Local Funders for Local Projects
“A foundation in a small town in Oklahoma or New Jersey with $10-million, making grants to the local hospital or library, is often the largest frog in that pond. They’ll be bigger in their impact there than Rockefeller is in the worldwide pond. And there’s more accountability because the trustees drive past the hospital; their grandchild was born there. They use the library.”
– Joe Pierpont, Association of Small Foundations
Broad Impact for National Funders
“The program needs the potential for broader impact. If a project can work only under very specific circumstances in a very limited area, it probably is not a prime candidate for funding. Ideally, of course, the project would have the power to change public policy and transform major systems. Even if it doesn’t, though, it should still have the potential to work in more than one place, for more than a few people.”
– Anne C. Petersen, Ph.D., Senior Vice President for Programs, W.K. Kellogg Foundation