HOW DO WE DEVELOP A GIVING STRATEGY?

CASE STUDY

The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center

With so many demands on your foundation's resources, it's difficult to know how to focus your grantmaking. Where can your grants have the most impact? Which organizations are most worthy of your support? Should you give smaller grants to many organizations, or larger grants to just a few? Addressing these questions begins with a process that addresses donor intent, helps clarify the foundation's values, sets goals and objectives, and puts into place a strategic plan for carrying out your mission.

THE ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN CENTER:

The directors of the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center had a passion for the work of the great Russian writer and anticommunist dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn, they believed, could change lives, yet too few Americans knew his work, too many of his works remained untranslated, and too many scholars misrepresented his views. How could a new organization help change all of this?

American Philanthropic helped the directors clarify their goals and create a road map for achieving them. We helped them set up a private operating foundation—The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center—advancing a better understanding of the life and work of Solzhenitsyn. We helped to write appropriate bylaws, craft a mission statement, and create a concise vision for the Center's programming. We are now helping the Center build a development program and execute its programming-including a major international conference on Solzhenitsyn to be held in Oxford in 2013.

RELATED SERVICES:

• Strategic planning—including clarifying goals, identifying and setting up the correct giving vehicle, donor-intent preservation, and impact assessment.
• Foundation creation and management.
• Landscape analysis.
• Grantee research and evaluation.
• Philanthropic partner research and evaluation.
• Development program creation and management.
• RFP writing and dissemination.