Philanthropic practice

As one of the three vice presidents of the Ford Foundation who issued the January 8, 2004 memo, I am fascinated and impressed by Ruby's description of Creative Capital's process for dealing with the memo. She and her colleagues correctly understood that Ford was not operating in a vacuum. We were responding to new Federal legislation that required us to review our own grantmaking and monitoring processes to insure that they conform to the new law. Importantly, we chose to make our values explicit in the memo rather than repeat the exact language of the legislation.

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The moniker, "Grantmakers in the Arts," could suggest that our job as funders is solely to read proposals and write checks, a straightforward transaction that takes a hiatus when the award letter goes out and revives when the final report comes in. In reality, we know that the most important work we do may take place before the proposal is even submitted and that the impact of our work only improves as the quality of our ongoing interaction with our grantees strengthens.

Recently, while sitting in a coffee shop in Chicago, I overheard a language that sounded familiar. Being a folklorist I'm sensitive to occupational language. You can blindfold me in front of conversations of cowboys or farmers and I will be able to pick out a number of things that distinguish their talk. And having a private language is not bad, it's a reality.

2004, 256 pages, ISBN 0-471-44852-4. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey, 210-748-6011, www.wiley.com

More Information: www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471448524.html

2004, 9 pages. Published by the Council on Foundations, 1828 L Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20036, 202-466-6512, www.cof.org

This supplement to Foundation News and Commentary examines foundations' use of the Internet through case-studies of four foundations that employ varying degrees of sophistication in their use of online technologies to support their work.

2002, 27 pages. Published by the Hybrid Vigor Institute, 1459 18th Street, Suite 189, San Francisco, CA, 94107, 415-543-8113, info@hybridvigor.org, www.hybridvigor.net

Download pdf: http://www.hybridvigor.net/interdis/pubs/hv_pub_interdis-2002.10.30.pdf

2004, 80 pages. Published by New Visions Philanthropic Research and Development, 322 LaVerne Avenue, Mill Valley, CA, 94941, 415-388-1222, info@newvisionsprd, www.newvisionsprd.org

Download pdf: http://www.newvisionsprd.org/Downloads/form.asp

December 2003, 11 pages. Published by Americans for the Arts, 1000 Vermont Avenue NW, 6th floor, Washington, DC, 20005, 202-371-2830, info@artsusa.org, www.AmericansForTheArts.org

This monograph describes variations on the united arts fund model of providing arts support and provides a number of statistics from 2002 on arts fund fundraising and grantmaking.

2003, 38 pages. Meet the Composer, 75 Ninth Avenue, Floor 3R Suite C, New York, NY 10011, (212) 645-6949; Ken Gallo, Communications Manager, kgallo@meetthecomposer.org