By: Kaky McGinness Grant, Founder and Principal For many nonprofit leaders, fundraising can feel like running on a treadmill. Every fiscal year, staff start over raising money for their operating budget so they may execute their programs. Is there a way to break this cycle? There are levers to pull financially such as charging fees […]

By: Leslie Gross, Senior Advisor What if the most powerful giving strategy you never planned happened at a crab table overlooking the Chesapeake Bay? I grew up spending summers in two very different places– a private community in Annapolis, MD and a small town in East Texas. Both shaped my philanthropic values more than any […]

By: Kaky McGinness Grant, Founder and Principal We’re rolling into a slower pace of summer at Grant Philanthropic Advisors. Just as we encourage our clients to flex their “moral imaginations,” we use this time to reflect on the field and adjust our sails to where the field is headed and what our clients need. Last […]

By: Leslie Gross, Senior Advisor On isolation, being burned, and why the most powerful thing in philanthropy might be a room where you can admit you were wrong Here’s something that rarely gets said in philanthropic settings. This work can be profoundly lonely. The kind of lonely that comes from being surrounded by people and […]

By: Porter Durham, Partner I noted something the other day in my general reading. It was one of those classic “garage beginnings” stories that is so much a staple of modern-day tech industry. You have surely read them too: an idea among friends hatches in, and then fledges from, the basement or garage of the […]

By: Darcy Addison, Partner and Advisor In the world of philanthropic advising, our value is often measured by the intricacy of our spreadsheets or the rigor of our due diligence. But at Grant Philanthropic Advisors, we know that the real “secret sauce” of our work isn’t found in a database – it’s found while being […]

By: Olivia R. Zale, Advisor For my first blog post for Grant Philanthropic Advisors (GPA), it felt fitting to write about a formative experience at the beginning of my personal philanthropic journey, one that I regularly cite as the catalyst that jumpstarted my past 16 years of involvement with the M.B. and Edna Zale Foundation. […]

By: Kaky McGinness Grant, Founder and Principal “Why would I give to a ‘pass though’ organization rather than make grants directly to the nonprofit organizations?” As philanthropists tackle complex problems—from improving public education to addressing systemic poverty—asking “how” to give effectively is just as important to ask as “where”, “why”, “to whom” and “how much.” […]

By: Kaky McGinness Grant, Founder and Principal “Don’t think about making women fit the world — think about making the world fit women.” – Gloria Steinem As we mark Women’s History Month this month, we find ourselves at a remarkable vantage point as many of our clients are women-led philanthropic efforts. In our work at […]

By: Kaky McGinness Grant, Founder and Principal “No way!” “Say that again!” “I remember when he said that….” Sharing family stories can be enlivening, funny and sometimes painful. It’s important to pass them on, especially as families grow through marriages and rising generations age into adulthood. Understanding a family’s ups and downs and how they […]