No matter the size of your foundation, you can invest in listening to a multitude of perspectives to guide your approach to change. It’s important to bring your nonprofit partners to the table and listen to their experiences in the field and to the insights they bring that may add nuance to how your foundation understands the problems you’re looking to solve.

Particularly if you run a lean organization and have limits to the funds you can grant, you should look to deepening your understanding by venturing a step beyond your nonprofit partners to the end recipients. When you see or hear things firsthand, this may even change how you approach your work with those nonprofit partners.

The importance of approaching problems with a results-focused mindset

If you can deepen your understanding of the people and issues at the heart of your foundation’s work, you’re then in a stronger place to make better decisions about the results you want to achieve and how you intend to achieve them.

Smaller foundations can achieve change that outweighs their size when they are laser-focused on results from the start of their relationships with nonprofits or other collaborators. When you’re part of a lean organization, this is critical so you can make every decision and dollar count.

Read the source article at PhilanthroFiles