Foundations
FSG partners with private foundations, community foundations, and family foundations to create social change. Since 2000, we have advised the world’s leading philanthropic organizations on how to best leverage their resources to improve lives around the world.
We support funders in their efforts to structure and support community engagement to help prioritize community-identified issues. Our services range from addressing specific strategic questions to the comprehensive design, implementation, and evaluation of strategic initiatives.
Who We Help
Private Foundations
FSG works with foundations on strategies that transform their communities, elevate the voices of those with lived experiences, and deepen trust. As evaluators in addition to strategy consultants, we bring a unique perspective on the symbiotic nature of strategy and evaluation, and the learning that can come from their integration. We offer comprehensive services to facilitate your organization’s learning priorities through both our strategy and evaluation practices. FSG meets your complex needs through a customized approach that ranges from conducting a learning needs diagnosis to capacity building to equipping individuals and institutions to adopt change.
Community Foundations
In order to make best use of their assets, community foundations need a customized approach to strategy development that exists at the intersection of local context, community engagement, and systems change. FSG helps co-create strategies that transform their communities, elevate the voices of those with lived experiences, and deepen trust. As evaluators and strategy consultants, we bring a unique perspective on the symbiotic nature of strategy and evaluation, and the learning that can come from their integration.
Family Foundations
Family foundations often need a customized approach to strategy development that takes an intentional approach to systems change and community engagement, that is reflective of emerging trends in philanthropy, and that reflects the unique values and interests of the family. FSG offers a comprehensive set of services to design, implement, and evaluate strategic initiatives that help family foundations solve complex problems. We can work with you to create a cutting-edge foundation strategy, as well as provide individual services ranging from facilitation and relationship building to landscape analysis. For foundations interested in an organization-wide approach to understanding activities, FSG develops institutional strategic learning and evaluation systems.
Foundation Case Studies
- Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
Promoting Mental Health
FSG supported the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health in shifting their focus from treating mental illness to promoting mental…
- St. David's Foundation
Investing in Social Determinants of Health
FSG supported St. David’s Foundation in creating a strategic plan with greater focus on the social and structural determinants…
- Operation Youth Success
Improving Douglas County, Nebraska’s Juvenile Justice System
FSG worked with Operation Youth Success to transform the juvenile justice system and improve youth outcomes in Douglas County,…
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Supporting a Culture of Health
FSG worked with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation leaders and staff over a 2-year period to embrace an emergent strategy…
Work with Us
How can we partner with your organization to reimagine social change?
Related Resources
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A Toolkit
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Based on the “inverted triangle” framework presented in The Water of Systems Change, this activity is designed to help individuals…
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Recent Blogs
Reflections From Our Rural Leaders Interview Series
Over the last year and a half, we had the privilege of interviewing rural leaders across the country as…
How Can Funders Support Grantee Cohorts as Part of a Systems Change Strategy?
How funders can think more strategically about how they use grantee learning cohorts as a tool for systems change.
Leveraging Historic Federal Investment: Roles for Communities, Companies, and Funders
How three key groups of stakeholders can help realize the potential of federal investment in a new wave of…