Capacity Building

At a recent public debate about organic food, the proponents of organic farming extolled its virtues by listing its various benefits. It is kinder to the environment, they said, and to animals, and it keeps toxic chemicals out of our bodies. “But does it taste better?” an audience member asked. To my surprise, the experts hesitated. “We can’t reliably measure that effect,” one of them explained. “So it’s not a claim we make.” The exchange reminded me about everything that’s wrong with arts advocacy these days.

October 2010, 74 pages. Mission Models Money, c/o ICCE Goldsmiths, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk

December 2009, 32 pages. GrantCraft, The Ford Foundation, 320 East 43rd Street, New York, NY, 10017, 212-573-4879, www.grantcraft.org

Download the PDF.

2010, 195 pages, ISBN 978-0-470-49010-5. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ, 07030, 201-748-6011, www.wiley.com

May 2010, 49 pages. Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Box 90524, Durham, NC, 27708, 919-613-7432 www.sanford.duke.edu

In late January GIA polled its 309 member organizations about their organization's responses to the economic downturn. 117 (38%) members responded, which provides a healthy sample of the membership.

Members reported their expected 2009 arts grantmaking would likely compare to 2008 as follows:

• 41% expected that 2009 would be the same as 2008.
• 13% expected that it would be reduced to 90% of 2008.
• 12% expected that it would be reduced to 80% of 2008.
• 11% expected that it would be reduced to 70% of 2008.

Investing in Capacity Building: A Guide to High-Impact Approaches Improving management practices—the most challenging aspect of capacity building—is essential to increasing the impact of a nonprofit's limited resources. Author Barbara Blumenthal helps grantmakers and consultants design better methods of helping nonprofits, while showing nonprofit managers how to get more effective support.

Author Paul Firstenberg challenges grantmakers to proactively assist their grantee's management in maximizing the nonprofit's social impact, showing grantseekers how potential funders increasingly emphasize organizational capacity building.

2005, 11 pages. TCC Group, 31 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10001, (212) 949-0990

http://www.tccgrp.com/pdfs/per_brief_impact.pdf