A new Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) case study highlights how one foundation sought to improve the experience of its grantees by developing clear and public standards and by holding its program officers accountable for adhering to them.
Improving the Grantee Experience at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation describes how leaders at the Packard Foundation reacted to the results of CEP's Grantee Perception Report®(GPR) — a management tool that provides comparative data on grantee perceptions of foundation performance — and how staff mobilized to make improvements in the grantee experience. The Foundation faced some hurdles along the way, including skepticism and resistance from some program officers.
Packard Foundation President Carol Larson said she was motivated by a desire "to be more transparent about what we expected of ourselves and to share those expectations with grantees, so that they would know what they could expect from us."
This case study, authored by Senior Research Writer Judith Ross, is the first in a new CEP series designed to offer practical examples of how foundations have moved from assessment to action, thereby improving their performance in key areas.
Download (free) or order Improving the Grantee Experience at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, by clicking here.
 Kathryn E. Merchant, president and CEO of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation has been elected to a three-year term on CEP's Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2008.
"I have known Kathy for a number of years and have always been impressed with her integrity, caring, insight, vision and practical focus. My board colleagues and I are greatly pleased that she will be joining us and look forward to her contributions. Being an accomplished and widely respected community foundation CEO, Kathy Merchant will bring important perspectives to the Board, making CEP an even stronger organization," said Phil Giudice, chair of CEP's Board of Directors.
Prior to joining The Greater Cincinnati Foundation in 1997, Merchant was the director of The Pew Charitable Trusts' Neighborhood Preservation Initiative and a partner in the New Haven-based consulting firm Holt, Wexler & Merchant. She has also served as the director of planning for the United Way of Greater New Haven and as planner/grants manager for the South Central Connecticut Area Agency on Aging.
"Kathy Merchant was among the first to use CEP's first tool, the Grantee Perception Report, in 2003," said CEP president Phil Buchanan. "Over the years, she has offered important counsel to CEP as a member of our Advisory Board, and we look forward to her continued engagement in her new role."
Buchanan noted that the addition of Merchant to the CEP Board is particularly significant in light of two important CEP initiatives that are focused on community foundations. The first is a research study focused on community foundations' use of strategy. The second is the development of a new tool — the Donor Perception Report (DPR) — based on comparative perceptions of community foundation donors.
"CEP sees community foundation leaders as a crucial audience for our work, and Kathy will help guide us as we do more to serve that audience," he said.
Merchant has served in leadership positions on a number of nonprofit Boards of Directors, including the Ohio Grantmakers Forum, Saint Raphael Healthcare System, Saint Raphael Foundation, United Way of Greater New Haven and United Way of Connecticut. She was on the Board of the Council on Foundations from 2001 to 2007 and held numerous leadership positions, including vice chairman from 2006 to 2007. In 2005 she received a Career Women of Achievement Award from the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati, and in 2006 received the Ohio Philanthropy Award from the Ohio Grantmakers Forum.
To embrace the idea that sound strategy is essential to create impact is one thing. To use strategy every day in decision making is quite another.
That's among the findings in CEP's Beyond the Rhetoric: Foundation Strategy, released last fall. So what does it take to be a total strategist? CEP is developing brief case studies of foundation leaders – and foundations — who exemplify the characteristics of strategists described in that report.
The first, excerpted from Beyond the Rhetoric, focuses on the Gill Foundation, founded in 1994 by Tim Gill, the creator of Quark software, with a mission "to secure equal opportunity for all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression." The Gill Foundation (including the Gill Operating Foundation), with more than $250 million in assets, is the nation's largest private foundation focused exclusively on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights.
To see an interview with former Executive Director Rodger McFarlane or to read Beyond the Rhetoric, click here.
Gill Foundation takes a strategic approach to its philanthropy — but the Foundation did not always do its work in such an intentional manner. As former Executive Director Rodger McFarlane observes, "Tim started out being immensely generous in the predictable ways. He gave to wonderful groups that were working on the things we cared about. And then, twenty-six states in four years passed legislation prohibiting gay marriage, completely eliminating an array of rights for our people. And he realized that a bountiful approach was not effective."
McFarlane was hired in 2004, at the Foundation's ten-year anniversary. His first order of business was to lead the Gill Foundation through a strategic planning process that aimed to create a comprehensive framework and management tools that would help the Foundation optimize its investments in promoting equality for the LGBT community. The Foundation began the process by articulating its vision. McFarlane recalls:
"What we did initially was define what an end state looked like in incredibly concrete terms — not something exotic. What does equality mean? What does that look like in terms of physical safety? We need freedom from violence. In terms of economic equality? We need employment nondiscrimination. Are fewer of us getting fired from our jobs? Do we make the same amount of money? We need freedom for free expression. We need freedom for our organizations to grow and flourish… access to all government services and entitlements for our families. Basically, don't kill me. Don't fire me. Let me worship in an accepting environment. Let me have equal pay."
Staff then gathered extensive data about the current state of the LGBT movement to understand better its needs and to determine the Gill Foundation's most useful role in supporting the movement.
The Foundation, in collaboration with consultants, interviewed more than 50 key figures in the LGBT civil rights movement, analogous movements, philanthropy, and politics; reviewed the relevant literature; analyzed the Gill Foundation's resources (past and present); and surveyed other foundations funding LGBT issues and organizations. The research findings suggested a number of challenges for the LGBT movement:
- It lacked a common vision and coherent plan across organizations and funders.
- It had very little grassroots participation.
- It had little or no capacity for electoral and legislative work at the state level.
- It didn't yet know how to connect with mainstream Americans' values, emotions, and religious beliefs.
- Time mattered. The movement and the Gill Foundation had to act immediately.
Based on these findings and an analysis of its own strengths and weaknesses, the Foundation identified six ways it could contribute to the LGBT civil rights movement:
- Draw funders and leaders to the movement
- Scale up the movement's financing
- Crack the grassroots participation problem
- Crack the state-based advocacy problem
- Influence and leverage multi-issue mainstream progressive political thinking
- Figure out how to connect with mainstream voters' values and emotions
The Foundation then restructured its operation into five centers. Each center has its own goal and set of strategies.
COO Katherine Peck oversees the Gill Foundation's Movement Building Center, which works to build substantially stronger relationships among, and understanding of, LGBT movement organizations and leaders. This Center targets both national and state-based advocacy organizations using a number of strategies. The Center:
- Provides general operating funds to LGBT/allied organizations
- Provides general operating support and capacity building grants to state-based organizations, which are usually smaller and need more support
- Initiates convenings aimed at bringing movement leaders and organizations together to develop a common vision for movement building, planning, and resource development
The Movement Building Center also works to develop current and emerging leadership within the LGBT movement. Implementation of this goal has not yet occurred because the Foundation is working with other funders to develop a comprehensive long-term strategy. As Peck notes, the process of developing these goals and strategies was almost exclusively external in its orientation. "A lot of foundations are doing these things. But in our case, [the strategies] tie directly to findings from our analysis of the movement and a set of goals and objectives that were created from those findings, and then action steps that flow from those."
Once the goals and strategies were determined, the next step was to establish a set of interim targets that would help gauge progress toward those goals and the effectiveness of the strategies used to reach them. One key to assessment is having clear goals, asserts McFarlane. "Do you have employment nondiscrimination in the following states? Are you advancing employment nondiscrimination at the federal level? Are we reducing the incidence of violence against lesbian and gay people? Are we making advances in the recognition of our relationships? These are very, very specific things that either happen, or they don't," he explains.
Another component of successful assessment for the Gill Foundation is its Board of Directors' insistence on measurement as a component of the Foundation's operation. "My boss is a mathematician. The treasurer is a former partner at Goldman Sachs, [so] we have quantifiable metrics," McFarlane notes. "I mean, excruciating, relentless metrics attached to every goal. These are yes or no questions that anyone can understand. Simply put, did we or did we not achieve second parent adoption in Colorado? Did we or did we not protect marriage in Massachusetts? Did we or did we not raise $80 million for the movement?"
McFarlane admits that the Gill Foundation's transition into its new strategic way of operating involved some difficult changes for staff, but he also acknowledges the importance of staff commitment to strategy. "People are very clear about what we're doing and are very clear about what their role is, and that was not true when I got here," he says.
Gill Foundation uses a written strategic plan to communicate its efforts and to hold its staff accountable. "When you've constantly got to go back and say, ‘OK. What are you doing to achieve your written plan?' You are constantly mindful that it's out there. When my staff members are presenting something to me or pitching a proposal to me, I say, ‘OK. How does this fit into your overall strategy?'" says Peck.
Saying "no" to potential grantees is difficult for all foundations, but according to McFarlane, part of the challenge of having a strategy is sticking to the plan and not making exceptions. He elaborates, "I can think of a hundred examples of where we turned something down that was very close to my heart. And I think every foundation officer will be familiar with that feeling…. There is an unlimited amount of injustice and suffering out there that I cannot mitigate…. We are rationing resources. So part of the demand of this job is keeping this relentless focus on exactly what we said we're trying to do, and staying there, because there are so many appealing, urgent, necessary things that we could fund. And, like I said before, time is critical. We need to act now."
To learn more about CEP's strategy study and to see a video interview with Rodger McFarlane, visit strategy.effectivephilanthropy.org.
 Paul Heggarty, former director of business planning and analysis at security software company Watchfire, joined CEP as vice president – finance and administration in October 2007.
As one of three vice presidents at CEP, Heggarty will play a key role in the organization's growth and evolution. He is responsible for budgeting, oversees all administrative functions, and plays a leadership role in strategic planning and analysis of CEP's operations.
"Paul Heggarty brings to CEP both years of relevant experience working to help young organizations develop and a passion for our mission," said Phil Buchanan, president. "He will be crucial to CEP's future success."
Heggarty has extensive experience in strategic business planning and financial analysis at several rapidly growing organizations. Prior to his role at Watchfire, he worked as a director of finance at professional services organizations Viant Corporation and Cambridge Technology Partners. In addition, Heggarty is an active member of the Grants Committee at the Essex County Community Foundation and a Department of Social Services community representative for foster care reviews. He holds an MBA from Boston University and an undergraduate degree from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Working at CEP is a wonderful opportunity. I am using my skill set in a nonprofit environment doing work that is personally meaningful," says Heggarty. "I look forward to contributing to CEP's continued success."
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To meet growing demand for its research and assessment tools, CEP has significantly expanded its staff and is planning to open a west coast office in the fall.
Stacy Abder, who joined CEP in October as manager – client relations, will lead the new office, which will be located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"Stacy Abder brings both nonprofit and business experience to CEP, and she is uniquely qualified to help expand our presence on the West Coast," said Kevin Bolduc, vice president - assessment tools. "We are delighted that she has joined our team."
Prior to joining CEP, Abder's professional experience included consulting, business development, and client relations at The Chartis Group, Parsons, Beansprout Networks, and work as an independent consultant to Bay Area nonprofits. She co-founded a nonprofit called Law Students for Choice and served as board chair of San Francisco Women Against Rape. Abder holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College.
Travis Manzione also joined CEP in October as manager – client relations and will deliver assessment tools to foundations on the east coast, work on the creation of new tools that respond to foundation leaders' needs, and expand CEP's work with corporate foundations. Prior to joining CEP, Manzione was a consultant with The Palladium Group (formerly Balanced Scorecard), a Lincoln, MA-based strategy management consulting firm.
"Travis Manzione has worked extensively with clients in the corporate and nonprofit sectors to develop meaningful performance measures that help drive results," said Bolduc. "His expertise will be invaluable as CEP continues to expand both its client base and portfolio of tools."
Manzione has also worked as an account executive and project manager for a Philadelphia-based construction management firm and as a teaching assistant within Drexel University's Cooperative Education Program. He holds an MBA from the Lebow College of Business at Drexel University and graduated magna cum laude from Hobart and William Smith's Honors Program.
 Other new faces at CEP include Research Analysts Sally Smyth, Cassie Bolanos, and Amy Shelton; Office Manager Rachel Fagen; Executive Staff Assistant Paige Garran; and Programming and Communications Coordinator Kathryn Sherman.
"We are incredibly fortunate to be able to continue to attract outstanding staff of diverse background, talents, and experiences. I could not be more enthusiastic about these individuals, who will play a crucial role in helping execute our ambitious agenda in 2008 and beyond,” said CEP President Phil Buchanan.
Smyth joined CEP in August. She works to create assessment tools for foundation clients and is on the research team conducting the second phase of CEP's Foundation Strategy Study. Smyth graduated from Wesleyan University in 2007. Before coming to CEP, she worked on farmland preservation and farmers' market planning in Middletown, Connecticut. As an undergraduate, Smyth helped expand and manage the student-run Wesleyan organic farm and also studied in Durban, South Africa.
Bolanos, who joined the staff in September, is working on CEP's research initiatives on foundation strategy and assistance beyond the grant check. Bolanos graduated from Princeton University in 2007. While there, she interned at Lawyers for Children, a nonprofit providing legal and social work advocacy for children in need and at Safe Horizon, a nonprofit that aids victims of domestic violence.
Shelton joined CEP in October and is working primarily on the production of assessment tools. Prior to joining CEP, Shelton worked as a program manager for an educational travel agency, helping teachers prepare for trips abroad with their students. She graduated from Williams College in 2005.
Fagen joined CEP in September 2007 and oversees CEP’s office administration and operations management, including internal processes and infrastructure. Her previous experience includes working in small businesses and nonprofits in Western Massachusetts, including the Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity and the Tikkun Olam Committee of Congregation B'nai Israel, Northampton. Fagan holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Garran joined CEP in December 2007. Garran supports CEP vice presidents Kevin Bolduc, Paul Heggarty, and Lisa Jackson, PhD. Before working at CEP, she provided executive support in a head-hunting and employment placement firm on the South Shore of Boston. She has a BA in Art History from Pomona College.
Sherman, who came on board in January 2008, assists in the organization and execution of CEP's events and conferences and contributes to CEP's communications and publicity efforts. Before coming to CEP, she interned at the William J. Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative and at the American Red Cross. Sherman graduated Middlebury College in 2007, earning a B.A. in American Literature.
Effective Matters is a quarterly newsletter
published by the Center
for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), a nonprofit organization
focused on the development of comparative data to enable higher-performing
foundations. CEP's mission is to provide management and governance
tools to define, assess, and improve overall foundation performance.
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