Resources

This SSIR article introduced the concept of "evocative grantmaking" as a means of building the adaptive capacity of nonprofits. It also laid out 4 key practices: hold grantees accountable to learning and improvement (not the initial set of milestones), link grants in a sequence that promotes continuous improvement, provide resources that support strategic thinking, and deploy staff as evocateurs.

This article introduces the Cultivaton model of place-based philanthropy and highlights the Clinton Foundation's Community Health Transformation initiative as an example. An innovative form of "contribution analysis" was used to evaluate outcomes from the initiative.

As one strand in its strategy to promote health equity across the state, the Colorado Health Foundation's Locally Focused Work (LFW) aims to create more inclusive, responsive institutions within the communities where it is investing. LFW uses 2 strategies for this: 1) building the power of local equity champions, and 2) using the grantmaking process to entice institutions to adopt new and expanded organizational-change work. This article decribes successes and challenges with the second approach.

This article describes the origins of The Colorado Trust's Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative (CHCI), how it was implemented in 28 communities across the state, how it was perceived by participating stakeholders, and the strategic issues and action steps that came out of each group. Results draw on the evaluation conducted by Ross Conner and his team. We argue that CHCI was able to engage a broad mix of residents in ways that other comprehensive community initiatives have failed to achieve.

This retrospective reflection on the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative (CHCI) argues that community health initiatives will have a greater impact if they focus on increasing civic engagement and instilling an ethic of shared accountability than if they simply attempt to develop a strategic plan to address current priorities.

Community foundations are well-positioned to stimulate new thinking and action to build social capital on a community-wide basis. This article describes innovative strategies deployed by foundations participating in the National Social Capital Benchmark Survey and organizes their impact according to a 6-factor taxonomy.

This article describes the "Speak Your Peace" campaign which the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation co-developed as a means of bringing more civility to political debates, public meetings and everyday discourse.

The movement to expand participation in community decision making has often failed to recognize that new leaders need skills to fully participate and existing leaders need to appreciate more diverse voices. The Advanced Leadership Institute addresses that gap. This article presents evaluation data from two classes conducted in central Wisconsin.

Networks are increasingly recgnized as powerful platforms and vehicles for advancing social change. Foundations have taken advantage of their potential by (a) providing funding to networks aligned with their interests, or (b) convening new networks. In contrast, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation deploys its staff as "network officers" who actively engage with networks in ways that build their capacity.

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts devotes most of its resources to supporting collaborative groups in developing, testing and sustaining innovative approaches to address the key health and SDOH issues facing the region. Their model emphasizes reviewing available evidence, rigorous program design, experimentation, and using data for learning and advocacy. In addition, the foundation's CEO played a critical role as an active participant in each collaborative group, asking probing questions and continually pushing the group to next-level work.

This article presents the history, rationale and elements of "strategic philanthropy" and summarizes critiques of the model. Most existing critiques involve flaws in developing strategy. We introduce the idea that foundations often fail to recognize their own role in implementing their strategies and don't build the organizational infrastructure needed to carry out the required work.

Based on interviews with leaders of 33 health conversion foundations, this article points to the different upstream factors that foundations have used to gain leverage in their efforts to improve the health of communities and states. Those results are grounded in a theoretical framework for the development of high-impact strategies. Specific examples of how foundations have made a difference are provided.

Evaluation standards call for meaningful participation by stakeholders whose programs are being evaluated. There are many examples in the literature of evaluators partnering with grantees to co-develop a logic model describing the grantee's program. However, there are no prior examples of funders engaging their grantees in the development of the funder's logic model for a multi-site initiative. This article profiles a positive case involving the National Cancer Institute and 7 academic centers that received support under the Implementation Science Centers in Cancer Control (ISC3) initiative.

This 2003 book uses 7 of The Colorado Trust's community-based initiatives to demonstrate various ways that foundations can stimulate local organizations and actors to take informed action to address the community's health-related priorities. The introductory chapter provides a theoretical framework for community-based health (including different degrees of local control). The concluding chapter ties together the chapters with overarching lessons about how foundations can build and measure community capacity.

This chapter describes the different types of foundations that exist within the U.S. and then goes into detail on health conversion foundations. Drawing on a study conducted in 2016, we present examples of how conversion foundations have gone beyond traditional grantmaking and made fuller use of their assets and influence in order to achieve change on the social determinants of health.

This paper, written while Doug was the Director of Research and Evaluation at The Colorado Trust, was one of the first to make the case that foundations should go beyond focusing evaluation on grantee programs and instead apply evaluation to their own way of operating (which could be either a foundation-designed initiative or simply the approach the foundation uses to engage with grantees). Recommendations for conducting foundation-focused evaluation are offered. These include: explicitly map out the foundation's approach and expectations, interpret findings within a culture of learning, and ensure that evaluation consultants are attuned to the foundation's learning interests.

With funding from the Kansas Health Foundation, the Kansas Health Institute commissioned a team from Wake Forest School of Medicine to analyze Kansas-specific data collected within the 2006 National Social Capital Benchmark Survey. This comprehensive report shows how Kansas and 5 targeted communities (Wichita, Garden City, Abilene, Junction City and Kansas City) compare to the rest of the country on various domains of social capital. The report also includes results from a complementary qualitative study of social capital conducted by a team at Johns Hopkins University.

This report issued by Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust provides a retrospective analysis of its 10-year, $100 million place-based initiative, Healthy Places NC. Evaluation findings and implementation approaches are divided between the two distinct phases of the initiative. The report also indicates how the foundation evolved over the course of HPNC and offers recommendations for other funders.

This report (commissioned by Kansas Health Foundation) summarizes 20+ years of research on funder collaboratives, including the benefits of collaboration, different models, challenges and recommendations.

Because grant opportunities can incentivize new programming, foundations have the potential to encourage institutions to pursue a more robust equity agenda. At the same time, foundations can use their power to encourage bolder, more informed action on the part of groups that are on the front lines of social change.

The second in a series of Health Affairs blogs summarizing the SDOH study, this one focuses on the three different models that conversion foundations operate from. Social and economic factors can be viewed as either: a) upstream determinants of community health, b) determinants of inequalities in health, or c) essential elements within a broad definition of health.

This Health Affairs blog introduces the Cultivation approach to place-based philanthropy by describing the rationale, the philosophy and the forms of support that foundations provide. It also includes examples from the Clinton Foundation's Health Matters Initiative.

This brief article points out that a rigorous assessment of a program's outcomes (which is what foundation boards often ask for) is typically not feasible or even appropriate for most nonprofits. More cost-effective formative approaches that emphasize learning offer a more relevant alternative.

Since 2000, the Melvin R. Lane Fund within the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina has operated an innovative program to build the capacity of nonprofits in the region. Doug consulted with the Fund's Advisory Board from 2007 through 2016, conducing evaluations of cohorts funded in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015. Findings from the first two cohorts informed a major shift in the program, including the addition of an organizational assessment (the TCC Group's CCAT) and tailored consulting from Western North Carolina Pathways.

"Strategic philanthropy" was introduced at the turn of the 21st century as a paradigm to assist foundations in being more deliberate and informed in how they sought to achieve their goals. It proved problematic in practice because foundation staff don't have the expertise needed to develop effective strategies and because nonprofits lost resources to support their own mission. This piece offers a larger frame for thinking about strategy, distinguishing the "change strategy" (which nonprofits are often better equipped to design) from the "philanthropic strategy" (which spells out how the foundation will add value to the change process).

Critics of "strategic philanthropy" have pointed out that foundation staff don't have the understanding and experience needed to develop effective strategies. Foundations are advised to co-develop their strategies with nonprofits, but power dynamics often get in the way. This piece presents a case study of a successful foundation-nonprofit partnership that produced a strategy for jumpstarting a dormant plan for affordable housing in Santa Fe, NM.

Foundations can add value to community-change work through approaches beyond grantmaking. This brief report spells out 10 additional roles (beyond "Financer") available to foundations, along with the rationale for each one. The taxonomy was initially developed in 2018 as a tool for evaluating the implementation of place-based initiatives. Since then, foundations have used it to clarify their "theory of philanthropy," to design strategy and to align expectations -- both internally and externally.

Foundations increasingly emphasized "equity" and associated constructs (e.g., racial justice) from 2010-2024, although with varying philosophies and approaches. Based on interviews with leaders at 6 equity-oriented foundations, we identified key principles and variations. Using "polarity management" as a frame, we focus on a key tension that foundations face -- the imperative to boldly advance an equity agenda, while also recognizing that many nonprofits have expertise and experience that the foundation lacks.

Place-based foundations typically bring expectations as to how their investments will pay off, but also recognize that local communities need to define priorities and design strategies. Using Kate B. Reynolds Charitabler Trust's Healthy Places NC as a case study, we describe how foundations can balance the two imperatives and adjust their approach over time.

In contrast to place-based initiatives that rely on centralized planning processes, a newer generation uses a more decentralized approach where foundation staff directly engage with local actors. This article reviews the methods and results from 6 of these more "emergent" approaches.

This article describes the long-term effects that the Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative (CHCI) had on civic infrastructure of the participating communities, including the development of grassroots leaders, the establishment of new organizations to facilitate community-problem solving, new social connections and a stronger focus on the common good.

Some models of philanthropy argue that foundations should use their resources to disseminate and replicate "evidence-based" programs, while other models emphasize self-determination on the part of the communities the foundations is supporting. Both philosophies were reflected in The Colorado Trust's early initiatives. This article uses polarity management to argue that foundations need to navigate between the orientations rather than committing to one over the other.

Community foundations can be more successful if they play a community leadership role than if they focus simply on donor relations, fund development and grantmaking. The 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey provided community foundations across the country with a tool for mobilizing community attention and action to address gaps in trust, volunteerism, leadership and activism.

This article profiles an ambitious place-based effort led by the Incourage Community Foundation in central Wisconsin which focused on shifting the local culture rather than simply developing shared strategies. This took place in a region that had been devastated by a pair of economic dislocations and the loss of a long-time benefactors who had taken care of their communities.

Training individuals to be adaptive leaders is one step in creating a higher functioning civic infrastructure, but for these leaders to succeed the culture needs to be conducive. This article describes how the Kansas Leadership Center has operated as both a trainer and an agent of culture change in order to shift how communities across Kansas solve their problems.

This article provides an extensive case study of the Central Appalachian Network, a long-term collaborative process involving 6 rural development organizations that were funded by a succession of foundations. The network passed through 5 stages of development, culminating in the implementation of a collective-impact strategy. The article points to the different ways that foundations can add value at each stage.

One of the fundamental challenges that arise within collaborative problem-solving efforts is to develop a "breakthrough" solution that yields a larger, more synergistic impact that would occur if the members had acted independently. This article argues that a "system analysis" is essential to identifying where there is strategic leverage and to developing a breakthrough solution. The Reclaiming Futures initiative in North Carolina provides context for illustrating a system analysis.

Drawing on key models from Implementation Science, this article describes the specific changes in organizational practice and supports that were needed for Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust to implement Healthy Places NC. Special attention is devoted to the new functions that program officers were expected to perform and the competencies required. A "practice profile" is included as an Appendix.

This 2000 article in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly offered advice for foundations on how they can support nonprofits in ways that generate the sort of evaluation data that allows an assessment of outcomes -- both for the granteee and by extension for the foundation. Many of these recommendations have since been implemented by the field.

Free to Grow was an intervention funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which was designed to expand the programs and practices of Head Start organizations in order to affect the community and family conditions that influence substance misuse. This article presents results from an external evaluation conducted by a team at Wake Forest School of Medicine when the model was implemented in a demonstration project in 15 communties across the U.S.

This brief book chapter presents Kate B. Reynolds' Healthy Places NC as a unique example of a place-based initiative geared toward rural communities. It also makes the case that rural communities offer more opportunity for "whole-community change" than is available under the neighborhood model of place-based philanthropy.

This report published by The Colorado Trust argues that foundations with a mission to improve health can legitimately focus their investments on building community capacity. The report identifies 5 key forms of capacity: 1) skills & knowledge, 2) leadership, 3) collective efficacy, 4) social capital, and 5) a culture of openness & learning. Research is summarized documenting the link between community capacity and health.

This report describes the Winston-Salem Foundation's multi-faceted strategy to build social capital, with a special focus on the ECHO Fund - a grants program designed to spur nonprofits to develop innovative approaches to building trust, connections and civic engagement. The 50 funded projects were evaluated in terms of intent and outcomes. We also assessed whether the foundation was able to entice new programming versus supporting what grantees were already doing.

This report presents full findings from a scan of 33 health conversion foundations that were at the leading edge in focusing on social determinants/drivers of health (SDOH) as an upstream strategy for improving the health of the communities they served.

This report (co-written with Kate Treanor) presents an up-to-date census of health conversions, along with the results from an in-depth survey completed by 101 foundations.

It has long been recognized that foundations have the power to draw nonprofits into work they wouldn't otherwise consider. This GIH blog explores what it means for foundations to use that power wisely and responsibly, not just to advance their own immediate interests.

This Health Affairs blog presents high-level findings from the 2016 study of 33 conversion foundations, including the rationale for focusing os social determinants of health, the different SDOH domains that were prioritized, examples of specific innovations and challenges that arise in broadening a health foundation's scope of issues.

This brief blog post offers some insights from experience on how evaluators can add value to foundations and funded groups within place-based initiatives. Beyond providing process and outcome oriented data indicating whether the initiative is working according to design, evaluators can be especially helpful in the early phase clarifying what exactly the foundation is offering and the assumptions about how these inputs will be helpful.

This article in the Philanthropy New Zealand newsletter summarizes key points from the keynote lecture Doug delivered at the 2002 Community Trusts Conference in Waikato. It offers a framework derived from Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovation" model which lays out a set of recommendations for moving from a traditional ("slow to evolve") foundation to one that actively innovates and learns in order to achieve greater impact.

The Orton Family Foundation developed the Community Heart & Soul model as a means of creating a shared understanding of "what matters most" within rural communities. The intent is to bring residents together around fundamental values and to align development with those values. This report presents findings from an evaluation of the first 9 communities participating in the initiative.

In 2015 Winston-Salem was one selected as one of the first two communities in the United States to carry out a collaborative, arts-based problem-solving approach called the Community Innovation Lab (CIL). Over the course of the 2-year process, more than 80 local residents engaged in community exploration, strategic analysis, intervention design, experimentation and relationship-building -- with the intent of making Winston-Salem a more abundant and equitable community. This report provides findings and recommendations based on interviews with participants.

While Trust-Based Philanthropy has encouraged foundations to better understand and address the needs of nonprofits, the model has also downplayed the expertise and interests that foundation staff can bring to the relationship. This piece introduces "generative engagement" as a more balanced approach and highlights two instances where Anchorum Health Foundation added value to nonprofits by pushing beyond what Trust-Based Philanthropy recommends.

A practice profile spells out the essential functions that foundation staff need to play in order for a given initiative to be fully implemented. It also identifies more specific activities that go along with those functions, as well as principles to guide the work. This appendix provides the practice profile developed for Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust's cultivation-based initiative.