Essentials of Foundation Strategy (2009)
In the latest phase of our research on foundation strategy, we have sought to test our definition of strategy on a larger population of foundation leaders and to identify the “essentials” that differentiate the more strategic from the less strategic.

Key Findings

• We affirm in this research that Foundation leaders can be classified as “more strategic” and “less strategic” based upon the extent to which they embody two defining elements: 1) an external orientation to their decision making and 2) logical connections between how they determine how to use their resources and the achievement of their goals. 
• More strategic leaders also differ from less strategic leaders on four key characteristics: they tend to 1) have strategic plans that they regularly reference, 2) publicly communicate their strategies, 3) be proactive in their grantmaking, and 4) have measures by which they assess.
• Foundation leaders’ conceptions of strategy overvalue the presence of a strategic plan and undervalue the logical connections necessary to have a strategy.
• Assessment of results against strategies remains a significant challenge for foundations: Staff struggle to determine the right data to collect and how to collect it – and many look for more help from their boards in these efforts.

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