Philanthropy Toolkit
Increase Your Capacity
Increase Your CapacityWe help you work smarter, not harder. Achieve your mission and goals by finding efficient ways to scale programs, remain nimble, keep pace with change, and focus on what you care about most.
Our learning communities, databases, and online support tools connect you with peers, boost your knowledge, and help you evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts.
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GrantCraft
Tap into the practical wisdom of experienced grantmakers the world over.
Practical wisdom for grantmakers.
GrantCraftIncrease your capacityGRANTCRAFT
GrantCraft is a valuable resource when it comes to learning and sharing the craft of grantmaking. We facilitate the exchange of information among like-minded funders around the globe and increase the collective knowledge of grantmaking as a whole. The program's unique approach taps the "practical wisdom" of experienced grantmakers the world over. A tremendous set of resources includes tools and techniques available as guides, videos, cases, and translations. GrantCraft provides you with:
- Real-life examples and tested solutions for overcoming the hurdles grantmakers face.
- The opportunity to sit at a virtual roundtable with thousands of experienced professionals from a variety of organizations.
- Easily accessed workshops to help you structure and customize discussions in your own community.
EXPLORE THE GRANTCRAFT WEB SITE AT:
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Foundation Folders — Free Web Sites for Foundations
We think it's so important for every foundation to have a web site, we'll design and maintain yours for free.
The benefits of a web site. Without the cost.
FOUNDATION FOLDERSIncrease your capacityCommunicate your workFOUNDATION FOLDERS — FREE WEB SITES FOR FOUNDATIONS
Back in 1996, we recognized the importance of a strong web presence. So we began offering free sites, which we call Foundation Folders; a service we continue to offer today. Grantmakers who use it find they receive a higher caliber of proposals and fulfill fewer information requests by mail, which saves them a good deal of effort and expense. Unique advantages of a Foundation Folder include:
- Substantial savings in time and budget dollars.
- An easy way to share the impact of your work.
- Free maintenance and technical support.
- Unparalleled personal service.
- The expertise and experience of Foundation Center web developers.
We also offer a premium level of web site development and hosting for a nominal fee. It includes your own domain name, site usage reports, and a password-protected area.
LEARN MORE ABOUT FOUNDATION FOLDERS:
- Visit: foundationcenter.org/grantmakers/folders
- Or e-mail us at: folders@foundationcenter.org
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Custom Web Portals
Custom, curated portals contain foundation grants information, data visualization tools, research, news, and social media that help you do your job more efficiently.
The antidote to information overload.
Custom Web PosrtalsScan the landscapeIncrease your capacityCommunicate your workCUSTOM WEB PORTALS
Staying up on the latest developments and best practices is a challenge. That's why we provide custom, curated web portals. Our unique ability to bring together foundation grants information, data visualization tools, research, news, and social media helps you focus and do your job more efficiently. Plus, by leveraging the portals to communicate about your work, you'll reach — and collaborate with — like-minded funders. To see examples of our custom web portals, visit:
- WASHfunders: washfunders.org
- Foundations for Education Excellence: foundationcenter.org/educationexcellence
HAVE YOUR OWN IDEA FOR A CUSTOM PORTAL?
- Let us know about it at: foundationcenter.org/getstarted/askus
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TRASI — Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact
Find the right tools to measure your effectiveness, and connect with peers and experts.
Are your efforts producing the impact
you envisioned? Find out.TRASIScan the landscapeIncrease your capacityHelp your grantees and applicantsTRASI — TOOLS AND RESOURCES FOR ASSESSING SOCIAL IMPACT
You do what you do in order to make a difference. But how do you know if your efforts are effective? That's where our TRASI tool comes in. It stands for Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact and that's exactly what it does — helps you assess the return on your social investments. It features a searchable, expert-reviewed database of more than 150 approaches and helps gauge something that's often hard to quantify. With TRASI, you and your grantees can:
- Find the right tools to assess the impact you're both having.
- Measure the effectiveness of your programs and strategies.
- Connect with peers and evaluation experts to learn what works (and what doesn't).
EXPLORE TRASI AND LEARN HOW IT CAN HELP YOU:
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Project Streamline: Improving Grant Applications & Reporting
Grantmakers and grantseekers working together to make more time for what matters.
More time for what matters.
Project StreamlineIncrease your capacityHelp your grantees and applicantsPROJECT STREAMLINE: IMPROVING GRANT APPLICATIONS & REPORTING
Administrative burdens on grantseekers can be overwhelming. The list of hoops for applicants to jump through varies greatly from one foundation to the next. So we work collaboratively with a variety of grantmakers and grantseekers to demystify and simplify the application process. By doing so, everyone in the partnership can focus on having an impact — and spend less time fighting red tape. Project Streamline's framework of tools and publications is created around four core principles which help you:
- Start fresh: Take a look at your organization's application and reporting requirements.
- Keep expectations in-line: Ensure the effort grantees expend is proportional to the size of the grant, while also taking into consideration any pre-existing relationships.
- Relieve the burden: Minimize the amount of time and money grantseekers spend getting and administering grants, freeing everyone up to focus on mutual goals.
- Improve communication: Make your processes clear and straightforward.
VISIT THE PROJECT STREAMLINE WEB SITE TO SEE IT IN ACTION AND LEARN MORE:
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Grantseeker Training
Refer your applicants to us for essential training and improve the quality of the applications you receive.
Improve the quality of your grant applications.
Grantseeker TrainingIncrease your capacityHelp your grantees and applicantsGRANTSEEKER TRAINING
The key to connecting nonprofits with the resources they need to grow and thrive is education. That's why we focus on teaching the ins and outs of the grantseeking process. Our curriculum tackles topics from "developing a fundraising plan" to "securing corporate partnerships" to "cultivating grantmaker relationships." We offer a range of free classes, as well as in-depth, full-day courses that take place in venues around the country and online — thus ensuring an entry point for large and small organizations alike. All in an effort to foster better grant applicants by teaching nonprofits to:
- Write better grant proposals.
- Conduct more targeted research so proposals are aimed at the right funders.
- Demonstrate the impact of their programs.
REFER APPLICANTS TO US FOR ESSENTIAL TRAINING:
