Philanthropy's New Agenda - Creating Value

FSG founders Porter and Kramer make the case for foundation strategy in this seminal piece. If foundations serve only as passive middlemen, as mere conduits for giving, then they fall far short of their potential and of society's expectations of them. Their research suggests that: foundations scatter their funding too broadly, they overlook the value-creating potential of longer and closer relationships with grantees, and they pay insufficient attention to measuring the results of the activities they fund. Published in Harvard Business Review, Nov 1999.