Doing Your Financial Due Diligence in a Trust-Based World

Foundations require a multitude of financial documents from grantees, often with a uniform approach to reviewing financials regardless of the type or size of the grant, the needs of their grantee organization, or the values of their institution. And why? Primarily to demonstrate to senior staff and their boards that they are mitigating risk to their foundations. What would it look like if foundations flipped this approach on its head? What if we looked at financial reviews as a means of reinforcing our grantees? What if we focused our financial reviews specifically on organizations that needed help and practiced a trust-based approach for the majority of our grantees?

The Surdna Foundation, working with Fiscal Management Associates, developed a new approach to reviewing financials that puts grantees first to best align with our social justice and racial equity values without sacrificing a reasonable level of due diligence. In this session, learn how our revised practice was developed, how it works, and the metrics we will use to measure our success.

Speakers

Rodney Christoper
Director
BDO FMA

Jonathan Goldberg
Director of Learning and Grant Operations
Surdna Foundation

Jeffrey Jiménez-Kurlander
Senior Analyst
Surdna Foundation

Jennifer Pedroni
Lead Consultant
BDO-FMA

Silvana Serafimovska
Grants Manager
Surdna Foundation