Essentials of Foundation Strategy

In the Center for Effective Philanthropy's analyses of surveys of tens of thousands of nonprofit grantees of foundations, they have seen that clear communication of foundation goals and strategies is one of the most powerful predictors of how grantees perceive a foundation’s impact. In CEP's recently released research report, Essentials of Foundation Strategy, they have sought first to help clarify and apply a definition of strategy that makes sense for philanthropic funders and then to understand the degree to which strategy is present — or absent — in the decision-making of foundation CEOs and program staff.

This research affirms that foundation leaders can be classified as “more strategic” and “less strategic” based upon the extent to which they embody two defining elements: 1) an external orientation to their decision-making,and 2) logical connections between how they determine how to use their resources and the achievement of their goals. More strategic leaders also differ from less strategic leaders on four key characteristics: they tend to 1) have strategic plans that they regularly reference, 2) publicly communicate their strategies, 3) be proactive in their grantmaking, and 4) have measures by which they assess.

http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/assets/pdfs/CEP_EssentialsOfFoundationStrategy.pdf