Voices from the Field

We challenged the nonprofit community to think creatively and to take risks. We asked them to take a comprehensive, enduring approach — not a quick fix, but a long-term plan for effective and transformative change… Read More

Overhead is one of the first concepts any philanthropist learns. It includes all of those administrative and fundraising costs that we secretly wish our nonprofit colleagues didn’t have to worry about. But what exactly is overhead, anyway?… Read More

We knew we had to change the dynamic. We began by changing how we show up as individuals and as an institution. The goal here was to listen with new ears – to get past our own experience, and strive to hear the lived experiences of those impacted by issues the Foundation cares about… Read More

NCFP’s 2015 Trends in Family Philanthropy study found that more than 90 percent of respondents cited the “impact of their giving” as the top motivation for their participation in family philanthropy. This same study found that just 45 percent of family foundations participate in efforts with other funders. If grant makers are interested in increasing the impact of their giving, they should give serious consideration to participating in a donor collaborative. … Read More

My friends who’ve inherited philanthropy as part of their family life have an amazing opportunity, but there’s little effort to extend an invitation outward. If we can involve our youth, then what’s stopping us?… Read More

The Giving Pledge has been successful in encouraging philanthropy among the ultra-wealthy. However, this good idea should not be restricted to billionaires. Each of us can make a personal, achievable pledge to receive less — and give and do more to help address society’s urgent problems… Read More

With help from our advisors and grantees, we will continue to explore how we can maximize strategic deployment of the Foundation’s resources to support healthy ecosystems and sustainable, vibrant communities… Read More

Reflecting on bits of wisdom to ground what will be my eighteenth year in the philanthropic sector, I didn’t want to defer to words such as strategy, impact, risk, and collaboration, which frame most conversations in our workplaces… Read More

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC raised the question about why some philanthropists choose a limited liability company (“LLC”) instead of a private non-operating foundation (“foundation”) to carry out their mission… Read More