MamaCash and Grantcraft have published a new guide for grantmakers to strengthen the role of European foundations in supporting women and girls.

The guide is “...filled with examples of what foundation professionals in thirty-one European foundations (and their advisors) are doing to integrate a gender perspective in their work and/or to focus some of their investments on women and girls”, writes Nicky McIntyre, Executive Director of Mama Cash. (Read highlights from the guide in Nicky’s blog post here.)

The guide explores how foundations can further deepen their commitment to empowering women and girls and provides practical strategies for integration of a gender lens in their work. The guide will be an important tool for foundations that are addressing or want to address the structures that result in exclusion and marginalisation and want to support inclusion with women and girls in the equation.

The pace of social change is increasing rapidly in the United States and around the globe but unfortunately the environment and climate movement has failed thus far to keep up with movements for justice and equality.

Existing environmental regulations have been diminished and new initiatives have been attacked and stymied. From 2000-2009, grantmakers provided $10 billion for environment and climate work, funding primarily topdown strategies; yet, we have not seen a significant policy win since the 1980s. Our funding strategy is misaligned with the great perils our planet and environment face.

Jointly released by Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and written by Barry Knight, a new report, entitled The Value of Community Philanthropy: Results of a Consultation, makes the case that increasing local ownership and local accountability leads to stronger communities and should be a main focus of development aid practitioners. As an outcome of collaborative consultations in North America, Africa and Asia, the report offers a definition of community philanthropy for practitioners and identifies key priorities for building the capacity of the field of community philanthropy.

You can find the report here.

Advocacy by 110 nonprofit organizations over a five-year period has brought more than $26.6 billion in benefits to low-wage workers, communities of color, rural residents and other marginalized groups.

That's one finding in NCRP's new study, Leveraging Limited Dollars: How Grantmakers Achieve Tangible Benefits by Funding Policy and Community Engagement.

Our research found that every dollar grantmakers and other donors invested in policy and civic engagement provided a return of $115 in benefit.

In the report, you'll discover how investing in advocacy and civic engagement:

1. Helps foundations leverage their grant dollars for significant benefit to communities across the nation

Funders for LGBTQ Issues has created the The Common Vision Guide to Structural Change Grantmaking. Take a look - and be sure to join in the conversation. The site is set up to share Funders for LGBTQ Issues' experience - and to have a place for discussion about structural change grantmaking.

The Working Group on Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace is gathering information that will be helpful to grantmakers who are interested in funding in these areas and are hoping you will click here to take the survey. We are researching the field to find out how funders develop and implement grantmaking strategies with a social justice emphasis. We hope to develop material that will be of practical value to funders who want to have an impact on social justice issues.

This survey is designed to only be taken by grantmakers (rather than consultants or researchers). If you have been a grantmaker in the recent past, please respond from that perspective.

The information gathered through this survey will be confidential and no names will be attributed in any report without the express permission of those supplying the information.

A paper by Barbara Masters and Torie Osborn from the Foundation Review

Attached is a post from the Greater New Orleans Foundation about an online social justice giving circle they've started - the Neutral Ground.

Two blog posts by Albert Ruesga challenging the notion of requiring nonprofits to produce theories of change.

Blog post by Albert Ruesga on the White Courtesy Telephone raising some questions about Grantmakers for Effective Organization's report "Do Nothing About Me Without Me," which talks about stakeholder involvement (for which Albert posted a great graphic)in Philanthropy.