Grantmaking Strategy & Tools

GEO's new national field survey of grantmaking practice (conducted by research partner TCC Group) examines the connection between listening to and learning with grantees and improving practices to achieve better results. In light of the global economic downturn, this survey also highlights some of the key shifts in grantmaking since 2008 and what they mean for supporting nonprofit resilience.

When foundations make a commitment to getting consistent feedback from their grantees that is candid and comparative, they can make substantive changes that result in different—and better—grantee experiences. Foundations that use the Grantee Perception Report (GPR) more than once are making changes that are benefiting the organizations they fund. In addition to describing the data, the report identifies four keys to driving change as a result of the GPR, based on CEP’s experience delivering results to some 200 foundations.

Three foundations — the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, the Energy Foundation, and the Wilburforce Foundation — seek to make an impact on some of the most complicated challenges we face: civil rights, renewable energy sources, and wildlife protection. This case study provides an in-depth look at how these foundations cultivate an understanding of their fields and then turn that understanding into more effective grantmaking.

The nation's foundation community has provided critical financial and technical support to states applying for the first round of the U.S. Department of Education's "Race to the Top" education reform competition. Yet according to this issue brief from the Foundation Center, created from interviews conducted in March and April 2010 with foundation staff, education consultants, and government leaders who had guided the first-round application process in nine states, the success of future collaborations will depend on government including grantmakers in the development of new policies and...