Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers and Foundation Center Form Strategic Alliance
Nationwide Partnership Will Expand Access to Data on Philanthropy, Improve Foundation Effectiveness
New York, NY — October 6, 2014. Washington, DC-based Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers and New York-based Foundation Center have announced a new partnership to improve the quality and effectiveness of grantmaking through the strategic collection and sharing of data on philanthropy. The Forum is a national network of 34 geographically organized philanthropic associations that together have a membership of more than 5,500 participating organizations, making it the largest network in American philanthropy. Foundation Center is an independent nonprofit that is known as the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide.
"The philanthropic sector talks increasingly about such things as field alignment, strategic collaboration, and leveraging core competencies," said Bradford K. Smith, president of Foundation Center. "This partnership is a golden opportunity to put those principles into action."
The Forum's mission is to leverage the collective knowledge of its association members so that each can be the highest quality provider of philanthropic support services in their regions, while a Foundation Center priority is to empower donors with the knowledge tools they need to be strategic. The partnership will tap the unique strengths of each organization in order to achieve shared goals.
"The Forum Network has both deep regional roots and a broad national reach, and our regional associations' members are key to strengthening connections and knowledge sharing across the giving sector. However, at present, only a handful of our associations has access to up-to-date grantmaking data on their membership, and none have sophisticated online tools that allow the data to be queried and explored in real time," said Michael Litz, president and CEO of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. "Opening these new resources to the Forum Network will be a game-changer for those striving to be more strategic and impactful in their philanthropy."
The partnership will entail establishing platforms and systems for collecting data contributed by Forum members and translating it into knowledge services that will benefit not only the Forum membership, but the broader philanthropic sector. Specific plans include the following:
Philanthropy Data: To support a vibrant and effective philanthropic sector, the partnership will launch a "donor data campaign" to encourage members of regional associations to centralize and standardize giving data at Foundation Center. This current data will be accessible to all members through an interactive mapping platform helping to inform funding decisions and track trends in each region.
Philanthropy Research: Templates for research reports will be created so that information about regional giving can be more easily and efficiently published and shared, providing regionally focused funders with critical information about funding patterns in their communities.
Philanthropy Tools: Data visualization, benchmarking, and knowledge management tools will provide regional associations with continuous access to comprehensive data on the work of their member foundations and empower users to draw actionable conclusions from the information.
In recent years, Foundation Center and individual Forum member associations have partnered on a wide variety of projects, including more than 40 research reports and fact sheets, and Forum members have participated in Foundation Center's Funding Information Network. This partnership is a natural evolution of those preceding collaborations, all of which have in common the goal of spreading knowledge to strengthen philanthropy and the good it can achieve. The national scope of the partnership, however, will introduce efficiencies and broaden its impact.
"Recent advances in information technology have put us in a position to collect and share knowledge far more efficiently than ever before," said Lisa Philp, vice president for strategic philanthropy at Foundation Center. "When this system for data gathering, sharing, and visualization is applied across an entire network of grantmakers, the opportunities for donors to collaborate and achieve their visions of a better world will multiply exponentially."
###
Share on Twitter: Strategic alliance btwn @givingforum and @fdncenter will improve quality and effectiveness of grantmaking. bit.ly/FCforum14
About Foundation Center Established in 1956, Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. Foundation Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit Foundation Center's website each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of more than 470 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundations, and educational institutions nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.orgor call (212) 620-4230.
About the Forum of Regional Association of Grantmakers Established in 1998, the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers is a national philanthropic leader and network of 34 regional associations of grantmakers with a combined membership of more than 5,500 participating organizations. The Forum facilitates effective philanthropy by fueling connections and knowledge sharing across the giving sector, delivering efficiencies and cost savings for our 34 member associations, and providing tools and resources to advance policy change. For more information, please visit givingforum.orgor call (888) 391-3235.
Art collector Aby Rosen shared happy news at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) on October 16. Executive director Lisa Robb was now a grandmother. “Her daughter had a child," Rosen, NYSCA's volunteer chairman, announced at the agency's Flatiron district office. “So we're wishing her all good things in life."
To be with her daughter and daughter's newborn, Robb took a week off. She missed one of the council's five public meetings last year and arguably the most important, when it reviewed most of the grant recommendations. Robb missed the equivalent meeting in 2013, with a case of the flu. She didn't participate in either one by telephone.
“I don't feel that attending to my health and my first-born grandchild means that I don't have a deep commitment to the agency," said Robb, who was appointed to the $110,000-a-year position three years ago, in an interview.
The absences were unusual for an executive director of the New York State Council on the Arts, which the state legislature created in 1960 at the behest of Governor Nelson Rockefeller to preserve and expand cultural activities through grants. NYSCA was the first state arts council in the country and inspired the 1965 creation of the National Endowment for the Arts, Richard Norton Smith wrote in his Nelson Rockefeller biography, On His Own Terms. Like Rosen, Rockefeller and the first NYSCA chairman, Buffalo banker Seymour Knox, were avid art collectors.
Rosen said he's seeking to elevate the storied agency, which in recent years has had a rough stretch. Millions of dollars in grants—which generally subsidize operating costs of nonprofit arts organizations—were delayed as NYSCA struggled to adapt to new statewide accounting and contracting systems. Some cultural organizations that depend on NYSCA resorted to bridge loans and laying off and furloughing staff to stay afloat.
Rosen, whom Governor Andrew Cuomo nominated for the position in 2011, described himself in a telephone interview as a friend of the governor who advocates on NYSCA's behalf. Some arts leaders credit Rosen and Robb with helping to stabilize its budget after dramatic cuts following the financial crisis of 2009. Others lament that the developer, a mainstay in the press for his battles with preservationists and his annual dinner at Art Basel in Miami Beach, hasn't been enough of a public advocate for the arts and arts funding.
“We read more about him as a personality than in terms of his leadership of the state arts council," said Ted Berger, former executive director of the New York Foundation for the Arts, which provides grants and other resources to artists. “The arts community is in a major crisis, where leadership is desperately needed, particularly leadership in the public sector."
“I work for a lot of different museums," said Rosen, a Frankfurt native who's a trustee of the New Museum. “I raise a lot of different money. Could I do more public? Probably. The more I do public the better it is and the more it turns people on and they want to participate."
The agency flourished most under the actress Kitty Carlisle Hart, who appeared in films with the Marx Brothers and Bing Crosby and on the television game show To Tell the Truth. As chairman from 1976 to early 1996, she was a regular presence at the agency and visited ribbon cuttings statewide and legislators in Albany. “They all loved meeting with her, so she could always get a hearing," said Beverly D'Anne, a former ballet dancer who ran NYSCA's dance program from 1980 to the summer of 2011.
NYSCA's budget peaked at nearly $60 million in the 1989–90 fiscal year, equivalent to about $114 million in today's dollars. (The current appropriation is about $42 million, which includes agency expenses and up to $5 million for projects that promote tourism and economic development.) Hart boasted in her 1988 autobiography that after a flight to Albany with Donna Shalala, then president of the University of Wisconsin, Shalala warned a friend against flying with Hart. Otherwise, one disembarks with a long list of favors one's obligated to do for the council.
It has operated akin to an independent foundation. Staffers review applications and rely on comments from panels of experts in specific disciplines. They also informally advise nonprofits. Grants, generally $2,500 to $130,000 each, are awarded in such fields as arts education, dance, folk arts, museums and theater. They confer a seal of approval. “If you're not getting NYSCA money, another funder may wonder why not," said Linda Shelton, the executive director of the Joyce Theater, who interned at the council in the early 1980s.
NYSCA is particularly vital for small, community-based organizations, according to Andrea Louie, executive director of the Asian American Arts Alliance and a NYSCA panelist in literature. More than half of the state's arts groups have budgets under $250,000, according to the nonprofit Cultural Data Project. But most U.S. arts funding from foundations support organizations with budgets of $5 million or more, according to a 2011 study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Small organizations are less likely to have development staffs and connections with wealthy donors.
Applicants of all sizes have seen their awards shrink. The Soho-based Drawing Center got $39,000 this year, down from $86,000 in 2000. Art in General, which provides exhibition space and funding for artists, received $33,644, from $58,400 in 2000. And well before Rosen's arrival, the agency had shed some of its character. Specialized program directors were forced to become generalists. They could no longer hire local independent consultants or reviewers around the state to see artworks and then file written reports. Staff trips to meet with organizations and to see exhibitions and performances were suspended. “It's hard to kick the tires remotely," said Anne Van Ingen, NYSCA's director of the architecture, planning and design program and capital projects, from 1986 to 2010. “It's very difficult to judge quality in a visual art and be helpful from afar."
Rosen, who contributed $53,000 to Andrew Cuomo's gubernatorial campaign in 2013, cut operating expenses by consolidating NYSCA staff on a single floor in new offices on Park Avenue South. He displayed bright Warhol prints on the walls and introduced the type of open-seating configuration that is common on trading floors. “There's no private this, and private that," Rosen said. “We made it far more of a transparent, more of a modernistic environment, in order to really represent the arts." Some staffers have another point of view; they have deemed it poorly suited for their frequent phone meetings and they have missed the quiet when writing reports and grant summaries. (After an initial phone interview in December, Rosen didn't make himself available for follow-up questions.)
ROBB ARRIVED IN October 2011. For 11 years, she had run the Pelham Art Center, a Westchester, New York, art education charity. Its $500,000 budget is about 12 percent of NYSCA's budget for administration. NYSCA's annual calendar—or lack thereof—became a bone of contention internally. Staffers requested Robb issue annual calendars that included deadlines and dates for council and staff meetings, to help them manage their time and communicate to applicants, a person familiar with the staff said.
“I'm surprised that staff would take time to talk about [this] when there's so much good stuff to talk about with NYSCA," Robb said in the interview. “Have we had a calendar that we could issue in January that we could stick with? For the last—probably—years: no. It has been very difficult to stick with a calendar. That doesn't mean we didn't have one."
From 2011 to 2013, all of NYSCA's contracts—which precede grants—were late, according to public reports by the office of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Thus, they were approved after their start or renewal dates. (However, in 2013, 87 percent of all state agency contracts were late.) “Lay it all on my desk because I don't want to lay it back on the staff," Robb said, noting the difficulty of adapting to new reporting and application requirements. “We ran late and I certainly regret this tremendously."
During the crisis, Virginia Lupi, then head of the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes in Corning, New York, repeatedly e-mailed Rosen for information. She also urged local upstate groups to reach out. “We were writing to him and hearing nothing," she said. “The entire situation was very frustrating."
Rosen insists that he and staffers of “the NYSCA," as he calls it, were responsive during the rocky rollout of new procedures. “People want ‘now, now, now,'" he said. “Yes, we called everyone back. We said, ‘You know what? It takes time. Relax. Things are happening.'" After years of shifting application deadlines and money paid successively later, NYSCA now appears to have reversed the trend. “This year, we've received our grants earlier than we've ever gotten them," said Joel Reed, executive director of Saratoga Arts, which distributes more than $80,000 in grants to artists and arts organizations. Petra Maxwell, NYSCA's deputy executive director of agency operations, a Harvard Law School-trained lawyer who worked in the governor's executive chamber, is credited with helping to turn things around. (Maxwell didn't return calls.)
"We're not encountering the same problems," said Robb. “We're so happy about that. It's a real accomplishment."
At the October 16 NYSCA public meeting, Rosen announced that staff would resume "site visits" to more than 300 cultural organizations around the state in coming years. The council—which includes philanthropist Agnes Gund and Amy Cappellazzo, the former chairman of Christie's contemporary department—has also discussed taking a field trip to museums in Queens. Jonathan Sheffer, a composer and conductor who was appointed to the council in 2011, said Rosen is a passionate chairman, albeit one with a demanding day job. “When he's engaged, he's extremely engaged," Sheffer said in an interview. “He has been very open and encouraging in conversation. I feel we are forward-looking in figuring out what our next move can be."
While Rosen won't be emulating Kitty Carlisle Hart, he said he's intent on raising NYSCA's profile. “I'm not going to all the performances that we're doing and bringing the press along," Rosen said. “There are better ways to do it. There's social media. There are web pages. There is a lot of innovative technology we can use today to put out the good word."
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION GRANTS $750,000 TO GIBNEY DANCE IN SUPPORT OF DANCE IN PROCESS RESIDENCY PROGRAM
RESIDENCIES COMBINE THE RESOURCES OF GIBNEY DANCE’S CHOREOGRAPHIC CENTER AT 890 BROADWAY AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER AT 280 BROADWAY IN THE SERVICE OF DEVELOPING NEW WORK BY MID-CAREER ARTISTS
New York, NY, September 22, 2014—Gibney Dance today announces a $750,000 gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of its Dance in Process (DiP) creative residency program for mid-career artists. As the inaugural funder of the program, Mellon’s support enables significant expansion of the DiP model—which was developed over a two-year pilot period—to fund 30 three-week residencies for 30 artists over three years at the Gibney Dance Choreographic Center at 890 Broadway.
Gibney Dance’s DiP program is a comprehensive New York City-based creative residency for mid-career artists who are in the “mid-stage” of developing new work. The program focuses on work that has progressed beyond initial research; developing work that requires technical support in a theater or production laboratory setting; and work that requires uninterrupted space and support in which to test new ideas and directions. DiP provides a concentrated period of residency time with continuous access to studio and rehearsal space, a significant stipend, and technical and administrative resources available at both 890 Broadway and the Gibney Dance Performing Arts Center at 280 Broadway.
The DiP program is based in the historic 890 Broadway building where Gibney Dance has, over the last three years, established subsidized rehearsal space and an array of artist services for the dance community. This generous investment by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation enables Gibney Dance to deepen its support to artists and establish 890 as a Choreographic Center—the only one of its kind in New York City.
The expansion of DiP is a component of Gibney Dance's $10M Campaign for 280 Broadway: Making Space for Culture, which will fund renovations within 280 Broadway as well as new and expanded artistic and community programs. The newly transformed 280 Broadway will be a multi-purpose center—a preeminent training ground, a tripartite performance complex, an affordable workspace hub, and a springboard for social action. These new resources will allow Gibney Dance to both expand and deepen its existing programs. Artists will benefit from interactions between Gibney Dance’s initiatives for performance, dance training, professional development, rehearsal space, creative residencies, and artistic process—holistically supporting their entire journey from studio to stage. The expanded opportunities and resources at 280 Broadway—including the soon-to-be-opened Learning & Leadership Studio and Community Action Hub—will enable Gibney Dance to further develop synergies between all its endeavors, contributing to the dynamism of the entire organization.
“I am so thankful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their visionary support of the DiP program,” says Gina Gibney, CEO and Artistic Director of Gibney Dance. “Support of this level will enable an unprecedented number of mid-career dance artists to create new work at our Choreographic Center at 890 Broadway while also taking advantage of the wealth of community resources available (or about to become available) at 280 Broadway.”
Gibney Dance created DiP to strategically deploy the organization’s resources so that they may have the greatest possible impact on the dance field. DiP specifically addresses some of the field’s most pressing needs and connects them with Gibney Dance’s strengths: centrally located facilities, thoughtfully designed programs, a deep understanding of dance-maker’s needs and a built-in community of artists and dance professionals.
ABOUT THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation currently makes grants in four core program areas: Higher Education and Scholarship; Scholarly Communications and Information Technology; Art History, Conservation, and Museums; and Performing Arts.
Within each of its core programs, the Foundation concentrates most of its grantmaking in a few areas. Institutions and programs receiving support are often leaders in fields of Foundation activity, but they may also be promising newcomers, or in a position to demonstrate new ways of overcoming obstacles to achieve program goals.
The Foundation’s grant-making philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities, rather than be a source for narrowly defined projects. As such, the Foundation develops thoughtful, long-term collaborations with grant recipients and invests sufficient funds for an extended period to accomplish the purpose at hand and achieve meaningful results.
Most Comprehensive Dataset About Community Foundations Just Published
New York, NY — October 20, 2014. Today at the 2014 Fall Conference for Community Foundations, an international research collaboration unveiled the "Community Foundation Atlas," the most comprehensive directory of the world's community foundation movement that has ever been published. The online platform, available at CommunityFoundationAtlas.org, maps the identities, locations, assets, roles and achievements of place-based philanthropies around the world.
Among the key findings:
The global community foundation movement is gaining momentum. Embracing an inclusive definition of "community philanthropy" field, the Atlas has identified 1,827 place-based foundations in 67 countries. While the movement began 100 years ago, the last three decades have seen explosive growth. In just the past 14 years, the number of known community foundations and community philanthropies nearly doubled, growing from approximately 1,000 in 2000 to more than 1,800 in 2014.
"Place-based philanthropy is on the rise globally in no small part because community foundations have resoundingly demonstrated to the world their ability to bring local people and resources to the table to address local needs," concludes an analysis of the data gathered from the Atlas's unprecedented survey of the global field and secondary research.
The international research effort was spearheaded by the Cleveland Foundation — the world's first community foundation — located in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. Research partners were the New York City-based Foundation Center, the Global Fund for Community Foundations (Johannesburg, South Africa), WINGS, the Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (São Paulo, Brazil), and CENTRIS, the Centre for Research and Innovation in Social Policy and Practice (Newcastle, United Kingdom). The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a private American philanthropy headquartered in Flint, Michigan, and longstanding supporter of community foundations worldwide, funded the project.
Defining characteristics: Grantmaking and accountability to local residents were almost universally reported by survey respondents as central to the mission of community foundations.
Collective impact: Combined grantmaking from community foundations in the last fiscal year totaled more than $4.9 billion worldwide.
Education the most commonly cited program area: Foundations most commonly reported extensive programmatic engagement in education, followed closely by human and social services, arts and culture, and health.
Strengthening civil society also a priority: In addition to grantmaking, nearly half of foundations surveyed actively foster collaboration between grantees or provide training and capacity-building services to local organizations.
Populations served: Almost 30 percent of respondents work at least to some extent in a neighborhood-based service area. Forty percent report having a "local" orientation, while the service area of nearly one in four includes a regional focus. A very small percentage work at a national or international level.
The Community Foundation Atlas offers a variety of entry points to further understand the reach and influence of community foundations, including:
Organization directory: This alphabetical listing is the portal to profile pages for 1,827 community foundations and community philanthropies. Visitors to the site can select individual organizations to review or filter by geographic region or country of particular interest. A built-in editing function enables foundations to easily update their profiles.
Data snapshots: A series of quick facts, deeper-dive infographics and a comprehensive, downloadable analysis present the Atlas's baseline data in accessible form. The infographics are programmed to change in real time as organizational profiles are updated.
First-person accounts: Foundations describe in their own words the "most meaningful change" brought about in recent years as a result of their support or initiative. Considered in their entirety, these unrehearsed accounts show how place-based foundations are helping to advance their communities' aspirations, large and small.
Stories of struggle and success: From the prosperous cities of Canada to the culturally rich matriarchal villages of rural India come 50 narratives chosen to convey the wide-ranging influence of the global community foundation movement. "Adding to Knowledge," "Encouraging Innovation" and "Stimulating Policy and Systems Reform" are among the highlighted arenas of endeavor.
The Atlas provides a long-needed and detailed baseline of information upon which the field can build to facilitate wider exchange of best practices and high-impact collaborations aimed at addressing tough problems that span geographical boundaries. Post-launch planning for updated content, additional research and data analysis, and enhanced functionality for the Atlas will be spearheaded by the Global Fund for Community Foundations and Foundation Center, the platform's host.
About Foundation Center Established in 1956, Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. Foundation Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit Foundation Center's website each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of more than 470 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundations, and educational institutions nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230.
Most Comprehensive Dataset About Community Foundations Just Published
New York, NY — October 20, 2014. Today at the 2014 Fall Conference for Community Foundations, an international research collaboration unveiled the "Community Foundation Atlas," the most comprehensive directory of the world's community foundation movement that has ever been published. The online platform, available at CommunityFoundationAtlas.org, maps the identities, locations, assets, roles and achievements of place-based philanthropies around the world.
Among the key findings:
The global community foundation movement is gaining momentum. Embracing an inclusive definition of "community philanthropy" field, the Atlas has identified 1,827 place-based foundations in 67 countries. While the movement began 100 years ago, the last three decades have seen explosive growth. In just the past 14 years, the number of known community foundations and community philanthropies nearly doubled, growing from approximately 1,000 in 2000 to more than 1,800 in 2014.
"Place-based philanthropy is on the rise globally in no small part because community foundations have resoundingly demonstrated to the world their ability to bring local people and resources to the table to address local needs," concludes an analysis of the data gathered from the Atlas's unprecedented survey of the global field and secondary research.
The international research effort was spearheaded by the Cleveland Foundation — the world's first community foundation — located in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. Research partners were the New York City-based Foundation Center, the Global Fund for Community Foundations (Johannesburg, South Africa), WINGS, the Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support (São Paulo, Brazil), and CENTRIS, the Centre for Research and Innovation in Social Policy and Practice (Newcastle, United Kingdom). The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a private American philanthropy headquartered in Flint, Michigan, and longstanding supporter of community foundations worldwide, funded the project.
Defining characteristics: Grantmaking and accountability to local residents were almost universally reported by survey respondents as central to the mission of community foundations.
Collective impact: Combined grantmaking from community foundations in the last fiscal year totaled more than $4.9 billion worldwide.
Education the most commonly cited program area: Foundations most commonly reported extensive programmatic engagement in education, followed closely by human and social services, arts and culture, and health.
Strengthening civil society also a priority: In addition to grantmaking, nearly half of foundations surveyed actively foster collaboration between grantees or provide training and capacity-building services to local organizations.
Populations served: Almost 30 percent of respondents work at least to some extent in a neighborhood-based service area. Forty percent report having a "local" orientation, while the service area of nearly one in four includes a regional focus. A very small percentage work at a national or international level.
The Community Foundation Atlas offers a variety of entry points to further understand the reach and influence of community foundations, including:
Organization directory: This alphabetical listing is the portal to profile pages for 1,827 community foundations and community philanthropies. Visitors to the site can select individual organizations to review or filter by geographic region or country of particular interest. A built-in editing function enables foundations to easily update their profiles.
Data snapshots: A series of quick facts, deeper-dive infographics and a comprehensive, downloadable analysis present the Atlas's baseline data in accessible form. The infographics are programmed to change in real time as organizational profiles are updated.
First-person accounts: Foundations describe in their own words the "most meaningful change" brought about in recent years as a result of their support or initiative. Considered in their entirety, these unrehearsed accounts show how place-based foundations are helping to advance their communities' aspirations, large and small.
Stories of struggle and success: From the prosperous cities of Canada to the culturally rich matriarchal villages of rural India come 50 narratives chosen to convey the wide-ranging influence of the global community foundation movement. "Adding to Knowledge," "Encouraging Innovation" and "Stimulating Policy and Systems Reform" are among the highlighted arenas of endeavor.
The Atlas provides a long-needed and detailed baseline of information upon which the field can build to facilitate wider exchange of best practices and high-impact collaborations aimed at addressing tough problems that span geographical boundaries. Post-launch planning for updated content, additional research and data analysis, and enhanced functionality for the Atlas will be spearheaded by the Global Fund for Community Foundations and Foundation Center, the platform's host.
About Foundation Center Established in 1956, Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. Foundation Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit Foundation Center's website each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of more than 470 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundations, and educational institutions nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230.
New Guide Helps Funders Adopt a Transparency Mindset
Philanthropists Indicate That Openness Leads to More Effective Social Change in "Opening Up: Demystifying Funder Transparency"
New York, NY — February 6, 2014. As funders face an increasing demand by the nonprofit sector, the public, and governments to be more transparent, a new GrantCraft guide released today in collaboration with Glasspockets provides practical advice for funders to publicly share various aspects of their operations, work, and knowledge. Opening Up: Demystifying Funder Transparencypresents real-world case studies that demonstrate the value of foundation transparency in strengthening credibility, improving grantee relationships, facilitating greater collaboration, increasing public trust, reducing duplication of effort, and building communities of shared learning. The guide joins a growing collection of resources published by GrantCraft, a joint service of the New York-based Foundation Center and Brussels-based European Foundation Centre that taps the practical wisdom of funders to develop free resources for the philanthropy sector.
"The research we conducted for this guide demonstrates that funders who openly communicate about their work are finding it to be a win-win strategy," said Jen Bokoff, director of GrantCraft at the Foundation Center. "Grantees, funding partners, the public, and philanthropy professionals themselves all benefit when foundations make their work and their knowledge broadly accessible."
A commitment to transparency means a foundation is making available information on aspects of its work, including past grants awarded, the grantee selection process, performance assessments, and strategy documents. In addition to web sites, foundations are also employing social media, video, conferences, publications, and other media to share knowledge about their work. Funders profiled in the guide listed many benefits of transparency, such as gaining efficiencies in time, receiving better and more appropriate grant proposals, and increasing effectiveness based on feedback loops and greater awareness of peer efforts.
Other key insights in the report include:
Seventy-five percent of survey respondents reported observing an increased demand for funder transparency over the past five years.
Numerous interviews with funders and an analysis of blog posts and survey responses indicate that true transparency comes down to a mindset, one in which funders believe they are most effective when they approach all aspects of their work by saying "let's publicly share this."
While transparency can be challenging for many reasons, including limited staff time and potential vulnerability, funders interviewed agree that sharing what they know and creating space for dialogue are essential to accelerating change.
The guide is divided into five sections, each of which addresses a key aspect of transparency: sharing grantee data, sharing performance assessments, improving relationships, improving the practice of philanthropy, and recognizing opportunities for connecting. Each section explores transparency with funder stories, a list of challenges, action steps, and discussion questions. The guide does not advocate for a "one-size-fits-all" approach, but rather, uses qualitative research to show how each foundation can determine a level of transparency for itself that is appropriate, beneficial, and part of an ongoing process.
The guide is based on an international scan of the field, and one of the real-life examples comes from South Africa: Jason Hudson, the Shuttleworth Foundation's chief information officer sums up its strategy as follows: "We have a mildly aggressive obsession with being transparent. We open up our financials and share our planning, learning, and relationships as we go along. It's not easy and, at times, quite uncomfortable, but by doing this, we hope to have partners who come with better ideas, offer improvements, and even run with things on their own. That's what we want."
Opening Up: Demystifying Funder Transparency is complemented by online components, including podcasts and the complete results of the transparency survey. Knowledge tools on the Foundation Center's newly-redesigned Glasspockets web site help foundations incorporate transparency activities into everyday practice, and an ongoing conversation can be found at theTransparency Talk blog. The Glasspockets site is also home to a new videothat makes the case for foundations to be transparent, as well as an infographicthat reveals trends with foundations and social media.
Opening Up: Demystifying Funder Transparency and related resources were funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It can be downloaded for free atwww.grantcraft.org/transparency.
About the Foundation Center Established in 1956, the Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants — a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit the Center's web site each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and at more than 470 Funding Information Network locations nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230.
About the European Foundation Centre The European Foundation Centre, founded in 1989, is an international membership association representing public-benefit foundations and corporate funders active in philanthropy in Europe, and beyond. The Centre develops and pursues activities in line with its four key objectives: creating an enabling legal and fiscal environment; documenting the foundation landscape; building the capacity of foundation professionals; and promoting collaboration, both among foundations and between foundations and other actors. Emphasising transparency and best practice, all members sign up to and uphold the European Foundation Centre Principles of Good Practice. For more information, please visit www.efc.be.
