Blog Posts: Foundation Grant Making


How to Know You Made a Difference: Grant Impact Reports

Posted July 9, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

Is my giving really making a difference? That is a question that haunts every giver. Every day individuals and foundations make decisions about where to give. Over a million active U.S. charities provide endless opportunities to support big visions and passionate leaders. The difficult task for those of us screening opportunities is how to know who is really making a difference. The task should be easy. Charities should be measuring their performance and reporting the results. All of us who issue grants at foundations should have no more difficult a task than reading grant impact reports from previous gifts. But it’s not that simple. The quality and clarity of grant reporting is all over the map. So what do you do to raise the bar for grantee reports? Go to the rest of my post on the new Association of Small Foundations blog to find out and discuss.

Tags: Foundation Grant Making, Grant Impact Reports

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How do Family Foundations make giving decisions?

Posted January 5, 2012 by Al Mueller 0 comments

Are foundations making good grants?  I see positive trends to applaud and emulate in the latest Money for Good II study that surveyed foundation giving decisions.  If you want to find out how many hours of research foundations are doing before issuing grants and how much their findings affect new gifts, check out my recent post about Positive Trends in Foundation Grant-making at the Council on Foundations RE:Philanthropy blog.

Tags: Charity Evaluation, Due Diligence, Foundation Grant Making, Strategic Giving

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