Funders are like fingerprints: No two are exactly the same. Yet all funders have one thing in common: They want their grants to make a difference.

There’s another common denominator. All funders—small and large, individual and institutional, local and global—come to realize that making a difference is harder than they thought. Generation after generation, funders rediscover that philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was right on the money when he concluded that “it is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.”

The key is helping good leaders build high-performance organizations capable of delivering meaningful, measurable, sustainable results.

The biggest driver for performance is nonprofit leaders’ own internal motivation to make a meaningful difference for the people and causes they serve. When you combine that internal motivation with strong external support, you’ve got a powerful combination!

Nonprofits can make great progress in the journey toward high performance when they partner with creative funders willing to think big with them and willing to make multi-year investments in helping nonprofit leaders strengthen their management muscle and rigor. At the very least, they need funders who are willing to support an organization’s learning and improvement—and are open to learning and improving themselves.

Read the full article about funding performance at Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community.