THOUGHTFUL GRANTMAKING
Each foundation is as unique as the donor who had the vision to create it...
...but all successful foundations share certain characteristics.
Clear goals, accessibility, and transparency — combining passion with good business practices — enable a foundation to achieve the impact it desires.
Leading and managing a foundation is multi-faceted and challenging. Christine works with both private and community foundations to assist them in thoughtfully developing the tools and practices they need to meet their goals. By putting her extensive knowledge and experience to work for your foundation, she can help your trustees and staff increase their productivity and their confidence. Some examples:
- Create an effective organizational structure for a new foundation, or restructure an existing foundation (more)
- Design, develop and implement a giving program that reflects the foundation's vision and resources (more)
- Develop the public outreach and accountability approach that works for you (more)
- Assess your foundation's current position and develop a strategic plan for future development (more)
- Address the changing roles of multi-generational trustees in family foundations (more)
Create an effective organizational structure for a new foundation, or restructure an existing foundation
What are the core issues to be addressed? What will the board be doing? Who do we need/want on the board? Do we need staff? How many? Christine works with foundations to answer these and other questions to create or review a foundation's governance and management structure to improve effectiveness and efficiency. She understands the distinctive issues that impact how most foundations function.
Design, develop and implement a giving program
that reflects the foundation's vision and resources
You want to create an effective, strategic giving program. Christine can lead the board in developing a shared vision; create a system for identifying and assessing potential grantees; develop grant guidelines that will reduce requests outside of the foundation's areas of interests; develop grantmaking policies and procedures that will help guide decision-making; provide connections and research to assist the board in exploring an area of potential interest.
Develop the public outreach and accountability approach
that works for you
How you do want to connect with those nonprofit organizations, with those great ideas, that will resonate with your foundation's vision and goals? How do you want to report on the work of your foundation? With her deep and broad understanding of the nonprofit sector, Christine can help you develop strategic partnerships to increase the impact of your funding; write the foundation's annual report to inform the public of the foundation's interests and activities; create an Internet-based survey for grantee feedback; work with the foundation's nonprofit partners to improve the governance or administrative capacity of those nonprofits.
Assess your foundation's current position and develop a strategic plan for future development
Whether you are just starting out or you're an experienced grantmaker, a plan is essential for successfully merging passions and priorities with results. Christine can assess where you are now and help you get where you want to go. By facilitating a strategic planning retreat, Christine can help the foundation focus on its values, articulate meaningful mission and vision statements, and develop goals and objectives to move the foundation forward.
Address the changing roles of multi-generational trustees in family foundations
Philanthropists are not born, they are made. Philanthropy is both an art and a science. Christine can help mentor the family foundation's new generation of trustees as they tackle the challenges of being effective grantmakers, provide guidance as leadership passes from one generation to the next, and assist in developing and implementing a plan of trustee succession.
