April 29, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Funding Effectiveness: Lessons in Building Nonprofit Capacity
This collection of essays, sponsored by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), in Washington, offers advice on how foundations can help nonprofit groups strengthen their organizational structures.
Barbara D. Kibbe, founder of GEO, which represents foundations that make grants to help organizations deal with management issues, says that foundations are increasingly focusing on helping grantees become more effective. Foundations, she writes, are supporting technology and facility projects, organizational evaluations, and leadership-development programs. She says some of these efforts, such as hiring a consultant to develop a strategic plan, can ultimately help nonprofit groups offer better services and tackle challenges. Ms. Kibbe also offers advice on financing these types of programs, drawing on her experience as director of the organizational-effectiveness and philanthropy program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, in Los Altos, Calif.
Other chapters give examples of grant programs that provide operating support and educational opportunities, or otherwise directly support efforts to increase organizational effectiveness. One essay discusses a collaborative effort among the Peninsula Community Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, and the Sobrato Family Foundation, all in California, to strengthen human-services groups. Another essay describes how one fund established a new method to encourage grantees to evaluate themselves more thoroughly.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94103-1741; (317) 572-3986 or (800) 956-7739; fax (317) 572-4002; http://www.josseybass.com; 176 pages; $30; I.S.B.N. 0-7879-6816-1.
