Foundation Center 2020
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The Landscape
The new map of social change
With the movement of money, people, and ideas that
globalization brings, our world is one of almost
unlimited possibility. But it is also a world in which
there is too much poverty, violence, and pollution and
not enough justice, beauty, and opportunity.
Foundations, with their freedom to innovate, and
nonprofits, with their unlimited reserves of hope and
commitment, must strive to change that. They will do
so in a world in which the very pace of change is
accelerating and working in isolation will no longer get
the job done.
Digital technology is the accelerator. It makes it
possible to handle ever greater quantities of data from
multiple sources and combine such information in
limitless ways. Because data is beginning to be more
widely available (and is more visible), today when
people think about philanthropy, they think not just
about grantmaking foundations—the Foundation
Center’s traditional area of expertise—but individual
giving, operating foundations, corporate social
responsibility, social entrepreneurship, mission-related
investment, and other uses of private wealth for public
good. Nonprofits, the largest users of Foundation
Center services, still want to secure foundation grants,
but increasingly they want to know about how to
leverage resources from all these other sources
as well.
There is also growing consciousness that philanthropy
is not just an American invention, but a global industry.
According to a study commissioned by the European
Union, the assets of European foundations are greater
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than or equal to those of American foundations, as are
their program expenditures. Brazil’s philanthropic
institutions now spend in excess of two billion dollars
per year. China’s foundations—nearly half of which are
private—number in the thousands, and philanthropy in
India, the rest of Asia, the Middle East and Africa is on
the rise.
Philanthropy is growing, becoming more diverse and
more conscious of the limitations of its resources in
relation to the scale of the problems it seeks to
address. Increasingly, philanthropists see their work
as being strategic catalysts for change. Tomorrow’s
philanthropists will have to “cross boundaries” by
learning more about what others are doing before
committing their own resources, by collaborating more
among themselves and with other sectors, by being
more transparent in communicating their work and, at
times, by reaching out to partners around the world.
Similar challenges face nonprofits, which must find
new ways to collaborate among themselves, with
donors of all types and with social enterprises, and to
combine the best of in-person with online networking.
A legacy of vision and innovation
The Foundation Center was created more than 50
years ago. It was the product of both crisis and
extraordinary vision. The crisis came in the form of
hearings held by the U.S. Congress to investigate
allegations that foundations were supporting so-called
“un-American” activities. The vision came from
foundation leaders who realized that the relationship
between government, the public, and foundations
as of December 20, 2010
Foundation Center 2020
would always be a bit like a love affair—fueled mostly
by great passion and mutual admiration, but
punctuated by moments of jealousy and suspicion.
Their insight was that absolute transparency would be
the best way to make the relationship a long-term
success.
The Foundation Center opened its doors in l956, with
7,000 paper documents about American foundations
in file cabinets free for public inspection. In the sixties,
the Foundation Center started an office in Washington,
DC so staff could go to government offices to hand-
copy information from the tax returns of U.S.
foundations. In essence, the Center developed the
market for grant giving and grant seeking by
aggregating information that was buried in tax returns
and largely inaccessible to nonprofit organizations.
Today we take for granted that foundations make
grants for specific subjects in specific geographic
locations, often to serve specific populations, and that
the grants can be made for varying types of support
ranging from advocacy to technical assistance. This
structure, developed by the Foundation Center,
“shaped” the field by making it possible for nonprofits
to systematically search for grants and for foundations
to better track their work in terms of funding trends
and periodic reports that served as a kind of census
for philanthropy.
Information pulled from thousands of foundation tax
returns found their way into the first edition of The
Foundation Directory, a formidable print publication
that launched many a nonprofit on the search for
resources. Over time, print publications gave way to
CD-ROMs and to online searchable databases,
particularly the Foundation Directory Online,
inaugurated in 1999. The Foundation Center launched
its web site in l994 at a time when only three
foundations had web sites of their own. And in 2008,
the Center introduced Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) mapping of foundation grants and
recipients.
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A networked organization
The Foundation Center was also visionary in
developing a networked structure before that notion
was in vogue. Headquartered in New York, the Center
opened its first field office in Washington, DC in l963,
followed by similar offices in Cleveland, San
Francisco, and Atlanta. In l959 the first “Cooperating
Collection” opened in Chicago—a kind of affiliate
providing free public access to Foundation Center
databases, publications, and training materials. Today
these funding information centers number more than
450 and are found across the United States and
around the world in countries including Australia,
Mexico, Brazil, China, Thailand, and Nigeria. Together
our field offices and Cooperating Collections create a
dense “high-touch” network of public access that
complements the “high-tech” delivery of our online
offerings.
Working in philanthropy and the social sector tomorrow
will increasingly require networks, and we are
expanding ours to include joint endeavors with groups
in the U.S. like the Council on Foundations, the Global
Philanthropy Forum, the Center for Effective
Philanthropy, the National Center for Charitable
Statistics, GuideStar, IssueLab, as well as regional
associations of grantmakers and affinity groups.
Globally, we are forging cooperative relationships with
the European Foundation Center, the China
Foundation Center, the Mexican Center on
Philanthropy, the AVINA Foundation in Brazil, and
more. These are based primarily on the exchange of
services and information, joint problem solving, and
the development of products and services partners
could not produce on their own. The Foundation Center
of the future will be a high-tech, high-touch, globally
networked organization.
Foundation Center 2020 Join the conversation at 2020.foundationcenter.org

Vision, Mission, Beliefs, Practices

Our Vision

A world enriched by the effective allocation of philanthropic resources,

informed public discourse about philanthropy, and broad understanding of
the contributions of nonprofit activity to increasing opportunity and
transforming lives.

Our Mission

To strengthen the social sector by advancing knowledge about philanthropy

in the U.S. and around the world.

Our Beliefs Our Practices

♦ Philanthropy is an engine for positive ♦ We deliver the highest quality of service to

social change worldwide. all those who use our resources.

♦ Transparency and accountability are keys ♦ We build partnerships that help us fulfill
to earning the public trust. our mission.

♦ Knowledge about philanthropy starts with ♦ We recognize diversity as an asset

accurate information. essential to accomplishing our mission.

♦ Access to accurate information about ♦ We preserve our credibility by remaining

philanthropy advances responsible and
effective use of resources.
♦ Grantmaker and nonprofit effectiveness is
enhanced by shared information
and understanding.
independent and objective.
♦ We build capacity, talent, and excellence
within the social sector.
♦ We embrace innovation and harness
technology to maximize our effectiveness.

♦ We make a significant portion of our

resources available for free.

♦ We exercise fiscal responsibility as a

means of achieving our mission.

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Foundation Center 2020
Key Assumptions
This strategic plan is based on a series of core assumptions about philanthropy and social
change, each of which has implications for the Foundation Center (italics).
Assumption
Organized philanthropy (foundations) will continue
to grow in the U.S. in terms of assets and giving.
U.S. philanthropy will become an increasingly
segmented industry with a relatively small (but
growing) number of richly-endowed, well-staffed,
and sophisticated foundations; a growing number
with global ambitions; and a very large number of
much smaller foundations, some with little or no
staff at all, whose giving is primarily local.
Outside the U.S., philanthropy will continue to
grow at a rapid pace, particularly in those
countries and regions taking on greater
importance in the global economy.
As philanthropy and the fortunes that fuel it grow,
governments, the media, and online communities
will demand to know more about philanthropy and
philanthropists.
The tool kit of organized philanthropy will
increasingly be a continuum ranging from grants
at one end to market-rate, mission-related
investments at the other, with a broader array of
operating programs and direct charitable activities
in between.
New forms of social investment will continue to
evolve such that foundations will share the
landscape with online giving/volunteering
platforms, for-profit social enterprises, and new
forms that we have yet to see.
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 Implication for the Foundation Center (FC)
 Main FC databases covering foundations and
their grants will need to expand significantly.
 FC will need to develop a broader range of
services to meet the needs of the full spectrum
of foundations while giving nonprofits the
knowledge they need to gain support from an
ever-growing universe of foundations.
 FC will need to build global alliances and
partnerships with individual foundations and
national and regional associations to gain
access to greater quantities of data on the
work of foundations around the world.
 FC will need to help foundations find the tools
they need to meet the challenge of
transparency in the digital age.
 FC will need to expand its data architecture and
research efforts to cover as many of these
forms of philanthropy as possible.
 FC will need to collect and/or gain access to
data on social investment beyond grants and
grantmakers.
Foundation Center 2020
Assumption
Organizations seeking funding will need to employ
a wider variety of strategies including nonprofit
restructuring and collaboration, multi-sector
partnerships, social enterprise financing, and
increased orientation towards bottom line results
and “social impact."
Philanthropy will be increasingly data- and
knowledge-driven as donors strive for more
impact on a larger scale, and finding the right
information quickly will be paramount.
Working at scale will require collaboration with
other foundations, government, the private
sector, and nonprofits—often across the globe.
Philanthropy and social investment will expand in
such a way that no one organization can cover all
its needs and possibilities.
Radical changes in the information industry will
continue to challenge business models and
traditional roles of producers and consumers of
information.
Technology will make it possible to do things
tomorrow with data, its delivery, and its
visualization that we can’t begin to imagine today.
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 Implication for the Foundation Center (FC)
 FC will need to expand its online data
resources, research, and educational programs
to connect those in the social sector to a wider
array of resources.
 FC will need to expand its efforts to make sure
its data is readily available, as current as
possible, and seen and used by donors.
 FC will need to develop more and more
platforms and tools that put a broad mix of
information—including data on global
philanthropy—at people’s fingertips, thereby
lowering the transaction cost of collaboration.
 Through collaboration, acquisition, and
“coopetition” the FC will meet the data and
knowledge needs of the sector.
 FC will need to find the right balance between
open and free data, including user-generated
content, and that for which a fee can be
charged.
 FC will need to constantly renew its
IT resources.
Foundation Center 2020 Join the conversation at 2020.foundationcenter.org

Our Strategic Priorities

Connect nonprofits to the resources they need to thrive

Empower donors with knowledge tools they need to be more strategic

Build the global data platform for philanthropy

Communicate philanthropy’s contribution to making a better world

Encourage greater foundation transparency

Ensure that our technology provides a strong foundation for the Center’s work

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Foundation Center 2020 Join the conversation at 2020.foundationcenter.org

STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Connect nonprofits to the resources they need to thrive

At the core of much of the Center’s work over the past 50 years lies an effort to build the capacity of the
nation’s nonprofits to better navigate the funding environment. While our founding mission was to make
information available to all, it quickly became apparent that the greatest need came from staff of
nonprofits looking for funding from foundations to assure the success of their organizations. By
combining print and online resources with training and education, the Center has kept nonprofits up-to-
date about the rapidly changing and ever more complicated process involved in accessing foundation
resources.

Today we serve nonprofits through a network of 450 funding information centers across the globe, five
full-service offices of the Center, a database with over 11,000 organizational subscribers, and one of
the most popular information-based web sites in the sector, receiving 50,000 visits per day. In essence
we provide a unique blend of broad physical presence with even broader virtual reach—a combination of
high-tech and high-touch. In keeping with the changing landscape, our efforts will expand to more fully
serve the broadening social sector—nonprofits, new forms of organizations, and individuals—that will
find in the Center the “go-to” place for their information and training needs. They can walk into one of
our physical locations, or find us through institution-wide access to the Foundation Directory Online
(FDO) at a major university, or visit us virtually on the web. We expect to further solidify this unique
position as we increase efficiency in the sector, lower the barriers of entry for new players, and level the
playing field for all those who need our resources to succeed.

GOALS _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Live and online exchanges about problem solving in the
social sector
♦ Expand GrantSpace, our web platform that helps
grantseekers build community around the
Foundation Center’s and their own content
♦ Support the growing trend of mergers, joint
programming, and partnership in the social sector
by expanding our Nonprofit Collaboration
Resources web portal
♦ Hold more live and online events on emerging
topics and solutions for tomorrow’s issues
More training and better delivery of education programs
♦ Expand our free and fee-based training for nonprofits
and individuals by adding events/courses on topics
such as evaluation, collaboration, and more
♦ Build an online self-assessment tool that allows users
to build their own individualized learning program
♦ Launch versions of training curricula for access on
mobile devices
♦ Produce new editions of our most popular
training publications
Constant improvements to Foundation Directory Online
♦ Continuously upgrade search and data
visualization features
♦ Broaden the possibilities of support for
grantseekers by including more, smaller grants
from foundations, and more grants from public
charities and corporate giving programs
♦ Provide greater insight into the work of foundations
by adding their multimedia content
Access to all of our best tools and information to
anyone, anywhere
♦ Expand our global network of 450+ funding
information centers
♦ Produce more foreign language versions of
existing training material and more original material
in other languages
♦ Enable participants from under-resourced groups to
attend our fee-based courses offered by providing
more scholarships
♦ Deliver information and tools directly to mobile
devices (iPhone, Droid, iPad, and future formats)

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STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Empower donors with knowledge tools they need to be more strategic

The Foundation Center’s rich data on decades of foundation giving, philanthropy news, and foundation-
funded research provides a wealth of information ripe for mining on virtually any cause in which a donor
might be interested. Add to this core competencies in data architecture, visualization, and web design,
and the Foundation Center is uniquely positioned to build the kinds of knowledge tools that donors,
foundations, regional associations of grantmakers, affinity groups, donor advisors, and others need to
make giving more strategic, efficient, and effective. Our vision includes a one-stop shop for grantmakers
that offers a suite of standard data tools, “how-to” resources, specialized databases, and issue-focused
portals filled with research—in addition to custom knowledge tools built on demand. Together these will
significantly reduce the barriers to information exchange that make effective collaboration among
foundations so difficult, thereby unleashing its potential for greater impact.

GOALS _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Data-driven decision making on how best to allocate
donor resources
♦ Offer versions of Philanthropy In/Sight and other
mapping/visualization tools customized around
issues/geography to tell donors who is funding
what, where
♦ Conduct custom data searches for both new and
experienced donors and their advisors
♦ Build issue-based web portals combining
foundation grants information, data visualization,
research, news, and other indicators to lower the
transaction cost of donor collaboration
♦ Make significant amounts of FC data open and free
so that others can develop their own tools and
applications
Better skills, better processes, better philanthropy
♦ Acquire and expand GrantCraft for production of
printed and online training material for
grantmakers here and abroad
♦ Launch a training/internship program for
foundation grants managers on handling grants
information and data
♦ Improve TRASI and other tools for impact
and effectiveness
♦ Build an interactive benchmarking tool for
foundation expenses
♦ Deliver Foundation Center data directly to
foundation knowledge managers

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STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Build the global data platform for philanthropy

With Philanthropy In/Sight, the Foundation Center has taken a giant step forward in building the
platform for visualizing information about global philanthropy. In addition to information on nearly
94,000 U.S.-based grantmakers, this platform already includes foundations and grants in Africa, the
Middle East, Europe, and China. We have proven to ourselves and others that it is indeed possible to
capture this data and display it in such a way that an interactive vision of philanthropy as a global
movement begins to appear. We will now implement a strategy for doing this on a systematic basis
through the work of data collection (directly and through partners), architecture (structuring it in a way
that can be aggregated, compared and researched), and access (maps, online tools, and other
databases). Because of the differences in philanthropic cultures/practices around the globe, this will
also entail building out the Foundation Center’s existing taxonomy, dealing with multiple languages and
currencies, and with a host of other data and technology issues that will also improve the quality of our
U.S. data. Moreover, the Foundation Center will need to ensure that it has a seat at the table in
conversations with foreign aid donors, multilateral lenders, and government transparency advocates that
are pushing to define future data standards with which, at a minimum, foundation data will need to be
comparable. We know what this involves in terms of staff, IT capacity, web design, data visualization,
and other resources to do it well, and feel strongly that the Foundation Center is the organization with
the expertise, experience, and depth to take on a long-term challenge of this nature.

GOALS _____________________________________________________________________________________________
More, broader, and deeper data
♦ Collect data on philanthropy in Europe, Latin
America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through
partnerships with Worldwide Initiative for
Grantmaker Support (WINGS), the China
Foundation Center (CFC), the Mexican Center for
Philanthropy (CEMEFI), et al.
♦ Collect data on new forms of philanthropy (e.g.,
mission-related investing, operating foundations,
public charities, giving circles, and online giving
platforms)
♦ Collect data on foundation strategies and
outcomes
Better systems for collecting, classifying, and
interpreting the data
♦ Work with the Council on Foundations, the
International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI),
and others to define appropriate data standards
for the field
♦ Increase electronic reporting of grants/program
data directly to the Foundation Center via
commercial software and Grantsfire
♦ Improve the taxonomy (subjects, geography,
population groups, type of support, and strategies)
♦ Partner with others in combining philanthropic data
with international aid flows, governmental
expenditures, and other forms of public benefit
spending

On-demand access to FC data

♦ Constantly upgrade, re-design, and improve

Philanthropy In/Sight, making it the platform to
learn about who is giving and who is receiving
donor resources worldwide
♦ Provide better and faster access to our data
through RSS feeds, open data initiatives,
application programming interfaces (APIs), etc.

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STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Communicate philanthropy’s contribution to making a better world

As private wealth for public good, philanthropy is intended to contribute positively to social welfare,
solving society’s most pressing problems, and, in general, making the world a better place. Basic
information about the field is essential so that the media, researchers, nonprofits, and foundations
themselves have a solid understanding of the scale and potential of philanthropy. But the public cares
most about the issues and causes that motivate them in their daily lives, and it is essential that they
see philanthropy as relevant to their concerns. While writing on philanthropy frequently covers topics like
donor intent, payout, or direct charitable expenditures, the news that attracts wide public attention is
filled with reporting on immigration, climate change, unemployment, terrorism, or economic policy.

The Foundation Center has the data, research capacity, and communication resources to meet these
broad-ranging information needs. Whether it is fulfilling our traditional role as the trusted resource for
accurate information on philanthropy or telling the story of how foundations and nonprofits are
responding to the latest crisis or disaster, going beyond the data and bringing knowledge to the fore is
something we are well positioned to do.

GOALS _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Facts, analysis, and opinion to inform public discourse Sector-wide information on the basic trends in the field

♦ Web portals on philanthropy’s work on major
issues facing society and the world
♦ A rapid-fire “Philanthropy and . . .” series
communicating how foundations are working on hot
topics being discussed in the news today
♦ Expansion of PhilanTopic, our other blogs, and
social media tools as vehicles for thought
leadership in the field
♦ Annual studies of asset and giving levels
♦ Periodic studies of giving by major subject areas
(e.g., education, health, the arts) or governance
issues
♦ Interactive online tools and downloadable data to
increase the reach and use of this information

In-depth research

♦ Special reports on foundation giving covering

topics such as social justice, international
grantmaking, human rights, funding for women and
girls, and diversity
♦ Grantmaker Leadership Panel surveys reporting
the views of a cross-section of 228 foundation
CEOs on issues crucial to philanthropy

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STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Encourage greater foundation transparency

Coming in the wake of congressional allegations about foundation activity at the height of McCarthyism,
the Foundation Center was born out of a conviction that philanthropy would be best served by proving
that it had nothing to hide. The Center’s original mission was to make the world of foundations more
transparent. Today, as more and more people are accessing greater quantities of information online,
pressure is growing on foundations to be more transparent about operations and how they fulfill their
missions to serve the public good. The Center intends to play a leading role in galvanizing a
transparency movement within philanthropy by demonstrating the many positive steps foundations are
already taking in this regard and encouraging foundations to learn from their peers. This will increase
public trust in foundations as greater numbers of foundations openly communicate information about
their governance, procedures, programs, and impact to the public. At the same time, greater
transparency will reduce duplication of effort in the field and facilitate greater collaboration among
foundations.

GOALS _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Knowledge and tools to help foundations be
more transparent
♦ Provide foundations with a rich array of examples
showing what their peers are doing to meet the
growing demand for online transparency
♦ Design self-diagnostic tools for foundations to
assess and improve their own transparency
♦ Re-design and re-launch our service to design and
host foundations’ web sites by focusing on start-up
and smaller foundations and adding new features
including mapping, databases, knowledge centers,
Facebook pages, and more
A community devoted to transparency in philanthropy
♦ Constantly improve our flagship transparency web
portal, Glasspockets, with more foundation
profiles, tools, and user-generated content in
collaboration with partner organizations
♦ Develop a robust communications strategy—
including public events, thought leadership pieces,
and social media—around the need for and
practice of transparency
♦ Launch “Eye on the Giving Pledge” feature to lend
greater transparency to what is so far the century’s
biggest philanthropic development

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STRATEGIC PRIORITY
Ensure that our technology provides a strong foundation for the Center’s work

Over the last few decades, the Foundation Center successfully made the transition from a print-based
directory operation to a sophisticated online presence including industry-leading databases, web portals,
GIS mapping, social media, and more. In a rapidly evolving digital environment, constant improvements
will be required in order to ensure that the Foundation Center’s technology is up to the task of meeting
our ambitious strategic goals. In order for our outward facing platforms, databases, and tools to best
serve a demanding public, our internal information technology infrastructure will have to be the best it
can be. This includes the technology backbone required to “open up” our information culture through
incorporating growing volumes of user-generated content, as well as delivering our data and knowledge
to the places people are accustomed to doing their work online and getting their information.

GOALS _____________________________________________________________________________________________
A strategic framework for all the Foundation Center’s
IT work
♦ Identify key tactical and strategic initiatives and
plan resources accordingly
♦ Anticipate new developments in how information
will be produced, delivered and consumed
♦ Develop a data and system integration strategy to
eliminate redundancy across platforms, reduce
manual input, and strengthen data integrity
♦ Conduct ongoing assessment and evaluation of
technology tools, upgrading as needed.
Upgraded mission-critical systems
♦ Build a new customer relationship management
system to better serve our diverse audiences while
maximizing impact of marketing and
communications efforts
♦ Enhance our systems to support the key goal of
developing community around content
♦ Review the current data structure and application
platform supporting the foundation and grants
databases, and develop a migration plan

Helping Philanthropy Shape Its Future

The Foundation Center of today is preparing for the knowledge-driven philanthropy of tomorrow, and in
the world of today knowledge starts with data.

With huge volumes of historical data on U.S. philanthropy; growing data and relationships involving
foundations around the world; rich content in terms of foundation and nonprofit research; a research
institute of its own; increasing multimedia content; and significant mapping and data visualization
capabilities, the Foundation Center is poised to help shape the field once again. We are committed to
providing nonprofits, donors, advisors, social investors, and others with the kinds of data-driven tools,
research, and analysis that will help them maximize the allocation of their resources—whether it be in
their own community or around the world—on the issues they care about the most.

Shaping involves trying to see today what will drive the practice of philanthropy tomorrow, as new
generations come into the field: not an easy task, but one for which the Foundation Center has
considerable core capabilities in an era where data, information, and knowledge are at the forefront.

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