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Four Ways to Give More When Your Giving Budget Runs Dry

Putnam Consulting Group Dec 7, 2020
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Four Ways to Give More When Your Giving Budget Runs Dry Giving Compass
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Giving Compass' Take:

• Kris Putnam-Walkerly shares four approaches that organizations and individuals that have already spent their philanthropic allocation for the year can employ to support nonprofits.

• What assets can you engage to support nonprofits during this time? Have you tapped all of your resources and networks?

• Read about increasing payout to address the COVID-19 crisis.


If you are like most of my philanthropic clients, when COVID-19 hit, you jumped into action. You heroically provided additional funding to grantees, created or joined local crisis response funds to coordinate resources, extended grant deadlines, eliminated funding restrictions, and created free virtual trainings to help nonprofits, all while embracing new technology and learning to work remotely. Many of you accomplished this by working long hours each week.

Then, a collective moment of dramatic awakening to police brutality and institutional racism required additional engagement critical to the Black Lives Matter movement. For those already embracing your equity and anti-racism work, it was a chance to direct further attention and resources to this critical work.

But now, many funders finding themselves in an awkward situation. They’ve intentionally allocated all or most of their annual grant budget to meet pressing needs like saving lives, preventing economic devastation, and creating systems change. But they still have many months left in their fiscal year. Their primary tool – grant funding – is gone.

What to do? The good news is there are many things you can still do to help nonprofits. And you probably have more time to do them, now that you won’t be spending it preparing grant summaries and board dockets. So, follow the “I Have No More Grant Budget” Playbook:

1. Find more money.

Get a little creative and brainstorm ways you can find additional funds. Can you increase your payout rate or allocation this year? Or can you create innovative ways to increase your payout? Do you have relationships with any of the 90 percent of billionaires who haven’t yet donated in response to the pandemic?

2. Ask your grantees what they need. Then listen.

In 2020, when money is scarce and we urgently need to disrupt power dynamics, it’s the perfect time for funders to ask, “Are we giving nonprofits the support they need?” While it might feel like the wrong question, when you have no more dollars to give, it’s a way to increase abundance in your work. In reality, your grantees might not think you are supporting their work as much as you believe you are.

3. Remember that you are more than money.

You don’t want to saddle your nonprofits with “help” that isn’t helpful, or they feel obliged to take it because you are their funder. Use the list generated above as a punch list based on your grantees’ actual needs.

See if there are themes that emerge among a group of grantees who have the same need. Maybe they need creative ideas for virtual fundraising events, and you could bring in an expert to help them.

You could also match needs to talents in your organization or community.

4. Become a better version of yourself.

Philanthropies have a tremendous opportunity to seize today’s crises as an opportunity to improve. One area ripe for improvement is likely your strategy. This pandemic has shown us the futility of spending one year to create a three-year strategic plan. In a world where disruption and volatility are the status quo, the strategy must be easily adaptable to achieve positive social change. More than ever, philanthropists must be aware of the changing environment in which they operate, and the implications of their actions on others. There’s no time like the present to create a clear decision-making road map of the actions you need to take to move from where you are today to where you want to be in 12 months.

Read the full article about the “I Have No More Grant Budget” playbook by Kris Putnam-Walkerly at Putnam Consulting Group.

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Learning and benchmarking are key steps towards becoming an impact giver. If you are interested in giving with impact on Philanthropy take a look at these selections from Giving Compass.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    The Business Case for Corporate Philanthropy in 2020

    Two years ago on this blog, we observed that many company leaders had started to shift from asking “why do philanthropy” at all, to “why do strategic corporate philanthropy?” The broader business community had accepted that philanthropy delivers positive change on the bottom line as well as in the world around them, and companies were realizing that being strategic could be as important to nimble and effective philanthropy as it is to business operations. We offered five pillars on which such an approach consistently rests. Fast forward to 2020 and a year of unprecedented crisis and change that continues to test us all. Yet even within these past few months, companies that built upon the pillars of strategic philanthropy have realized the flexibility to pivot in crucial ways, becoming even more connected with communities and stakeholders. Being strategic with your company’s philanthropy is as – or possibly more – important as ever. All eyes are on businesses’ responses to world events, and how companies step up to make a difference when and where it is needed most. As your company addresses change and examines ways to adapt effectively, the five pillars of strategic corporate philanthropy remain as steady guideposts for evaluating current programs and next steps: Strategic Philanthropy is Authentic Strategic Philanthropy is Integrated Strategic Philanthropy is Multi-Layered Strategic Philanthropy is Open-Minded and Creative Strategic Philanthropy is Transparent Read the full article about corporate philanthropy by Leslie Pine at The Philanthropic Initiative.


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