Philanthropy at Its Best

Full title: Real Results: Why Strategic Philanthropy is Social Justice Philanthropy

By Niki Jagpal and Kevin Laskowski

Published: January 2013

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In this report, NCRP contends that strategic philanthropy is limited by its top-down, technocratic approach and recommends the use of approaches familiar to social justice philanthropy to address these limitations. The authors draw on common themes seen in the High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy report series to demonstrate how a social justice approach produces concrete results and society-wide benefits regardless of issue focus.

Full title: Cultivating the Grassroots: A Winning Approach for Environment and Climate Funders

By Sarah Hansen

Published: February 2012

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Cultivating the Grassroots argues that more money needs to go towards grassroots organizing and advocacy for the environment and climate change movements to regain momentum and win important legislative and regulatory battles. Environment and climate funders can become effective resources of a strong and successful movement for change by decreasing their reliance on national advocacy groups and increasing funding for grassroots communities that are directly impacted by environmental harms.

By Holly Sidford

Published: October 2011

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Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change outlines compelling demographic, aesthetic and economic reasons for foundations to rethink their grantmaking practices to stay current with changes in the cultural sector and to continue to be relevant to the evolving needs of our communities. Regardless of its history or primary philanthropic focus, every foundation investing in the arts can make fairness and equity core principles of its grantmaking.

Full title: Towards Transformative Change in Health Care: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy

Published: April 2011

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This report seeks to answer the questions:

-How can grantmakers in health have the most success in improving health outcomes?
-Who are the grantmakers that are successfully addressing health outcomes and health policy, and how is this being done?

Author Terri Langston and NCRP recommend two strategies for health funders to improve significantly the impact of their philanthropy: allocating at least 50 percent of their grant dollars to benefit underserved communities and 25 towards advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement that promotes long-term systemic reform.

Full title: Confronting Systemic Inequity in Education: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy

Published: October 2010

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This report answers the questions:

- How can philanthropy be more effective at deploying its limited resources to help reform and improve our school systems?
- How can philanthropy help break the cycle of persistent inequality in access and opportunities among underserved students in our communities?

Authors Dr. Kevin Welner and Ms. Amy Farley offer concrete strategies based on two recommendations from Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: The deliberate focus on addressing the needs of students from marginalized communities that will, in turn, benefit all students; and the support of efforts to find long-term solutions to the education equity crisis in the U.S through advocacy, organizing and civic engagement.

Full title: Learning from Madoff: Lessons for Foundation Boards

Published: June 2009

More than 80 percent of foundations that lost between 30 to 100 percent of their assets to Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme had fewer than five trustees serving on their boards. In Learning from Madoff, NCRP research and policy director Niki Jagpal and research assistant Julia Craig examined whether there was any link between board size and diversity, and exposure to Madoff’s fraudulent activities.

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View the tables "Foundations with Possible Exposure to Madoff of 30% or More"
By Number of Board Members and Percent of Assets Possibly Exposed
By Percent of Assets Possibly Exposed and Number of Board Members

Erratum: The correction below is a change that has been made to the report since its initial release on June 29, 2009. This change is also reflected in the revised edition, which is available for free download online.

NCRP corrects the number and names of trustees of the Maryland-based Adler Foundation. On page 2, NCRP corrects the number of foundations listed under bullet 3 from 38 to 39 and 46 to 45. NCRP also corrects these numbers and trustees listed in the corresponding tables. These changes do not influence our findings. All documents can be found online at www.ncrp.org.

The Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact is the first ever set of measurable guidelines that will help foundations and other institutional grantmakers operate ethically and maximize the impact of their dollars. It attempts to answer the questions: What differentiates an exemplary foundation from the rest of its peers? What can foundations do to improve its relevance to nonprofits, the economically and socially underserved Americans and society as a whole?

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Original Price: $25.00 non-members/$12.50 members
New Price: $15.00 non-members/$7.50 members

Additional discounts for members and non-members apply for orders of 5 copies or more. Please contact Kevin Laskowski at klaskowski@ncrp.org or (202) 387-9177 ext. 27.