Reports

Better Outcomes, Lower Costs:
How Community-Based Funders Can Transform U.S. Health Care

Mark Kramer, Dr. Atul Gawande

Mark Kramer and Dr. Atul Gawande discuss the untapped potential for community-based funders to transform the cost and quality of healthcare in the United States.

Report

Competing by Saving Lives: How Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Companies Create Shared Value in Global Health

Kyle Peterson, Matthew Rehrig, Mike Stamp, Samuel Kim

How health technology companies are creating shared value around unmet health needs

Report

Executive Summary

Catalytic Philanthropy In India

Nidhi M. Reddy, Lalitha Vaidyanathan, Katyayani Balasubramanian, Kavitha Gorapalli, Sharad Sharma

This collaborative report from FSG and the Indian School of Business explores how India's largest givers can help solve critical social problems.

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Collaboration and Connection: How Foundations Partner Effectively to Address Their Community’s Information Needs

Ellen Martin, Katelyn Mack, Hallie Preskill, John Kania

This report highlights the strategies and approaches that Knight Community Information Challenge grantee foundations have used to develop and maintain productive partnerships.

Report

Infographic

A Market for Success: How a Robust Service Provider Market Can Help Community Colleges Improve Student Completion

Jeff Kutash, Kate Tallant, Matt Wilka, Kevin Connell

This report draws on the perspectives of community college leaders to explore how external service providers can best help colleges improve student completion.

Report

Webinar

Managing for Learning and Impact

Stef Steyaert, Mark Hongenaert, Tinne Vandensande, Wouter Van den Berghe, Valerie Bockstette, Marc Pfitzer, Hallie Preskill

Over the past three years, the King Baudouin Foundation has developed a more systematic approach for the evaluation of its projects, which FSG helped codify in the KBF Project Management Guide: ‘Managing for Learning and Impact’.

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Creating Shared Value in India

Veronica Borgonovi, Simon Meier, Manjari Sharda, Lalitha Vaidyanathan

“Creating shared value” is gaining traction worldwide; examine how companies in India are contributing to inclusive growth – and gaining competitive advantage.

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Executive Summary

Opportunities for Leadership: Meeting Community Information Needs 2011

Katelyn Mack, Ellen Martin, with Leslie Crutchfield

This report from the Knight Community Information Challenge highlights three organizations that have taken distinct pathways beyond grant making to incorporate information needs into their work.

Report

The Promise of Citywide Charter Strategies

Jeff Kutash, John Kania, Robert Albright, Julie Obbard

This report examines the potential for citywide charter strategies as a key leverage point for increasing charter school quality.

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Columbus Survey 2010 Results: Guideposts Point to Growth

Rebecca Graves, Hollie Marston

What changes in assets, gifts, and grants did community foundations experience in 2010 given the economic recovery? This report is an analysis of 2010 data gathered through the Columbus Survey.

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Rethinking International Development in a Converging World

Gib Bulloch, Chris Jurgens and Peter Lacy

This report from Accenture Development Partnerships explores the concept of "Convergence" which calls for cross-sector collaboration among NGO's, governments and corporations to solve global development problems.

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Creating Shared Value: A How-to Guide for the New Corporate (R)evolution

Valerie Bockstette, Mike Stamp

This report explores how corporations can translate Creating Shared Value into action.

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Exploring the Links between International Business and Poverty Reduction

Oxfam America, The Coca-Cola Company, SABMiller

This in-depth study examines the economic and social impact of the The Coca-Cola Company and SABMiller value chain on communities in El Salvador and Zambia using the poverty footprint methodology developed by Oxfam.

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Water Access, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH): U.S. Advocacy Landscape

Mark Kramer, Jennifer Splansky, Jason Lee, Megumi Tsutsui, Matt Wilka

This research summarizes the U.S. advocacy landscape for global access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, and suggests goals to drive future advocacy.

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Seeking Shared Success: Business Model Innovation Through Mergers, Affiliations, and Alliances

Rebecca Graves, Hollie Marston

Learn how alliances, affiliations, and mergers represent a path to enhanced sustainability and greater impact for community foundations.

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2011 Reports from the Field: Place-based Foundations and the Knight Community Information Challenge

John Kania, Katelyn Mack, Ellen Martin, Marina Pol Longo, Hallie Preskill

This second annual report highlights lessons learned from the Knight Community Information Challenge.

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Opportunities for Foundation Leadership

Jeff Cohen, Nathalie Jones, Leslie Crutchfield

These three case studies show how community foundations, working to create more informed and engaged communities, contributed to transforming their own institutions.

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IMPACT: A Practical Guide to Evaluating Community Information Projects

Katelyn Mack, Ellen Martin, Hallie Preskill, John Kania

Four essential steps to collecting useful information about the effectiveness and impact of community-based information and media efforts.

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Gaining Perspective:
Lessons Learned From One Foundation’s Exploratory Decade

Veronica Borgonovi, Fay Hanleybrown, Hallie Preskill, David Zapol

Ten years after launching an ambitious strategy, the Northwest Area Foundation asked FSG to identify lessons learned from a decade of community-based work.

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Executive Summary

Due Diligence Done Well

The guide underlines the value of a streamlined approach to due diligence that balances a grantmaker’s information needs with the added burden on the grantee.

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Dollars for Degrees: Financial Aid and its Impact on Post-Secondary Degree Completion in Texas

Jeffrey Cohen, Lindsay Fox, Jeff Kutash, Mukta Pandit

This report examines how financial aid is structured and packaged and the specific effects of rising college costs, increasing debt, and the impact of financial aid on degree completion.

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Dollars for Degrees: Structuring Post-Secondary Scholarships to Increase Student Success

Jeffrey Cohen, Lindsay Fox, Jeff Kutash, Mukta Pandit

This report explores how funders can structure their scholarship awards and provide access to key non-financial supports to improve post-secondary persistence and completion.

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Measuring the Online Impact of Your Information Projects

Dana Chinn, Ellen Martin

The goal of this primer is to build a better understanding of how funders and their implementation partners are reaching and engaging audiences online through websites and social media.

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Smallholder Farmer Development: International Donor Funding Trends

Marc Pfitzer, Valerie Bockstette, Simon Meier, Jessica Davies

Agricultural development, and more specifically, the critical role of smallholder farmers, has received renewed attention from the global community in the past few years. Smallholders represent one of the world's most exciting and important development opportunities.

Report

PDP Access Strategies

Laura Herman, Amanda Oudin

This report highlights the current status of PDP access strategies, select access strategy challenges, and future considerations for improving access strategies

Report

School Turnaround Field Guide

Jeff Kutash, Eva Nico, Emily Gorin, Samira Rahmatullah, Kate Tallant

This report offers a field assessment of actors, issues, key gaps and early lessons learned in turning around failing schools.

Report

Executive Summary

Community-Based Philanthropy and the Knight Community Information Challenge

Justin Bakule, John Kania, Ellen Martin, Hallie Preskill

Community and place-based foundations transform into high impact catalysts for change, by engaging with a broad range of community stakeholders.

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Initiative pour la dynamisation de la philanthropie en Suisse

Marc Pfitzer, Valerie Bockstette, Mike Stamp

Ce rapport apporte un point de vue factuel dans le débat sur les défis auxquels fait face la philanthropie en Suisse et sur les possibilités de renforcer son impact.

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Multiplying Impact through Philanthropic Collaboration

Marc Pfitzer, Mike Stamp

Philanthropic collaboration is essential in order to assemble sufficient assets, expertise and influence to create social impact.

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Improving the Livelihoods of Palm Oil Smallholders: the Role of the Private Sector

Adeeb Mahmud, Matthew Rehrig, Greg Hills

Smallholders represent a critical component of the palm oil industry, as well as a significant opportunity to improve livelihoods in resource-poor settings.

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From Crisis to Opportunity: Learning from One Region’s Response to the Economic Downturn

Rebecca Graves, Fay Hanleybrown, Veronica Borgonovi

Funders in one region of the U.S. demonstrate how difficult times spur innovative strategies by doing more with less. 

Report

Toolkit

Advancing Philanthropy in Switzerland: A Vision for a Cooperative and Recognized Philanthropic Sector

Marc Pfitzer, Valerie Bockstette, Mike Stamp

To dramatically transform Swiss philanthropy, funders must undertake strategies to catalyze cooperation and put philanthropy on the map.

Report

Benchmarking Beyond Asset Size: New Top 100 Lists

Rebecca Graves, Melissa Scott, Diana Esposito

Benchmarking community foundations beyond asset size provides a more holistic view of how these organizations operate.

Report

Toolkit

Stärkung der Philanthropie in der Schweiz

Marc Pfitzer, Valerie Bockstette, Mike Stamp

Im letzten Jahrzehnt wurden erhebliche Anstrengungen unternommen, um die Reichweite und Wirkung der Philanthropie in der Schweiz zu erhöhen.

Maximizing Impact: An Integrated Strategy for Grantmaking and Mission Investing in Climate Change

Mark Kramer, Adeeb Mahmud, Serah Makka

Philanthropists can dramatically increase their impact by linking their mission investing approaches with their grantmaking strategies.

Report

Webinar

Presentation

Community Foundation Economic Scenario Planning (ESP) Tool

John Kania, Rebecca Graves, Melissa Scott, Diana Esposito, Valerie Bockstette

A new interactive tool allows community foundations to test the impact of changes in market conditions on their business.

Toolkit

Fueling Impact: A Fresh Look at Business Model Innovation and New Revenue Sources

Rebecca Graves, Samira Rahmatullah

Difficult economic times in 2008-2010 were an important wake-up call for community foundations – a reminder that diversifying revenue sources is an essential component of a strong business model.

Report

School Turnaround: A Brief Overview of the Landscape and Key Issues

Jeff Kutash, Eva Nico, Emily Gorin, Kate Tallant, Samira Rahmatullah

This report, prepared for attendees of FSG’s national school turnaround conference in January 2010, highlights effective practices, policies, and conditions for success, and needed capacities for tackling turnaround on a national scale.

Report

Practical Guide for Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Evaluation Questions

Hallie Preskill, Nathalie Jones

Engaging stakeholders early on allows organizations to develop measurement processes that are more relevant, credible and useful.

Report

Webinar

Raising Money While Raising Hell: Catalytic Community Leadership and Successful Fundraising for Community Foundations

John Kania, Emily Gorin, Valerie Bockstette

Several foundations built their fundraising efforts by leading advocacy efforts, debunking the myth that these activities are naturally at odds.

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Communicating Education Metrics

Jason Lee, Hallie Preskill, Rebecca Graves

New research highlights eight innovative tools that allow users to communicate social metrics effectively to a wide range of users.

Report

Executive Summary

Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement and Social Impact

Mark Kramer, Marcie Parkhurst, Lalitha Vaidyanathan

To achieve the dramatic results necessary to solve today's largest social challenges, coordinated evaluation approaches involving multiple stakeholders are required.

Report

Executive Summary

Webinar

Building a Movement: Lessons Learned from the California Charter Schools Association

Lindsay Fox, Jeff Kutash, Ellen Martin

This case study focuses on the history and growth of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), one of the leading charter support organizations in the country and a veteran institution which is often looked upon as a model for other Charter Support Organizations.

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Taking Informed Action in Challenging Times

Wendy Horton, Valerie Bockstette, Melissa Scott, Diana Esposito

New research uncovers how community foundations are weathering the economic storm and “making lemonade” from difficult times.

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California Charter Schools Association: Charter Launch

Lindsay Fox, Jeff Kutash, Ellen Martin

This case study examines the development of the California Charter Schools Association's "Charter Launch" program and provides an instructive model for other charter support organizations.

Report

Anti-Corruption as Strategic CSR: A Call to Action for Corporations

Greg Hills, Leigh Fiske, Adeeb Mahmud

Engaging in anti-corruption strategies is an opportunity for corporations to improve competitiveness while limiting diversion of resources from disadvantaged populations.

Report

Video

Webinar

Market Development Investments by Agricultural Input Companies: Transforming Smallholder Agriculture

Marc Pfitzer, Ramya Krishnaswamy, Claudia Genier

This report demonstrates how companies providing services to farmers in poor countries are transforming smallholder agriculture, making it sustainable.

Report

Trustee Evaluation Toolkit

Mark Kramer, Eva Nico, Samantha Nobles-Block

Trustees and foundations need innovative evaluation approaches to make strategic decisions, better plan work, improve implementation and track progress.

Report

Toolkit

Webinar

Promoting Philanthropy in Luxembourg

Marc Pfitzer, Mike Stamp

Financial institutions in Luxembourg have found ways to both improve the philanthropic environment and benefit their business.

Report

Advancing Good Governance: How Grantmakers Invest in the Governance of Nonprofit Organizations

Kathy K. Hedge, Eva Nico, Lindsay Fox

Many nonprofits and grantmakers are engaging in nonprofit board development activities to transform the social sector and achieve dramatic results.

Report

Executive Summary

Mobilizing Resources for the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People

Marcie Parkhurst, Amber Johnson

By surfacing approaches to mitigating funding obstacles, this report is a call to action to mobilize funding for LGBT efforts.

Report

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Agrifood Sector: Harnessing Innovation for Sustainable Development

Claudia Genier, Mike Stamp, Marc Pfitzer

This review of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the agrifood sector paints a landscape of opportunity won and lost and encourages the most promising strategies and collaborative approaches.

Report

Making Informed Decisions in Uncertain Times

Wendy Horton, Valerie Bockstette, Melissa Scott

How do community foundations respond to volatile financial markets and bearish economic indicators? This report identifies strategies and recommendations for responding to the economic downturn.

Report

A Brief Guide to the Law of Mission Investing for U.S. Foundations

Mark Kramer, Anne Stetson

Laws governing mission-investing are complex.  These guides analyze U.S. laws for these investments and recommend ways to navigate them.

Report

Smarter Programming of the Female Condom: Increasing Its Impact on HIV Prevention in the Developing World

FSG, with Elliot Marseille and James G. Kahn

New research examines how the female condom fits within HIV prevention and makes recommendations for increasing its impact and cost-effectiveness.

Report

Risk, Reward, and Social Impact: Demystifying the Law of Mission Investing by U.S. Foundations

Mark Kramer, Anne Stetson

A comprehensive analysis of the legality of mission investing, examples from leading foundations of mission investing in practice, and practical recommendations to foundations and their advisors to facilitate mission investing within the framework of the law. 

Report

Diarrheal Disease Advocacy: Findings from a Scan of the Global Funding and Policy Landscape

Laura Herman, Leigh Fiske, Jennifer Splansky, Kate Tallant

New funding and policy research for Path, a global nonprofit, informs their advocacy strategy around diarrheal disease in children.

Report

The Role of the Health Care Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity

Adeeb Mahmud, Marcie Parkhurst

This report provides an overview and critical assessment of the ways pharmaceutical companies expand economic opportunities in developing countries.

Report

The Role of the Food and Beverage Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity

Marc Pfitzer, Ramya Krishnaswamy

Pioneering firms are improving lives of food & beverage workers in developing countries by satisfying their consumption and income needs.

Report

Aggregating Impact: A Funder's Guide to Mission Investment Intermediaries

Mark Kramer, Sarah Cooch

This guide to mission investment intermediaries highlights the range of intermediaries available and the advantages they offer funders.

Report

Toolkit

Best in Class: How Top Corporations Can Help Transform Public Education

Greg Hills, Jason Hirschhorn, John Kania, Allison Lee

This report provides a critical assessment of opportunities for corporations to transform the U.S. public education system through corporate philanthropy.

Report

Executive Summary

Volunteering for Impact: Best Practices in International Corporate Volunteering

Greg Hills, Adeeb Mahmud

This report highlights effective practices for international corporate volunteering (ICV) by examining two principal models: local and cross-border volunteering.

Report

Video

Growing Smarter: Achieving Sustainability in Emerging Community Foundations

Eva Nico, Rebecca Graves, Tracy Foster, Fay Hanleybrown

This report focuses on solutions to a striking paradox: as community foundations grow their assets, their sustainability is often threatened.

Report

Executive Summary

Toolkit

Toward a New Approach to Product Development Partnership (PDP) Performance Measurement

Kyle Peterson, Marc Pfitzer, Laura Herman, Patty Russell, David Zapol, Mike Stamp

This report highlights new approaches to measuring the performance of product development partnerships, multi-sector collaborations developing products for neglected diseases.

Report

From Insight to Action: New Directions in Foundation Evaluation

Mark Kramer, Rebecca Graves, Jason Hirschhorn, Leigh Fiske

After a year of research and nearly 100 interviews with foundation leaders and evaluation experts, FSG has released a report that identifies a fundamental transition in the way foundations use evaluation. 

Report

Compounding Impact: Mission Investing by U.S. Foundations

Sarah Cooch, Mark Kramer

This report provides the first comprehensive analysis of mission investing by 92 U.S. foundations representing $2.3B of mission investments.

Report

Executive Summary

A New Challenge for Global Companies: Successfully Managing MLO and NGO Relationships

Kyle Peterson

Multinational companies today are investing the time and talent to ensure that their relationships with multilateral organizations (MLOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are active and positive.

Report

Competitive Social Responsiblity: Uncovering the Economic Rationale for Corporate Social Responsibility in Danish Small- to Medium-Sized Enterprises

Mark Kramer, Marc Pfitzer, Paul Lee

This study identifies measurable economic or competitive benefits that would result from the corporate social economic activities of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that constitute the vast majority of businesses in Denmark.

Report

Uncommon Partners: The Power of Foundation and Corporation Collaboration

Mark Kramer, Marc Pfitzer, Karin Jestin

With their separate spheres of influence, corporations and foundations are each powerful agents for transforming public policy, promoting transparency and convening influential parties.

Report

The Nestlé Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility as Implemented in Latin America

Mark Kramer, Marc Pfitzer, Karin Jestin

An analysis of Nestlé corporate social responsibility activities to see if they created shared value for society and the corporation, a combination we see as essential to sustainable CSR activities. 

Report

Investing for Impact - Managing and Measuring Proactive Social Investments

Mark Kramer, Sarah Cooch

PSIs can simultaneously deliver measurable social benefits and attractive rates of return.

Report

Beyond R&D: Leveraging the Pharmaceutical Industry on Issues of Drug Access

Kyle Peterson, Fay Hanleybrown, Laura Herman

This report investigates whether and how pharmaceutical companies’ "downstream" assets and capabilities could be harnessed to improve access to existing and future drugs for neglected diseases.

Report

SEED Funds: A Powerful New Approach to Corporate Social Investment

Greg Hills

Small Enterprise Economic Development (SEED) Investment Funds use corporate funds and expertise to stimulate investment in for-profit enterprises that address social problems and foster economic development.

Report

Measuring Innovation: Evaluation in the Field of Social Entrepreneurship

Mark Kramer

This paper provides an overview of evaluation practices in social entrepreneurship and highlights ways that this new thinking might both inform and benefit from other approaches to evaluation among foundations.

Report

Social Investment Trends in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Kyle Peterson, Laura Herman

FSG analyzed trends in pharmaceutical philanthropy to understand how a select group of pharmaceutical companies creates value for society and their businesses through their philanthropic investments.

Report

Strengthening Community Foundations: Redefining Opportunities

John Kania

Community foundations should examine their strategy and operations on a product-by-product basis, taking into account their mission-driven priorities, internal costs, customer preferences and the competing donor alternatives for each type of product or service they offer.

Report

Communicating the Value of Corporate Philanthropy

Fay Hanelybrown, Mindy Oakley

Many corporations go to great lengths to design strategic initiatives in philanthropy, yet discover that they don’t always get the credit and recognition they deserve.

Report

Creating Sustainable Value

Stuart L. Hart & Mark B. Milstein

This report outlines a sustainable-value framework that links the challenges of global sustainability to the creation of shareholder value.

Report

Corporate Philanthropy - Taking the High Ground

Michael Porter

Much of corporate social responsibility is defensive – it is about preventing abuses or mitigating harm. Corporate philanthropy, in contrast, is essentially affirmative. It is about using corporate resources to create social value.

Report

The Evaluation of Capacity Building Grants

Rebecca Graves, Henry Culbreath

Many foundations now have programs aimed at capacity building for their grantees. FSG's analysis of the Maine Community Foundation (MCF) highlighted three basic lessons that can increase the likelihood of success for any capacity building initiative.

Report

When Success is Only an Intermediate Goal

Kyle Peterson, Laura Herman, Matthew Clark

This article describes FSG’s work with Medicines for Malaria Ventures (MMV), which led to a broadened definition of success, a deepened perspective on MMV’s core mission, and new approach to performance management. 

Report

Helping a Small Family Foundation Think Big - Rediscovering the Field of Transformational Housing

Mindy Oakley, Owen Stearns

When the Foundation first approached FSG, the Board had little common agreement about its current and future purpose, and no consensus about how to choose a focus or select grantees.

Report

Becoming the Community's Foundation - Insight and Change in New Haven

John Kania, Matthew Clark

This article describes the process of developing a new donor development strategy based on FSG's work with the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven.

Report

The Foundation Performance Dashboard: Vital Statistics for Social Impact

Fay Hanleybrown

Foundations are unsure how to bridge the chasm between the readily available and concise metrics for investment performance and the much more complex, expensive, and subjective data from internal operations and program evaluations.

Report