Strategic Planning

Why Engage the Public Sector and How?

Mapping Grantee Clusters

Mark Kramer
How mapping grantees into clusters can boost impact.
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Allocating Resources in a Time of Scarcity

Mark Kramer and John Kania
This 2002 article argues that particularly in an environment of pressured investment returns, donors should maximize their impact, by focusing their giving on the areas of their highest social return.
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When is a Seed Grant Not a Seed Grant?

Mark Kramer
This 1999 article argues that donors should not reflexively reject providing operating support to grantees.
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What Is Strategy?

Michael Porter
Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School offers perspectives on strategy.
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Grantmakers Shouldn't Play With Matches

Mark Kramer
The leverage or value added of a foundation’s matching grant is often illusory.
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Scaling Social Impact

Mark Kramer
The fact that nonprofits can achieve scale in more ways than businesses highlights a shortcoming of the venture capital model in philanthropy.
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Who Exactly are the Customers of a Nonprofit Organization?

Mark Kramer
Profit-making corporations have it easy: they know exactly who their customers are. For nonprofit organizations, things are considerably more confusing.
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Foundations Don't Understand What it Means to Take Risks

Mark Kramer
In this column from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Mark Kramer argues that calculated risks are critical to effective philanthropy.
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Helping to Prevent a Culture of Inadequacy

Mark Kramer
Foundations can help nonprofits make the leap from inadequacy to excellence, yet too often grantmaking approaches stunt the growth of promising grantees.
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Aspiring to a Plan - And Achieving It

Owen Stearns
How MELMAC, a student loan conversion foundation in Maine, set its course.
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Mixed Motives

Mark Kramer
This 1998 article from The American Benefactor suggests that donors would benefit from breaking their giving into three motivational categories.
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Helping a Small Family Foundation Think Big - Rediscovering the Field of Transformational Housing

Mindy Oakley and Owen Stearns
How a small family foundation made a meaningful impact on the national problem of homelessness.
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