Charitable foundations must be more active and use their resources more effectively, according to a provocation paper from the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales and think tank NPC.
Grantmakers must learn new tricks was published yesterday by Dan Corry, chief executive at NPC, and Paul Streets, chief executive of LBFEW. The two organisations have also published two reports: How funders can support grantee effectiveness and How funders can use their influence for good.
“Funders must consider how they can use their brains, as well as their financial brawn, to support a much relied-upon and overstretched voluntary sector,” they said in the paper.
They said that foundations must go beyond just giving grants to achieve social change.
“Many funders are conscious of, and keen to avoid, exploiting their power,” they said. “This often leads to inaction on anything other than grant-making. Yet this means their power is neither relinquished, nor put to good use.”
They suggested that funders consult more with grantees and share their stories.
“UK funders need to be bolder,” they added. “They hold both the resources and expertise to make a more substantial difference.”
They called on funders to be “agents of change” by doing more to support grantees development to build capacity and skills as well as providing campaigning and influencing support.
How funders can support grantee effectiveness looks at the ways that funders can support organisational development.
In How funders can use their influence for good they look at how funders can do more create lasting change.
All three reports can be downloaded here.
Related articles
