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Fund
Management
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to Services
It
is never easy to decide which organizations to fund and how to
distribute the funds fairly.
Board members often need technical support to make
informed decisions, and need it in a timely fashion as deadlines
loom.
Assuming
that your foundation receives hundreds (if not thousands) of
requests every year from eager and persistent fundraisers, my
guess is that it becomes increasingly difficult to screen
requests and find the "right" or "best"
organizations to support. Not only is this process labor
intensive, but it can also infringe on your capacity to engage
in perhaps the most rewarding aspect of grant
making—distributing funds to those who most need and deserve
it.
Despite
its inherent complexities, grant making has come in for some
heavy (and in some cases appropriate) criticism that the process
is slow and unfair. Such
claims are even being made now following the charitable wave of
September 11 contributions.
In most cases, we know the claims are distorted. However,
it is true that many foundations need support in making
decisions about which organizations to fund.
The
big question is: What can your foundation do to better ensure a
fair and manageable system for giving?
We ask you to consider securing Laurence A. Pagnoni &
Associates, Inc. (LAPA) for technical support and/or outsourcing
to make the job of the grants review committee easier and more
efficient.
Our
technical support for your grant making will strengthen your
foundation’s giving strategy and re-energize an already good
one. We
suggest that you look at LAPA’s technical services in order to
reach more meaningful grant making outcomes
Key
aspects of LAPA’s fund management for grantmakers
LAPA
works with foundations or Grantmakers
to accomplish the following:
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Work
with your grants review committee or board members. We
have worked with hundreds of non-profit 501 (C) 3 charities
and foundations. We
are sensitive to the often-overstretched commitment of board
members and volunteers.
We will work with your board members or selection
committee to refine or develop funding criteria and offer
counsel for the final selection of organizations to fund.
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Research
the “field of service.
We monitor philanthropic giving trends through
various non-profit and business resources including the
Foundation Center, the American Association of Fundraising
Council, Council on Foundations, and others.
We research interests for foundations and examine
giving trends in a particular "field of service."
We check for duplicative services and heavily funded
service areas to better inform foundations of where their
funds would have the most meaningful impact.
We use the latest research technology to make the
screening of requests most accurate.
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Screen
proposals and maintain correspondence.
We will work with your existing staff or volunteers
to screen proposals, letters of inquiry, invitations for
involvement, etc. This
includes reading proposals, maintaining correspondence, and
qualifying prospects according to the funding criteria
established by your foundation. (Since we often also work
directly with many local nonprofits, we realize that there
may be a conflict of interest. We guarantee full disclosure
to ensure a fair screening process for all candidates.)
-
Gather
information about qualified prospects.
We
will gather all salient information concerning a qualified
candidate. We
will also make site visits, interview funding prospects and
make recommendations to the review committee or board
members.
The
fees for this service vary according to the level of service
required. We
often look at the range of giving and your budget size to
determine an appropriate fee.
Our retainer rates are the most affordable the longer we
are hired.
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