These “top 10” insights comes from our lived experience, and we offer them in the hope that they might help you shape your own meaningful giving journey. They reflect our approach to venture philanthropy – one that we put into practise every day on behalf of our clients and the charity partners they support.
Along with these quick-hit videos featuring our CEO, Tim Cormode, there’s also a no-fuss first-steps checklist waiting for you at the bottom of the page. Think of it as your quiet cue to get started, whenever you’re ready.
1. Keep the Admin Burden Light
Don’t burden your funding recipients with paperwork that takes hours and hours to fill out, unless you’re using that information for really good purposes.
Keeping the paperwork minimal frees up your social impact partners to focus on their work and helps to make sure their communications with you are specific and clear. The less time they spend at the their desks explaining what they do, the more time they get to actually do it. That applies to your staff as well.
Action:
- Make a simple annual report form that only asks for the most important information.
- If you aren’t using the information effectively, don’t ask for it.
2. No Applications – Be Proactive
Don’t offer an open application form online that any potential grantee can submit.
Spending time finding the organizations that matter to you the most is more productive. You won’t be inundated with unsolicited requests, your team won’t spend hours saying no, and charities that aren’t the right fit can use the time in more productive ways.
Actions:
- Remove any application forms from your website.
- Post simple language that describes your proactive giving approach.
- Build a profile of the type of grantee you want to support so your staff, board, volunteers, and grantees are all on the same page and can be allies in your discovery.
3. Give Multi-Year Funding & Notify in Advance
Make a minimum commitment to providing two years of funding and let your recipients know at least one year in advance if funding will be renewed.
Knowing revenues well in advance gives leaders the ability to plan and the confidence to hire and make commitments. If next year’s funding is unknown, organizations must spend more time mitigating risk. Multi-year funding also reduces the administrative burden both for the givers and the recipients.
Actions:
- Budget to provide at least two years of funding for every organization you support.
- Communicate funding decisions to beneficiaries one year in advance.
4. Give Unrestricted Funding
Remove funding restrictions to give your grantees control of how the money is spent.
Having the flexibility to maneuver and to put the money where it’s going to have the greatest value will help CEO’s achieve the social impact goals of the organization. If you don’t trust what they’re doing, don’t give them the money.
Actions:
- Include language in your funding agreements that directs the recipient to spend funds at their discretion to achieve the social impact goals of the organization and support the greatest need.
- Meet the CEO and the Board Chair prior to committing to a new organization, to make sure they have your full confidence.
5. Get Out In the Field
Travel to the community and visit the organizations you fund or intend to fund. Meet the staff, the board, the volunteers, and connect in real life – not just from behind a screen and a cheque.
The best way to learn about the impact your philanthropy is having is by seeing the work and meeting the people. The best way to build relationships and trust, is in person.
Actions:
- Plan to visit as many recipient organizations as you can manage each year. If there are too many to visit every year, segment them in a way that makes sense (eg. New charities, or those that are close to each other geographically), and plan two years in advance.
- If visiting the charities isn’t possible, then invite them to visit you.
- Reach out to your charity partners and let them know you’d like to connect in person, making them partners in planning.
6. Respect the Overhead
All organizations need to pay their employees well and to have budgets for marketing and travel and other expenses. This is as true for your own foundation as it is for the charities you fund.
By restricting your own overhead you’re restricting your own ability to deliver for your charity partners and to achieve the impact goals that matter to you. You’re losing opportunities.
Actions:
- Budget at least 15% on top of what you’re giving toward the administrative costs of running your own foundation.
- Do not restrict or direct overhead costs in the organizations you fund: remove this language from funding agreements.
7. Leverage All Day Long
Impact takes more than money, it takes relationships. You know more people than you might realize, and that network can help you derive even more value from every dollar.
Finding ways to leverage your networks and their resources can help organizations you support become more sustainable and have a much greater impact. You’ll see funding dollars go further as the community around the organizations you support becomes stronger.
Actions
- Build a network of people with time, treasure, or talent to contribute.
- Host an informal gathering to talk about purpose and impact.
- Let people know you value their experience and talents and invite them to help.
- Know your charity partner’s needs, and connect them to resources.
8. Collaborate
Openly share your network, your ideas, resources, and solutions with your peers and across your funding network and help other explore the possibilities.
Holding tightly to what you have and operating in a silo to protect it stops you from being a catalyst for change. Bringing people together, sharing what you know, opens opportunities.
Actions
- Make a list of things you’ve learned that could be helpful to others.
- Look for ways to share your knowledge and connect your network.
- Read “Forces for Good” by Crutchfield and Grant for inspiration.
9. Budget for Travel
Make sure that you’re budgeting time and capital to travel to meet with your charity partners in the communities they serve.
Meeting in person builds relationships, and a budget makes it happen. There is a false benefit to hoarding every dollar for donations to charities: by investing in your connections and relationships you’re making sure the dollars you give are going as far as possible.
Action
- Allocate a reasonable budget for key staff to travel to meet with charity partners.
- When visiting the charity partner isn’t possible, fund their travel to you.
10. Gratitude
One of the greatest values is the value of gratitude. Keep it front of mind, and say thank you all the time.
As soon as you put your feet up on the desk to start celebrating, that’s when stuff goes sideways. There’s always something to do, and there’s always something to be grateful for. When you think about others and appreciate them, the work you do is more meaningful.
Actions:
- Consider making gratitude one of your core values.
- Integrate thanks into your culture and key messages and express it often.
Whenever you’re ready: