exemplary" experience with a funder would include "paperwork that is appropriate for the amount and type of support; foundation understanding of and empathy for our mission and strategy; directives that are appropriate for our organization’s size; and foundations themselves demonstrating the values they expect within nonprofits." That to me seems like the very least a nonprofit should expect from a funder. I would hope that "exemplary" means that the foundation has helped the nonprofit improve its organizational capacity, made introductions to influential leaders, identified other funders that the nonprofit could contact for support, identified opportunities that the nonprofit had previously been unaware of, shared best practices and models that the nonprofit could consider adapting, or otherwise used its knowledge, contacts, and access to help the nonprofit advance its mission. I agree that there are many fabulous resources in the field to help grantmakers best support the nonprofit sector. We are lucky to have organizations like Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and thoughtful leaders such as yourself leading regional associations of grantmakers. --Kris Putnam-Walkerly Putnam Community Investment Consulting Sushma,
Thanks for your post. It saddens me to think that a nonprofit’s “exemplary” experience with a funder would include “paperwork that is appropriate for the amount and type of support; foundation understanding of and empathy for our mission and strategy; directives that are appropriate for our organization’s size; and foundations themselves demonstrating the values they expect within nonprofits.” That to me seems like the very least a nonprofit should expect from a funder.

I would hope that “exemplary” means that the foundation has helped the nonprofit improve its organizational capacity, made introductions to influential leaders, identified other funders that the nonprofit could contact for support, identified opportunities that the nonprofit had previously been unaware of, shared best practices and models that the nonprofit could consider adapting, or otherwise used its knowledge, contacts, and access to help the nonprofit advance its mission. I agree that there are many fabulous resources in the field to help grantmakers best support the nonprofit sector. We are lucky to have organizations like Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and thoughtful leaders such as yourself leading regional associations of grantmakers.

–Kris Putnam-Walkerly
Putnam Community Investment Consulting

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