Let’s Bring Sanity Back to Grantmaking
Too Hard, Too Soft, or Just Right? Remember the story of Goldilocks and the three bears? At every turn, the blond-haired trespasser was confronted with
November 5, 2015
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Practical Tips for Philanthropists
Kris Putnam-Walkerly is a philanthropy expert and consultant. If you find Practical Tips for Philanthropists useful, please consider subscribing.
13 Questions To Learn From Your Grantmaking
Most philanthropies seek to be strategic and have an impact. Yet few build their own internal capacity to be strategic grantmakers. In particular, most funders
November 4, 2015
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Want Feedback? Give It A Minute
My colleague was lamenting the other day about how difficult it often is to get more than a one-word answer from her 9-year-old son when
November 2, 2015
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Head-Scratching, or Head-Nodding? 5 Tips for Communicating the Complex
The other day, my five-year-old twins were explaining a playground game to me. They were confident, they were patient with me, and they went into
October 29, 2015
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What is Signal and What is Noise?
Years ago, my father owned a company that made a business of storing information on microfiche. (Remember microfiche?) As the computer age dawned, he was
October 26, 2015
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An Underutilized Tool For Foundations—Policy Change
In philanthropy, we are driven by the causes that matter to us and bolstered by the opportunity to generate meaningful change. For years, when I
October 14, 2015
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Let’s Take a Sledgehammer to Philanthropic Bureaucracy
We often hear about streamlining philanthropy – mostly with regards to efforts at simplifying grant applications, approval processes and reporting requirements. Programs such as Project
October 13, 2015
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What Do You Know About Streamlining the Grantmaking Process?
We can all probably agree that grantmaking is not the most efficient process in the world – either for grantseekers or grantmakers. Thankfully, there are
October 5, 2015
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National TV show looking for nonprofit leaders
Are you a non-profit in need of funding? Colleagues of mine at TBA LLC are casting non-profit leaders to offer direct exposure to donors and
September 17, 2015
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Short on Time and Money? Consider a Virtual Site Visit
Site visits are a very valuable tool for funders, because they give you first-hand insight into the places and personalities that will put your charitable
September 17, 2015
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Three Rules to Guide Foundation Policy Efforts
Over the past few years, I’ve been working with more and more foundations that choose to actively engage in public policy discussions as part of
September 16, 2015
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Telling the Stories of Change
For several years now, funders have found themselves amid a rising tide of metrics and data. We look to numbers to tell us if we’ve
September 10, 2015
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