Candid insights

A Foundation Center South visitor was trying to organize paperwork related to grant proposals and asked if we knew of a checklist that listed every document that might have something to do with a grant proposals. We couldn't find one,…

This is another question that visitors often have for our Ask Us team. Curiously, I've had a hard time finding a succinct answer to this seemingly simple question. Corporate attorney Paul Davis Fancher of Troutman Sanders presented a free webcast…

Crowd-sourced from Foundation Center trainers, here are our top five tips for developing successful grant proposals: Do your homework! Research, research, research. Conducting targeted research helps you find the right funders to partner with and support your organization's work. Sending…

Visitors sometimes ask us if there are industry standards for"large", "medium", or "small" nonprofits. They often ask in the context of a funder's eligibility requirements or a released report. The simple answer: No standardized scale for "nonprofit's size" exists. However,…

A professor at Vanderbilt University, Brooke Ackerly, once told me, “Numbers matter. If someone tells you there are ants in your kitchen, you will want to know whether there are two ants in your kitchen or whether there are TWO…

I love weddings and I love philanthropy, so I have been following the fallout from Sean Parker’s wedding with growing interest over the last couple of weeks of unrelenting news coverage surrounding the big event. Mr. Parker is the co-founder…

When McKinsey & Co. released its seminal study Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition, and Productivity, the firm confidently predicted that the world was "on the cusp of a tremendous wave of innovation, productivity, and growth, as well…