In the fourth installment of our continuing series of mini essays on the "Five Habits of Highly Effective Funders," we turn this month to this core habit: "Effective foundations help grantees strengthen their organizations, not just programs." Thanks to a productive meeting we attended last week at the Ford Foundation, we're charged up with...

In our continuing series of mini essays unpacking each of the “Five Habits of Highly Effective Funders,” we’re going to drill down on the number-one success factor for foundations that aspire to help grantees become high-performance organizations: having talented, empathetic leaders at the trustee and executive levels. Lowell just got an inspiring dose of...

Over the coming months, we’ll unpack “Five Habits of Highly Effective Funders.” Last month, we offered greater specificity about how highly effective funders manage to build bonds of trust with their grantees, despite the inevitable power differential. This month, we’re going to look at another one of the habits: “Effective foundations exemplify a ‘growth...

This month we're going to share some of the key lessons we've learned about how highly effective funders have successfully built trust with their grantees. We've drawn them from Edelsberg, Bonbright, and other experts in the...

Lowell recently started advising a Seattle-based technology entrepreneur who's right at the beginning of his philanthropic journey. This new donor posed a question we wish all new donors would ask: "What do I need to do if I want to be effective at this?"