Grantee Capacity-Building Practice at the Walton Family Foundation December 12, 2023 By Judy Ney Review and Recommendations for Accelerating Impact As part of the Walton Family Foundation’s 2025 Strategy, the intentional building of grantee partners’ capacity emerged as a common practice across all the foundation’s programs and departments. As grantmaking from the 2025 Strategy has grown and matured—including the foundation’s grants to build its grantee partners’ capacity—recognition has increased … Continued
Now is the Time to Radically Reimagine Readiness October 28, 2021 By Hillary A focus on “readiness”—defined as the state of being fully prepared for something—has been ubiquitous in our sector since long before COVID-19 and the national movement for racial justice. Yet, as we take cautious steps to emerge from what feels like an endless suspension of normalcy, the concept of readiness has garnered renewed attention. At TCC Group, we have been hearing an increasing number of readiness-related questions: Are we ready to rebuild? Are we ready for … Continued
Innovating Place-Based Grantmaking: An Evaluation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation “Strategic Co-Investor” Approach June 29, 2021 By Claire Schultz Our new report on the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s strategic co-investor approach to community change provides a nuanced description of the concept, evaluation insights, and considerations for both funders and grantees.
Approaching the Intersection: Will a Global Pandemic and National Movement for Racial Justice Take Philanthropy Beyond Its Silos? January 19, 2021 By Claire Schultz Approaching the Intersection explores how the philanthropic sector is responding to the interconnected inequalities laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic through conversations conducted in Summer and Fall 2020 with place-based funders and national philanthropy-serving organization (PSO) leaders.
The New York Women’s Foundation: Executive Summary for the Evaluation of the NYC Fund for Girls & Young Women of Color November 23, 2020 By Claire Schultz Created in partnership with the New York Women’s Foundation, this report summarizes the results of the participatory evaluation conducted by TCC Group for the NYC Fund for Girls & Young Women of Color.
How Philanthropy Support Organizations Understand and Advance Community Power Building October 19, 2020 By Claire Schultz Leaders from various Philanthropy Support Organizations describe how their diverse members understand what it means to build community power; the perceived strengths and challenges of supporting this kind of work; and perspectives on how it may leverage foundation mission.
A Framework for the Effective Evaluation of Convenings March 17, 2020 By Claire Schultz An articulation of our framework around convenings, including questions and guidance that anyone affected by convenings (e.g., funders, grantees, communities of practice) might consider as they evaluate the valueof their convening.
Equity and Evaluation: Models of How Equity Can and Does Impact Evaluation April 8, 2019 By Claire Schultz The philanthropic and nonprofit fields, and organizations and individuals serving those fields, have shown an increasing focus on equity over the last few years [1]. Conversations have moved from murmurings to deeper engagement by institutions like Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, which have explicitly published principles … Continued
(Re)thinking Funder Networks and Collaboratives April 10, 2018 By Visceral_Dev_Admin The field of philanthropy encompasses tens of thousands of funding institutions as well as several hundred philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs) and funder collaboratives. Funders created these PSOs and funder collaboratives—yet we have heard them question the value of their ongoing support for these entities. Surprisingly, our recent research revealed that funders quickly renewed their appreciation for … Continued
Thinking Strategically About Networks for Change February 2, 2018 By Visceral_Dev_Admin Created in partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation, this guide helps program officers determine whether—and how—to establish or enhance a network to support their initiatives—featuring the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN).
Unprecedented: The First Year of a New Presidency Moves Philanthropy to Action January 5, 2018 By Visceral_Dev_Admin This report documents how philanthropy has demonstrated flexibility, nimbleness, and a willingness to collaborate in the first year of the new presidential administration that can serve as a model of creative adaptation for the field going forward. It also emphasizes the critical role of philanthropy-serving organizations and funder collaboratives in supporting funder learning, facilitating networking … Continued
Partner-Centered Evaluation Capacity Building: Findings from a Corporate Social Impact Initiative January 2, 2018 By Visceral_Dev_Admin Funders can play a proactive role in helping to fill the gap between funders’ expectations and nonprofits’ ability to evaluate grant results. Using a partner-centered design, Johnson & Johnson piloted an evaluation capacity-building initiative that supported eight grantees in strengthening their ability to measure and use findings concerning health-related outcomes by focusing on key evaluation … Continued
The Missing Link for Maximizing Impact: Foundations Assessing Their Capacity June 30, 2017 By Visceral_Dev_Admin A rapidly changing, global socio-political environment requires foundations to be nimble in maximizing opportunities to advance their agendas. At the same time, grantmakers are establishing ever more ambitious goals that often require grantees to function at peak capacity. Why, then, have more foundations not assessed their own institutional capacity? This article discusses an assessment of … Continued
Foundations Need Capacity Too: Initial Findings from the Foundation Core Capacity Assessment Tool March 25, 2017 By Visceral_Dev_Admin For many years, the social sector has paid substantial attention to the issue of nonprofit effectiveness. By contrast, comparatively little attention has been paid to the capacities that foundations themselves need to achieve impact. What capacities are essential to advancing a foundation’s own mission? How do these elements compare to the capacities their grantee partners … Continued
Effective Strategies to Support Advocacy Campaigns: Considerations for Funders and Advocates February 24, 2017 By Visceral_Dev_Admin This briefing paper shares collected insights from funders and advocates across the country, in the hope that their observations will helpfully contribute to other funding and campaign efforts. These respondents noted that while considerable attention has been paid to factors informing the development of sound campaign strategy, comparatively less attention has been paid to the … Continued