Posted on February 8, 2011

Foundation Center, European Foundation Centre to Lead GrantCraft Initiative

The New York City-based Foundation Center, the European Foundation Centre in Brussels, and the Ford Foundation have announced that GrantCraft, a Web-based effort to equip grantmakers with an array of tools designed to enhance their effectiveness, is moving from Ford to the two centers. In addition, Ford, which incubated GrantCraft, has awarded $1 million to the two organizations to help expand the initiative.

Awarded through an open bid process in which Ford and a committee of peer foundations, including the Hewlett, Packard, W.K. Kellogg, and Gates foundations, weighed proposals from across the sector, GrantCraft will serve the growing community of professional grantmakers worldwide by helping program officers keep pace with the demands of philanthropy's changing landscape and the evolving needs of stakeholders.

For its part, the Foundation Center, the leading authority on philanthropy worldwide, plans to leverage its experience engaging grantmakers and others around critical issues to broaden the GrantCraft community. "A key Foundation Center priority is to empower donors with the knowledge they need to be more strategic, efficient, and effective," said Foundation Center president Bradford Smith. "We are thrilled to add GrantCraft to our suite of tools and to be in a position to strengthen its value."

Launched under the leadership of Jan Jaffe in 2001, GrantCraft initially provided case studies and examples that served as orientation materials for Ford program officers. In the decade that followed, the site developed into a vast store of practical wisdom aimed at helping grantmakers from all organizations get beyond the basics and work more effectively. Today, the site makes available publications on thirty key issues to more than 21,000 subscribers.

"We are exceptionally proud of what GrantCraft has accomplished over the last ten years, and we are confident that through the visionary stewardship of the Foundation Center and European Foundation Centre it will break new ground in serving our field," said Ford Foundation president Luis Ubiņas. "We're especially excited to see it going global, reflecting not only the growth of philanthropy around the world but an intense interest in the knowledge that GrantCraft has to offer foundations everywhere."