Posts by Allen Smart

Two ways that grantmakers can encourage more risk-taking among leaders and staff Philanthropy has an uncertain relationship with risk. Foundations big and small couch their strategies around innovation – often complemented by statements about their willingness to take risks in pursuit of those strategies. However, given funders’ current interest in evidence-based work and easily quantifiable…

In their quest to cultivate a renewed sense of civil society, Americans often look to urban areas for examples of what is and isn’t working in terms of bridging divides and bringing people together. This makes sense, since approximately 80 percent of us live in urban areas. Many also point to a perceived rift between…

Stakeholder health is a movement to support hospitals and healthcare systems working outside the walls of their facilities. We are pleased to be asked to co-author “Philanthropy, Health Systems and Community Health Improvement”, a chapter in the report Stakeholder Health: Insights from New Systems of Health, edited by Teresa F. Cutts and James R. Cochrane.…

In my work researching and building rural philanthropy, I’ve seen two main types of foundations that describe themselves as “rural funders.” These include statewide or regional foundations that invest in rural and urban communities, and smaller, place-based family or corporate foundations that are specifically rooted in individual rural communities. Many of these rural funders feel…