Giving Compass' Take:

• Carol Gallo and Jenna Wachtmann highlight ten pieces of advice for community outreach to improve your grantmaking.

• How can you better engage with the communities you aim to support? 

• Learn about participatory grantmaking.

“It must be so fun to give money away!” It’s a reaction we’ve all heard when we tell people we are staff members or board members of a grantmaking organization. And yes, it is fun…but it’s also hard work. Good grantmaking – as we know – is about far more than reading piles of proposals or signing big checks; it’s about identifying needs, evaluating potential solutions, and thoughtfully employing dollars to make an impact.

At the 2016 Exponent Philanthropy National Conference in Chicago, we presented a session with GrantCraft’s Jen Bokoff about doing just this—identifying priority needs and leveraging points for change, whether in a specific geographic region or around a particular issue area. The room was packed with foundation staff and board members interested in practical tips and tricks for “scanning” the landscape in order to inform good grantmaking.

Missed the session? Here are the top ten ideas we presented to fit a variety of timeframes, budgets, and operating styles.

  1. Get your boots muddy
  2. Listen to the experts…including your grantees
  3. Read up
  4. Get the whole picture…not just one piece
  5. Seek out things that make you uncomfortable
  6. Visualize funding and gaps to highlight opportunity
  7. Tap into tools
  8. Know what’s needed, but don’t overdo it
  9. Don’t try to learn on your own
  10. Remember: scanning is on-going

Read the full article about community outreach tips by Carol Gallo and Jenna Wachtmann at Exponent Philanthropy.