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Monthly Archives: July 2011
July 22, 2011, 12:30 pm
Why One Big Foundation Wants to Make Unrestricted Grants
When Bank of America Charitable Foundation is considering potential grantees, it favors charities that have a clear sense of their long-term mission as well as those that can offer volunteer opportunities to bank employees, says Kerry Sullivan, the foundation’s president.
Among the biggest mistakes grantees make, she says: not taking Bank of America seriously when it says it wants the charity to apply for general operating support rather than support for a specific program.
“We would prefer to strengthen that organization and give them unrestricted support,” says Ms. Sullivan.
But, she says, “people don’t believe us.”
July 21, 2011, 9:41 am
$200-Million Foundation Effort Seeks to Increase Healthy Food in California
The California Endowment wants to increase access to healthy food in poor neighborhoods.
The California Endowment got a little help kicking off its newest project. First Lady Michelle Obama announced the start of the California FreshWorks Fund during a ceremony at the White House. The new $200-million loan fund is designed to increase access to healthy, low-cost food in poor neighborhoods in the state.
“Healthy food is often the prescription that your medical practitioners provide you with if you’re diagnosed with a chronic condition,” says Marion Standish, director for community health at the California Endowment. “Yet you can’t eat healthy food if you can’t buy healthy food near your home, near your work, or in your community.”
The California Endowment started the fund with a $30-million…
July 20, 2011, 11:06 am
A Job Hunter Gets Advice on Landing Her First Job in Philanthropy
Elena Fracchia
Elena Fracchia admits she is on an unusual job hunt.
She graduated in June with a master’s degree in public administration and a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from the University of Oregon, with hopes of finding work as a grant maker.
But in informational interviews this past spring, she discovered that many grant makers fell gradually into their roles. What’s more, many of the foundation job listings she found asked for 10 or more years of experience.
This wasn’t an easy path for someone in her late 20s. So to find advice for breaking in to philanthropy, Ms. Fracchia turned to The Chronicle’s LinkedIn group.
“What skills would be helpful for me to cultivate now for a future career in the field?” she asked in a posting.
Grant makers, fund raisers,…
July 19, 2011, 8:30 am
Gates Foundation Seeks to ‘Reinvent the Toilet’
After five years of making grants to help the developing world deal with water, sanitation, and hygiene issues, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that it will narrow its focus to sanitation.
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who leads the Seattle foundation’s global-development program, made the announcement at a conference on sanitation in Kigali, Rwanda.
Gates anticipates spending the same amount—roughly $40-million per year—on sanitation as it has been giving to date in the three areas combined.
In calling on the world to help “reinvent the toilet” for the 21st century, foundation leaders said they were putting more money into sanitation because such projects have been neglected by other donors.
Frank Rijsberman, the philanthropy’s director of water, sanitation, and hygiene, said he estimates that donors and governments devote nine times as much attention to…
July 6, 2011, 9:16 am
Four Paths to Becoming a Grant Maker
How do grant makers get their jobs?
We recently spoke with four foundation executives, all of whom took different routes to their jobs working in corporate philanthropy or for private foundations.
One came from a background in academe and social work, another is a lawyer who worked in different branches of government, and another came from the business world. And a fourth grant maker worked her way from a low-level foundation job two decades ago.
How did you get started working for a foundation? What advice do you have about the best career paths for people interested in careers in grant making?
Another video on careers: How fund raisers got their start.
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