Weekly Reads – August 21, 2019

A roundup of timely insight from the grantmaking community and beyond.

“It is vital that early-stage grantmakers learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before them… Greater Good: Lessons from Those Who Have Started Major Grantmaking Organizations distills insights gleaned from [35] interviews, offering guidance for a new wave of philanthropic leaders.”  [more]
—Center for Effective Philanthropy

“To effectively share their stories of impact and attract partners online, foundations need to ensure that their digital presence conveys a sense of transparency, authenticity, clarity of purpose, and relevance.”  [more]
—Grantspace by Candid

How to “create transformational, rather than transactional relationships, with people who are directly impacted by the issues foundations are tackling.”  [more]
—Seema Shah, in NCRP blog

“Rather than thinking of [nonprofit] investment in key infrastructure as diminishing [their] programs, it should be seen as valuable Core Mission Support.” [more]
—Nonprofit Quarterly

“Philanthropy holds a place of stature and privilege in our society – for better or for worse — and for that reason, among others, we must take risks and step out of our comfort zone. […] Today we have both an opportunity and an obligation to lend our growing influence, to vehemently refute and discount these stale, tired, and racist notions of what it means to be American…”  [more]
—Kiran Ahuja, Philanthropy Northwest, in The Chronicle of Philanthropy