Attitudes and Practices Concerning Effective Philanthropy

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

Introduction

In 2003, the Urban Institute conducted a survey of 1,192 grantmaking foundations in order to construct a wide-ranging and rigorous portrait of attitudes and practices concerning effective philanthropy in the foundation field today. The study was funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation in partnership with Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO). Members of the GEO Research Task Group served as an advisory committee for the study. This executive summary provides a general overview and examples of survey results, which are presented in detail in the full study report. The summary and report seek to advance the field's discussion of effectiveness in the following ways:

• Demonstrate the importance of avoiding broad-brush characterizations of, or "one size fits all" prescriptions for, the foundation field;
• Offer a typology of effectiveness frameworks and analyze the heterogeneity of attitudes and practices among different categories of foundations;
• Present findings indicating that substantial numbers of foundations are not engaging in practices that, according to their own standards, are important to effectiveness;
• Convey findings highlighting the need for foundations and those seeking to strengthen them to carefully consider their current levels of awareness and responsiveness to external parties (e.g., media, grantees, the general public);
• Point out the need for foundations to think about the purposes for which they collect information and how they can utilize information they do collect and connect it to their mission and goals;
• Underscore the need to incorporate the role and significance of donors into discussions of effectiveness;
• Provide benchmark data that can be used to track changes in foundation practices over time in order to assess the impact of efforts to strengthen philanthropy; and
• Allow those seeking to foster more effective philanthropy to identify and target their efforts on areas of greatest need.

Coming at a time of growing attention to foundation performance and accountability by government, the media, the public, researchers, and funders themselves, the information from the study could not be timelier. If efforts to strengthen philanthropy are to be effective, they must be informed by reliable data on the current state of the field. The survey results tell us a great deal about how foundations see themselves, how they function, and whether they are fully functioning in the ways that they feel they should be. Certain patterns that we uncovered warrant very careful thought by those seeking to enhance foundation performance, and should assist funders to better appreciate and respond to public demands for greater accountability. The level of response to the survey, expressions of interest in our results, and the growing levels of attention to effectiveness issues in the field testify to a widespread desire for information on improving effectiveness.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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