By Karen Prager Balliett, Solon E. Summerfield Foundation, Inc.

Focus |ˈfōkəs|
noun

• the state or quality of having or producing clear visual definition

Last fall, I signed up for Exponent Philanthropy’s 7-month distance learning intensive: Finding a Focus. Three master facilitators—including the lead, Exponent Philanthropy’s Sara Beggs—guided our cohort (a small and diverse group of executive directors, program directors, and funders from foundations scattered across the U.S.) to recognize how focused decision making has the potential to enhance the grantmaking process, and spur a more united and intentional cycle of funding.

What foundation would not be satisfied to refine and improve how it defines the focal points of what it funds and why?

Why focus? 

Focus, an act of concentrating interest or activity on something, turns out to be an essential resource for your board and management team. Focus is an action-driven methodology designed to yield strategic vs. random decision-making.

What’s Different With a Focus

Sharpening the focus of your foundation’s grantmaking means more purposefully curating and possibly paring down what you are funding. Focus additionally demands the deeper dive, and a more rigorous process of landscape scanning and evaluation.

Pinpointing your end game and fine-tuning focus to more precisely authenticate what your foundation has the capacity and motivation to fund is an object lesson with the potential to yield more impact. (Exponent Philanthropy acknowledges that quantifying and qualifying impact varies from one foundation to another.)

Likely your foundation is well versed in curating a portfolio of asset investments. Our learning cohort was guided to consider how this model could be replicated to curate a more deliberate and integrated portfolio of grants. The days of analyzing each grant application discretely, then aggregating distributions on a spreadsheet, is no longer a best-model indication that your foundation has adequately completed the work of a grant cycle.

Think of it this way: sifting through grant applications morphs into an algorithm—a set of intentional and integrated steps that complement the meta-mission of your foundation. Cohesive grant selection that reflects donor and board intent further strengthens the purpose of your philanthropy.

Intention and focus will:

• Help your board and your foundation better capture and leverage its passions

• Guide how you continue to develop and understand your expertise as funders

Plato wrote: “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”

Exponent Philanthropy reminds us that, whereas analytics serve as increasingly relevant evaluative tools, funding well is seminally dependent on attaining knowledge. Every foundation—small or large—can only do so much. Focus born of extensive research and ongoing grantee engagement is a crucial enhancement to balanced and intentional philanthropy.

Karen Prager Balliett currently serves as a member of the board of directors and as senior program director at The Solon E. Summerfield Foundation, Inc., in NYC. Additionally, Karen works as an educational consultant.