Donor Strategies
Donors can choose different ways to improve lives and make change — by giving for direct services, supporting research, backing grassroots organizing, and more. This series of briefs explore these important choices. Each brief explains key considerations for donors, provides examples of the strategy in action, and offers easy-to-follow advice.
Advocacy
Philanthropy can play a particularly catalytic role in addressing root causes rather than just filling gaps and treating symptoms.
Capacity Building
Donors can increase their impact by focusing on improving the effectiveness and long-term sustainability of a nonprofit or network of nonprofits.
Cash Transfers and Direct Giving
Cash transfers to address poverty are growing in popularity and new research documents their impact.
Funding Direct Services
Donors give for direct services for many reasons, including to meet immediate human needs and fill gaps left by government cuts.
Grassroots Organizing and Movement Building
Major social change is usually enacted by broad-based people’s movements. Donors can help in different ways.
Impact Investing
Impact investing offers donors a range of ways to look beyond charitable giving and leverage their financial assets to do good in the world.
Leadership Development and Fellowships
Progress is made by people, which is why many donors look to invest in leadership programs and similar efforts.
Levers for Change: 501(c)(3)s and 501(c)(4)s
As donors look for more ways to have an impact, it’s important to understand the rules governing different kinds of nonprofits.
Litigation and Legal Aid
When it comes to the tools nonprofits can use to effect social change, the law can be both incredibly useful and frustratingly challenging.
Place-based Giving
As distinct from national or global giving, place-based giving focuses on a particular location — like a city, a neighborhood or a region.
Think Tanks and Public Policy Research
Think tanks play a critical role in advancing social change by shaping broad public debates and the details of policy. Here’s what donors need to know.
