A New Generation of Foundation Leaders Need to Act Like Community Organizers, Not Gatekeepers
The pandemic and racial reckoning have made clear that we need bold foundation executives who see their role as using their money, power, and voices to muster resources to achieve ambitious goals.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
For All of Us in Philanthropy, the Moment of Rebuilding Is Here
Our grantees have struggled mightily with a range of challenges as foundations have seen their assets boom and learned that it doesn’t take luxury travel or other trappings to do good well. Let’s work now to keep moving forward.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
What One Grant Maker Learned in This Pandemic Year: Keep Asking Questions
Brave grantees and fast decision making by foundations were key to getting through the scariest days since lockdown. But it became clearer than ever that foundation officials have a lot to learn, writes Lisa Pilar Cowan.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
It’s Not Advice My Grantees Need. They Need My Access to Power and Money.
Too often financial supporters think they are helping by making recommendations to people who already know how to carry out nonprofit missions. Let’s focus on what we have to give that truly matters.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
Charity Navigator’s New “Impact Score” Tells Us Little About a Nonprofit’s True Value
Attempts to quantify success based primarily on return on financial investment, ignore the complexities of nonprofits’ work and their impact on the communities they serve.
By Liz Dozier and Lisa Pilar Cowan
Taking Off Blinders: How the Insurrection at the Capitol Changes My Grant-Making Perspective
I had a clever column worked out to open 2021, one that would detail my New Year’s resolutions to be a better grant maker. I had talked with the colleague who illustrates these dispatches for the Chronicle about the most amusing ways to show me as cleareyed and resolute.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
When We Return to Our Foundation Offices, Let’s Make Them Spaces Where We Collaborate With Grantees
Our offices should inspire brainstorming and conversation, filled with music and art that shows we want to work with nonprofits to devise new approaches, not impose them.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
What Can Philanthropy Do to Fix Democracy? Listen and Learn.
Grant makers are racing to declare what the 2020 elections taught us about next steps. But perhaps we should just be quiet, keep moving money to our partners, and reflect on what is working best.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
Foundations That Are Serious About Achieving Equity Need to Rethink How They Work
Ditching old ideas, structures, and titles, like the program-officer term that connotes people of wealth commanding others to take action, will help us do more to meet our aspirations.
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor
Foundations Are Breaking All the Rules in the Pandemic. They Need to Keep Doing That.
Meeting together on Zoom, the walls that hobbled collaboration are falling. How can we keep the spirit going and make grantees a central part of every aspect of our operations?
By Lisa Pilar Cowan
Contributor