Effective Foundation Management

This book examines the most common reasons that foundation managers fail, and details the steps they must take in order to succeed. In overcoming the seven vexing challenges and strategizing the seven inescapable trade-offs, foundation managers can learn to maximize their positive social impact and avoid unintended lousy results.

For anyone interested in how foundations can operate for maximum impact, Joel Orosz has written a must-read. His practical advice for foundation leaders and his accessible manner of illuminating the tensions inherent in foundation work make this an invaluable contribution to the literature.

For anyone who cares about foundation performance improvement, Joel Orosz?s new book is a must-read. With wit and precision, Orosz identifies some of philanthropy?s most constraining challenges. Without prescribing solutions, the book outlines practical considerations for foundation leaders as they confront these challenges head on and develop solutions that are right for themmmm

This book should be required reading for every foundation executive and trustee, every donor considering the establishment of a foundation, and for the leaders of every organization that claims to be working to improve the effectiveness of philanthropic organizations. Orosz argues convincingly that foundation management should be considered a field of its own—for foundations are unlike any other institutions in our society. Foundation leaders must resist the seductive notion that easy answers lie in the importation of management frameworks from other sectors. Instead, they should engage the distinctive and complex challenges and dilemmas of foundation leadership that Orosz describes, drawing on his wise and practical suggestions for surmounting them.

Effective Foundation Management fills a long-standing void in the current literature for and about philanthropy. It is full of "a-ha" moments and perfectly captures what many grantmakers have probably experienced for a long time as lingering tensions and unease within our profession, but could never really articulate or frame until now. In deftly naming the challenges, Orosz will make foundation boards and staff wince with self-realization, and he does so in a way that is uniquely discomforting and comforting at the same time. Left unaddressed (or worse, unacknowledged), these challenges will always impede foundations from achieving their goals, and they will never quite know why. Orosz's recommendations for navigating the challenges are practical and motivating, but fully aware of the realities and constraints inherent in the sector.

A masterpiece on the inner workings of foundations that could have only been written by a master scholar-practitioner.

Joel Orosz has done a great service to the foundation world. His new book is a very reader-friendly, frank, even folksy and wise account by a near-lifetime philanthropoid of the folklore, foibles, achievements, and paradoxes of foundation management. It is a gold mine rich with many nuggets of the author's own experiences as well as sage observations by other experts in philanthropy. All who read it will be enlightened and edified, as well as often amused.

For anyone who cares about foundation performance improvement, Joel Orosz’s new book is a must-read. With wit and precision, Orosz identifies some of philanthropy’s most constraining challenges. Without prescribing solutions, the book outlines practical considerations for foundation leaders as they confront these challenges head on and develop solutions that are right for them

I hear too often from foundation staff and trustees that they are missing basic tools for being informed and prepared to tackle the responsibilities of managing a foundation. Take the time to invest in Joel's "Formidable 14." Individually and collectively the lessons he shares will provoke lively discussions in foundation board rooms and offices as philanthropy responds to local, national and global demands to demonstrate its relevance to the media, policymakers and nonprofit partners. Dr. Orosz has provided a needed and necessary addition to our tool box for effective philanthropy.

An easy read... Succeeds in adding to our understanding of the internal conundrums of American philanthropic grant makers....Of interest to those of us who endeavor to understand the foundation world as something less than perfect....insightful.

Joel J. Orosz is a leader in the movement to improve the effectiveness of foundation philanthropy. A former Executive Assistant to the CEO, and Program Director in Philanthropy and Volunteerism at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Dr. Orosz wrote the standard text for the training of program officers, The Insider's Guide to Grantmaking: How Foundations Find, Fund and Manage Effective Programs (2000). He also co-authored Agile Philanthropy: Understanding Foundation Effectiveness (2003). In 2004, Dr. Orosz founded The Grantmaking School, the first university-based training program for grantmaking professionals, located at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership of Grand Valley State University.