I want to build off of Pia Infante’s recent post lauding Ford Foundation President Darren Walker’s letter explaining significant shifts in both what and how the foundation funds. Pia lifts up that Ford not only engaged in a deep process of listening to its grantees – they actually acted on what they heard. In closing…
Based on feedback from their third CEP Grantee Perception Report, Don Howard of the Irvine Foundation announced this week their intention to make some changes. Namely, providing more general operating support, being more flexible about grantee timelines and objectives, and deepening staff engagement. As with Darren Walker’s letter from the Ford Foundation, I am encouraged…
Year 1 of my co-executive directorship at TWI is a wrap. At the start, a colleague warned me that the field of professionalized philanthropy could inflate my ego and warp my soul, and that I should set a timer for a philanthropic career of no more than seven years. Conveniently, TWI is sunsetting in 2022….
Knowing my own history with TWI, someone recently asked me for advice. As a non-profit board member, she was struggling with how to handle the anger she often feels when dealing with wealthy donors who make everything about them rather than the people and organization they are donating to. Not an uncommon dilemma of course….
As I read Ford Foundation President Darren Walker’s letter about the foundation’s newest priorities, I was most stirred by the fact that he asked for grantee feedback and is acting on it. I had to take a pause when the leader of this large, influential foundation shared that “the majority of the feedback [he] received was not…