Money Well Spent

Book excerpt: Winner of the 2009 Skystone Ryan Prize for Research, Association of Fundraising Professionals Research Council “All outstanding philanthropic successes have one thing in common: They started with a smart strategic plan,” say authors Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Hal Harvey, president of ClimateWorks. Money Well Spent explains how to create and implement a strategy that ensures meaningful results. Components of a smart strategy include: Achieving great clarity about one’s philanthropic goals Specifying indicators of success before beginning a project Designing and implementing a plan commensurate with available resources Evidence-based understanding of the world in which the plan will operate Paying careful attention to milestones to determine if you are on the path to success or if midcourse corrections are necessary Drawing on examples from over 100 foundations and non-profits, Money Well Spent gives readers the framework they need to design a smart strategy, addressing such key issues as: Effective use of tools—education, science, direct services, advocacy—that can achieve your objectives. How to choose the forms of funding to achieve stated goals How to measure the impact of grants or programs When to be patient and stick with a winning strategy and when to abandon a strategy that isn’t working This is a book for everyone who wants to get the most from a philanthropic dollar: donors, foundations, and non-profits.