Grantmaking Approach
The Fund places a particular value on the powerful and catalytic role that small grants can play in stimulating efforts to develop and support local philanthropic institutions. Matched funds for re-granting or endowments can increase a community foundation’s profile locally by providing an additional incentive for new donors to give, or by demonstrating the mechanism and credibility of its grantmaking programmes, while other grants can allow for peer exchanges, conference attendance and other forms of organizational development support, all of which tend to be harder to raise money for from local donors. Because the Fund emphasizes the importance of local resources in the development of strong local philanthropic institutions - and because its own resources are relatively modest, its grants are relatively small (mostly in the range of $5,000 - $30,000) and are targeted at strengthening the capacities of community foundations rather than at supporting their programmes.
The Fund is responsive to the diverse nature and needs of its potential target groups around the world. In areas of the world such as Eastern Europe, Russia and parts of Latin America, for example, where a strong infrastructure for community foundations already exists, the Fund will seek to make grants that benefit groups or clusters of community foundations, or which allow for the opportunity to pilot new approaches in local fundraising or to test a particular type of grants programme.
In other areas, however, such as much of Africa and Asia, there are very few fully-fledged community foundations, although cultures of informal giving may be strong. Here, the Fund seeks to support the efforts of both individual community foundations (which may be operating in isolation and would benefit from an injection of technical assistance or an opportunity to visit a more developed institution elsewhere) and more broad-based processes to strengthen the infrastructure of local philanthropy development such as convenings and trainings for local grantmakers.
