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Grantmaking Services

Resources

Philanthropic advising and strategic grantmaking have been core services at TCC Group for decades, allowing us to develop long-standing partnerships with our foundation clients and families. Our commitment to the values of equity and inclusion help our clients define mission, vision, values, goals, and strategies that lead to more focused, effective, and impactful grantmaking.
Key Resources

Perspective

Across the philanthropic community, there is a growing understanding that lasting change will only be achieved when communities lead their own solutions. We’re sharing six guiding principles for national funders to consider as they seek opportunities to partner with local and regional foundations in advancing equity.

Perspective

Learning Communities are a powerful tool for funders considering various mechanisms for broader and deeper levels of engagement with organizations and stakeholders. Read our case study and tips based on years of designing, co-creating and evaluating Learning Communities.

Article

Funders seeking to strengthen relationships with grantees, improve grantmaking processes, and ensure community voices are driving their agenda are looking to us for guidance.  Click here to read about some practices to help get you started.

“We’ve proven to our grantees – through TCC’s structure – that we will help them to design a program that works for them and do it at arm’s length.”

Barbara Alford, President, Wiregrass Foundation

Additional Reports & Insights

Perspective

What tools can foundations use to understand engagement within and at the intersection of social issues ranging from women’s rights in the Global South to environmental justice in the US? We share research on findings from peers and practitioners with aligned interests.

Report

TCC Group partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation for an eight-year study to evaluate how it showed up in partnership with the communities it funded using their strategic co-investor approach. 

Briefing Paper

Ashoka, Social Impact Exchange, and Taproot Foundation collaborated with TCC Group to answer the question: How can grantmakers best support high-performing nonprofits in their efforts to grow their impact?

Report

Is this time of acute social upheaval leading funders to reevaluate their generally siloed approaches and consider what it will take to address today’s challenges in transformational ways? Approaching the Intersection explores these questions through conversations with place-based funders and national philanthropy-serving organization (PSO) leaders.

Resource

Funders are increasingly investing in strategies to build power within communities of color and other traditionally marginalized groups. This report captures insights from leaders on how their diverse members understand what it means to build community power.

Perspective

TCC Group evaluated the Anne E. Casey Foundation’s Family-Centered Community Change™ (FCCC) initiative, a long-term effort to support local partnerships in high-poverty neighborhoods across the country. The lessons we learned about this approach are valuable for any family funder seeking to amplify the impact of their giving.

Article

This article provides six recommendations to help funders facilitate a shift from best-intentioned, yet incomplete, diagnostics of nonprofits, to multidirectional capacity analysis and knowledge exchange for mutual benefit.

Impact Story

Nellie Mae Foundation engaged TCC Group, compelled by our experience in advising foundations through equity change efforts, on its launch of a bold new strategy.

Article

Funders who created philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs) and funder collaboratives have questioned the value of their ongoing support for these entities. We share three ways they demonstrate their value to funders.

Perspective

Commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, TCC Group’s research examined what motivates foundations to engage in advocacy, the methods they apply, and the results they achieve.

Resource

Step into the Fight introduces funders and advocates to the concepts of legal advocacy—that is, using the judicial system to achieve social change. It was created as part of the Atlas Learning Project, generously funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and supported by the Center for Evaluation Innovation.

Perspective

TCC Group examined whether this time of acute social upheaval is leading funders to reevaluate their generally siloed approaches and consider what it will take to address today’s challenges in transformational ways. We share 5 key findings with the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

Resource

This guide introduces funders, advocates, and evaluators to thinking about evaluating legal advocacy work. In addition to legal impact, we explore how to measure the quality of the work and how to measure impact outside of the legal arena.

Perspective

TCC Group works with funders across focus areas to think differently, connect and partner creatively across sectors, and identify small steps that lead to bigger change. We explore why more must be done to identify and foster the creative works of Black artists to express their truths and experiences through their lens.

Resource

In an effort to develop frameworks and methodologies to be able to meaningfully evaluate policy change efforts, TCC Group conducted an evaluation of a cohort of advocacy organizations who were receiving general support from The California Endowment.

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Article

Read Inside Philanthropy’s profile of TCC Group’s philanthropy practice, and our dedication to a set of values: diversity of perspective, organizational effectiveness and equitable social change.

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Article

TCC Group demonstrates how and why family foundations go through strategid transformations, and how being more strategic in their giving not only made them more effective foundations but also enhanced family engagement.

Perspective

TCC Group shares three strategic learning processes that will engage foundations and funders during complex times for Grantmakers in Health.

Impact Story

TCC Group worked with Open Society Global Drug Policy Program (GDPP) as facilitator, thought partner, and strategic consultant. Guiding staff through consecutive research and strategy engagements, we helped  GDPP re-articulating its program strategy to reaffirm its core commitments, while embracing new regional and issue priorities globally.

Perspective

TCC Group shares a mapping exercise to help your family foundation  grow effectively and sustainably, and understand where you fit in the larger ecosystem in which you reside.

Perspective

As more funders consider a first-time investment in advocacy, or funders strengthen their existing commitment to fund advocacy work, what questions are they facing? TCC Group shares our answers to a few here.