15 articles in this category
Money sits. That's the problem. A grant lands in a nonprofit's account, and what happens? It gets parked in a savings account, spent on the same progr...
Imagine your biggest donor just died. Her estate sends a $5 million check—restricted. The board cheers. Five years later, that endowment holds a block...
Look, nobody wakes up and says, 'Let's build another extractive giving model.' Yet here we're: foundations that fund community organizers but require ...
We pour money into land trusts. We fund tree-planting drives. We track acres protected, species saved, carbon sequestered. But what if the very pace o...
You funded a promising after-school program for three years. Now the grant is ending. But the teens still show up. The tutors still want to work. The ...
Here's the uncomfortable truth about most strategic giving models: they're designed to be efficient for the giver, not sustainable for the receiver. W...
So your giving strategy is humming. New initiatives, bigger grants, maybe a spin-off donor vehicle. But the board meetings? They're getting weird. App...
The climate clock is not a metaphor. It ticks in gigatons of CO2, species lost per hour, and years before permafrost feedback loops lock in. Meanwhile...
Philanthropy at scale is a strange creature. You start with a checkbook and a cause you love. Then lawyers, investment advisors, and grant officers bu...
Every grant officer has felt it: the pulse-quickening moment when a major donor says 'we love your vision'—then hands over a check for a 12-month prog...
You have one hour to decide. Do you accept the seven-figure gift from a corporation whose practices contradict your mission statement? Your giving mod...
Ten years ago, a foundation I advised decided to output a promising literacy program from three cities to thirty. They had the data, the board buy-in,...
Every philanthropist I know has a graveyard of good intentions. A climate initiative that folded after three grant cycles. A democracy project whose s...
Every gift carries a hidden payload. Send food — and you might undercut local farmers. Fund a school — and the community stops investing in its own te...
Picture this: A well-meaning donor leaves $5 million to fund a polio ward. Fifty years later, polio is eradicated. The ward sits empty, but the endowm...