As the dust settles from the United Nations Third International Conference on Financing for Development, it’s time for development professionals to celebrate the good things that were announced — for example, the announcement that country, civil society and private foundation champions have committed to forming a Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data — and get back …
Program Officer Margot Fahnestock on how a new partnership is helping A New Approach Having funded reproductive health services for nearly 50 years, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is an experienced donor in the field of family planning. But a persistent challenge—especially for mature donors—is how to better connect with the teenagers we are …
In a world where funding from government and international donors dwarfs anything even the largest philanthropic institutions can bring to bear, collaboration is one of the major ways that foundations of all sizes can have an impact on a global scale. That’s one reason the Hewlett Foundation, where I work as a grants officer with …
It’s surprisingly hard to be a by-the-book grantmaker because being an imperfect person gets in the way. When I depend too much on my own gut instincts, give in to obligations of friendship, guilt, or a sense of compassion, or feel sure that success is just a matter of working harder and harder, I’m unlikely …
(Photo Credit: Gemma Garner, licensed under CC BY NC 2.0) Let’s call it the Zero Year. You’d be hard pressed to find it in most grant proposals, but it’s there. It’s just that the first year of a new program or organization is often disguised as a typical period of work: a full complement of staff working …
(Photo Credit: Philippa Willitts, licensed under CC BY NC 2.0) This article was collaboratively authored by Sara Davis, Director of Grants Management for the Hewlett Foundation, Jessica Bearman of Bearman Consulting and Marc McDonald, Director of Grants Management for the AARP Foundation. It is cross-posted from GMNSight, a publication of the Grants Managers Network. -Ed. One of …
If I told you that a half-day training program creates life-changing benefits for women and their families, I’d understand if you were skeptical. Yet, implausible as that sounds, researchers at the University of California San Francisco Bixby Center have shown precisely how it can happen. And it’s a story that deserves to be shared. Let’s …
Quick- What do the following cities have in common: London, Arusha, Dublin, Cape Town, Marseille, Accra, Oslo, Nairobi, and Addis Ababa? A) They were candidates to host the 2020 Summer Olympics B) They are each home to three or more UNESCO World Heritage sites C) They have hosted the “PopPov” annual research conference The answer …
As they tossed their graduation caps in the air a few days ago, my daughter and about 500 classmates took a big step toward adulthood. Some are off to four-year colleges, a few are taking time to test the job market or explore the world on their own, and the rest—a good number—are headed to …
One of the things I’ve found most striking about working in philanthropy is how much time we spend focused on what we do wrong, what we could do better, what we’re not achieving, and so on. To be honest, it can be a little deflating, especially in a field like ours that can and ought …