Resources

This report is a final offering to philanthropy from the Hazen Foundation and its nonprofit partners. The report includes grantee recommendations for funder partnerships that advance a more effective and sustainable movement for social justice.

Strengthening nonprofit organizations is not just a nice-to-have, but an essential part of foundations’ work to ensure that nonprofits have the resources they need to address today’s most pressing social concerns. Indeed, the vast majority of staffed foundations – 86 percent – do just that – invest in organizational strengthening in areas such as leadership, fundraising, evaluation, communications and technology.

With racial equity becoming more and more central to the work of grantmakers, this guide explores how considerations related to racial equity can apply to the full range of grantmakers’ capacity-building efforts – everything from financial management to human resources to leadership development.

This publication builds on the principles outlined in Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity and will take a critical look at the ways in which capacity-building practices can be grounded in approaches that acknowledge and center racial equity.

We are planning the launch of a new mission acceleration grants program- grants for capacity building/TA. For our previous capacity building grantmaking, the Nonprofit Leadership and Effectiveness staff have made the funding decisions. It has been suggested that we form a grants committee to make these decisions. I have some concerns regarding this approach for these types of grants. Is anyone using a grants committee for capacity building grants? I’m curious to know how it structured including the types of folks that serve on the committee. Thanks in advance for any information or insights that you can provide.

Hi GEO community-- The Sobrato Family Foundation team is interested in learning about how foundations have structured their capacity-building grantmaking. Do you have a separate team (which partners with program teams) to manage grants to improve grantee capacity? Or does the program team manage the grants themselves, with a capacity-building team as a resource to support and advise these decisions? We’re interested in learning about the range of ways this support is structured within foundations, so would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Thanks in advance,

Hello GEO Community! We are looking for examples of foundations with deferred maintenance and other capital funds – not major capital grants, but things like software upgrades, IT and other important equipment replacements, facilities repairs and maintenance, etc. Some examples of projects that exemplify the type of funding we’re wondering about are: replacing all the carpeting at a community health center and buying new commercial washers/dryers for a transitional shelter. But we are interested in foundations that might set aside funds for annual grants such as these to existing grantees and wondered if there were other foundations out there doing this and if they did it via RFP or other procedure. Thank you for any advice!

Dear GEO Community, The Packard Foundation’s Organizational Effectiveness Program (OE) is interested in learning about capacity building resources that provide assistance in matching organizations with 1) the trainings, tools, or consultants that are most relevant for them, or 2) with peers who have lived experience on capacity building topics. We are especially interested in resources that include: • crowdsourcing from nonprofits who have used the tools, consultants, or trainings prior • successful peer support functions where leaders are connected with other leaders with similar capacity building interests or experiences • a central navigator/guide/curator who provides support in navigating what resources could be most useful.

ACT for Alexandria, a community foundation in Alexandria, VA, is developing a capacity building cohort focused on racial equity for nonprofit leaders in our community. We are curious about any of your experiences with similar initiatives.

Who funds poverty-related issues like human services, community health, access to education, workforce, food security etc. around Dallas County? Related, are there organizations you fund who do good and effective work in these areas, create impact, and could benefit from technical assistance to build fundraising capacity?