Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/FrancieOstrower

Although most foundations are established in perpetuity, the limited life option is attracting more attention. This monograph helps fill a gap in the literature by examining the motivations, strategies, and experiences associated with the decision to "sunset" and comparing the attitudes and practices of perpetual and limited life foundations. The report draws on survey data on over 800 private foundations with varied longevity plans, and in-depth interviews with 31 foundations that have considered or plan termination.

Too few boards are doing a good job of helping nonprofit grops carry out their missions, explains Francie Ostrower in this Chronicle of Philanthropy commentary. They need to be more active in fund raising, monitoring programs, community relations, educating the public, and monitoring the board's own performance.

Nonprofit boards are receiving increased attention from policymakers, media, researchers and the public. Yet most research, policy proposals, and best practice guidelines have been oriented toward large organizations. This brief helps fill a major gap in our understanding by focusing on governance among midsize nonprofits, identifying certain problem areas, and suggesting strategies that those engaged with midsize nonprofits may find helpful in strengthening their boards. The discussion uses data on the subset of 1,862 midsize organizations in our Urban Institute National Survey of Nonprofit Governance, the first national representative study of nonprofit governance.

Francie Ostrower, senior research associate in UI's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, discusses the challenges of nonprofit governance and the implications of her recently published national survey of nonprofit boards, "Nonprofit Governance in the United States: Findings on Performance and Accountability" from the First National Representative Study.

Nonprofit boards are increasingly a focus of those interested in greater accountability and transparency, including policymakers, media, and the public. To help inform current policy debates and initiatives to strengthen nonprofit governance, in 2005 the Urban Institute conducted the first ever national representative survey of nonprofit governance, with over 5,100 participants. This report presents survey findings, discussing: relationships between public policy and governance, factors that promote or impede boards' performance of basic stewardship responsibilities, board composition and factors associated with board diversity, and recruitment processes, including the difficulty experienced by many nonprofits in finding members.

This brief presents the first wave of findings from the Urban Institute's National Survey of nonprofit governance. The study--the first national representative survey of nonprofit governance--probed a variety of governance issues and includes responses from over 5,100 nonprofits. This brief explores a subset of findings related to the potential impact of extending some Sarbanes-Oxley provisions to nonprofits. It confirms the importance of acknowledging the potentially different impact, cost, and value of applying provisions to nonprofits of different size.

Those who wish to understand or expand cultural participation need to pay much greater attention to its diversity. People attend different types of cultural events for different reasons, with different people, in different places, with different experiences. The diversity of arts participation is examined in this brief, which reports on findings from a national survey of cultural participation commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and conducted by the Urban Institute. The survey was administered by phone to a random sample of 1,231 American adults. [View the corresponding full report]

This monograph presents findings from a national survey of cultural participation conducted by the Urban Institute and commissioned by The Wallace Foundation. The study's overarching conclusion is that arts research, policy, and management need to be reoriented to pay greater attention to the diversity of cultural participation. People attend different types of cultural events for different reasons, with different people, in different places, with different experiences. The survey was administered by phone to a random sample of 1,231 American adults. [View the corresponding report summary]

Too few foundations have established standards of effectiveness or regularly assess themselves in relation to these standards. Drawing on interviews with 61 foundation leaders, Ostrower discusses foundation leaders' understanding of effectiveness, their methods for judging it, and their views on how their foundations have changed (or need to change) to become more effective. The study points to the need for foundations to articulate specific understandings of effectiveness, remain attentive to these, and develop a regular process for assessing themselves in relation to their approach to effectiveness.

This report presents findings from the Attitudes and Practices Concerning Effective Philanthropy survey of 1,192 foundations, which examined approaches to effectiveness across a wide range areas, such as communications, evaluation, grantmaking, and staff development and training. Survey findings reveal how foundations today see themselves, how they function, and whether they are fully functioning in the ways that they believe they should be.

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