In 2012 The Whitman Institute made the decision to spend out our endowment over 10 years. At the time, 2022 was a distant point on the horizon; now, not so much. What felt theoretical is becoming more real with each passing month and we are feeling more strongly the hint of urgency that comes with…
“I can’t believe the year is almost over.” “I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it’s December.” “How is it 2019 already?!” I’ve either used or listened to variations on these sentences a lot lately. Time seems to move ever faster and events that were a just a couple months ago…
“When it comes to donating money, whom do you trust?” This was the headline of a recent New York Times piece by Ann Carrns that extolls the virtues of philanthropic advisers who help “idealistic” donors who may be “blind to potential faults in the groups they support.” While we don’t deny the value of experienced…
People often wonder how we are able to understand the impact of our grantmaking when we don’t require our grantees to submit formal reports. TWI has learned that streamlined reporting frees up more time for relationship-building and authentic partnership. In fact, what we’ve experienced is that we’re able to learn more from a dialogic approach than we…
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s blog: http://cep.org/putting-trust-center-foundation-work. As a foundation that sees relationships as a key component of philanthropy and social change, The Whitman Institute (TWI) applauds CEP’s recent report, Relationships Matter: Program Officers, Grantees, and the Keys to Success. It may seem like common sense that grantees and funders…