How Respectful is Your Philanthropy?

Take this Quick Quiz to find out.

In the past, I’ve written about creating a culture of respect in philanthropy. In a nutshell, foundations often adopt guidelines or practices that seem sensible from a grantmaker’s perspective, but inadvertently (and sometimes intentionally) force grantees and others to jump through additional hoops and shift focus away from their own missions in order to comply. Simple examples include things like gathering more grant application data than you really need, asking for evaluation data that is promptly filed away and never used, or making big changes to grantmaking strategy or focus with little advance communication.

There are many mindsets and practices that shape a culture of respect, or disrespect. Recently, I used the following tool at the National Summit on Family Philanthropy to help participants gauge what kind of culture exists at their foundations. It went over so well, that I’d like to share it with you, too.