Effective Foundation Management: 14 Challenges of Philanthropic Leadership--and How to Outfox Them

There is no science to the management of charitable foundations, and even the art of managing them is poorly understood. The foundation field is relatively young, university centers for the study of philanthropy arrived only recently, and foundation leaders typically had little experience in the foundation field before taking their posts. Consequently, both seasoned and aspiring CEOs fall into traps that make them less effective leaders.

These traps arise from the highly idiosyncratic nature of the foundation field, and thus are not fully understood by leaders whose training and experience generally lie elsewhere. But there are predictable challenges and recognizable dilemmas, and a hard-won knowledge base does exist. In Effective Foundation Management, seasoned philanthropy professional and educator Joel J. Orosz introduces the new foundation board member CEO, vice president, program officer, and other foundation staff members to seven vexing challenges and seven inescapable tradeoffs, along with strategies for meeting and resolving them. In simple and engaging terms, Orosz describes the steps foundation leaders need to take to maximize positive social impact and avoid poor outcomes--in other words, to become fully effective in their consequential roles.

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.