By Henry Berman, Exponent Philanthropy
Small-staffed foundations are using a variety of strategies to make their grant dollars go further, according to Exponent Philanthropy’s 2016 Foundation Operations and Management Report, released today.
Join Exponent Philanthropy for access to this member benefit or order your copy >>
Exponent Philanthropy members are a powerful force for change, and many are achieving outsized impact, the result of strategies that allow each dollar granted to result in more than a single dollar’s worth of impact.
Among its 60-plus pages of data on grantmaking, governance, investments, and administration, the new report identifies seven strategies that lead to outsized impact among member foundations. Ranked by the percentage of members that engage in them, they include:
- Making general operating support grants: 80%
- Making multiyear grants: 68%
- Using information received from grantees to inform grantmaking: 64%
- Collaborating with other funders to increase impact: 61%
- Making capacity-building grants: 58%
- Convening grantees or organizations: 37%
- Making grants for advocacy work: 28%
Some 85% of Exponent Philanthropy member foundations engage in two or more of these strategies to help them achieve outsized impact.
The 2016 Foundation Operations and Management Report also includes the following and much more:
- Staff compensation benchmarking data with breakouts by foundation asset size, geographic region, relationship to donor family, years of experience, and more
- Board compensation benchmarking data by asset size, foundation type, and various payment structures, as well as consultant and advisor data on how much small-staffed foundations pay and what types of projects they hire for
- Impact investments and small-staffed foundation investment returns
- Expense ratio tables by foundation asset size showing total and charitable operating expenses, administrative expenses, and qualifying distributions
- Data over years to show change and trends—in some cases, as far back as a decade or more
Download the full report (Exponent Philanthropy members only) or order your copy >>
Our sincere thanks to the 676 Exponent Philanthropy member foundations that generously responded to our surveys in 2015.
Related posts
Henry Berman became Exponent Philanthropy’s CEO in 2011, previously serving as acting CEO, board member, and committee member. Through his experience as a foundation co-trustee and Exponent Philanthropy member since 2003, he brings a firsthand understanding of the needs of members to his role. Follow Henry on Twitter @Berman_Henry.
