June 26, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation quickly approved a $3.7-million grant to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to study radioactive materials in the Pacific Ocean.
Here’s how other foundations can position themselves to respond to what Thomas J. Tierney, a co-founder of the Bridgespan Group, calls “unanticipated strategic opportunities”:
Don’t commit your entire grant-making budget at the start of the year. “If you commit 100 percent of your grant-making to predetermined strategies, you’ve locked yourself up, unless you want to drill down further into your corpus,” Mr. Tierney says.
Go big. If a foundation is willing to commit money in response to an unexpected opportunity, it should consider covering the full cost, as the Moore foundation did. The scramble to round up additional supporters could delay a time-sensitive project.
Work with charities you already know. The Moore foundation has awarded grants to Woods Hole since 2006, so the grant maker could focus on the worthiness of the project instead of the effectiveness of the organization. “This was not a blind date,” Mr. Tierney says.
