501(c)(3) non profit grantmaker

This important new study, released in June 2002, demonstrates conclusively that the nonprofit arts industry has a significant economic impact on local and national economies. And, for the first time, in addition to spending by arts organizations, information has been gathered on event-related spending by arts audiences. Americans for the Arts worked with 91 community partners from across the U.S. to collect expenditure data for this study.

This book takes a fresh and positive approach to understanding the arts as essential for creating authentic and sustained community. While it focuses on development in rural and small communities, it is an inspiration for individuals and organizations large and small.

160pp, paperback (1997, PrairieSea Press)

The president and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors discusses what's on the minds of the people who control philanthropy's purse strings.

Available free online from Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Download:

   15 Minutes with Melissa Berman (238Kb)

This article looks at the delicate relationship between non-profits and donors. It stresses the responsibility for honest and efficient communication and examines a new breed of donors who consider themselves investors and seek much more information in the non profits they fund.

Available free from the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

This article takes a look at strategic or effective philanthropy—funding which actively seeks to efficiently achieve a donor's goals—and assesses some ways in which strategic philanthropy is structured.

Free online from the Stanford Social Innovation Review

Download:

   Smart Money (3.35Mb)

Download:

   Gifts of the Muse (1Mb)

Council on Foundations Annual Conference, May 1, 2001

Craig McGarvey, The James Irvine Foundation

From a position of received privilege, how should one behave so that it might be put to productive use as people are learning to get better at their work? This is a central question facing philanthropy, and it figured centrally in preparations for today. How to say something appropriate and helpful under such extraordinary circumstances?

There was the problem that no single foundation's body of work could possibly measure up to being singled out.

Native America at the new Millennium is a Ford Foundation-funded collaboration by the Harvard Project, Native Nations Institute, and First Nations Development Institute that serves as a primer on contemporary American Indian affairs. NANM addresses topics as wide-ranging as tribal government, non-profit organizations, political activism, economic development, housing, welfare, health, arts, and media.

This brief article offers a concise and practical look at the important difference between "outcomes" and "impact" in measuring the effectiveness of grants and programs, and provides information on designing evaluation methods and what measures to best apply.

Posted courtesy of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Download:

   On the Frontlines (312Kb)

This book features profiles of 18 family foundations and giving groups that have developed unique or noteworthy programs of arts giving, reflecting the values and character of the donors in a variety of ways. Interviews with principals and trustees from each foundation provide further insights to how these programs were developed and realized.

90 pages, perfect bound
ISBN 0-9705157-4-X