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Foundation Services

STRATEGIES FOR PHILANTHROPY

Mission-Driven Strategies for Resilience and Reinvention in Times of Crisis

For Foundations and Their Grantee Partners

Foundations are dealing with unprecedented circumstances — economically, socially, culturally, and financially. The current pandemic has hastened the calls for foundations to move rapidly and to respond to immediate needs of their grantees while re-evaluating how to be of greatest use. 

How does a foundation assess its strategies and create new paradigms to fulfill its mission and affect change?

Mission-Driven Methodology

Davidoff developed its Mission-Driven approach out of our own dissatisfaction with traditional planning processes. In response to what we were observing, we designed a methodology that:

  • Brings an elevated level of critical thinking to our foundation and nonprofit clients
  • Challenges organizational assumptions and norms that typically go unquestioned, and uncovering tangible and intangible assets
  • Leverages opportunities for growth, transformation, and greater organizational effectiveness

Recent clients acknowledge their experiences:

“We wanted to make a contribution to youth living in Chicago’s under-resourced West Side communities. Working with Davidoff was a great opportunity for us to take our grantmaking process to a new level of responsiveness and relevance.”

– Kelley Christopher Schueler, Trustee, Christopher Family Foundation

“Davidoff has supported both our grantees as well as our own foundation with strategic planning, thought leadership, and communications and messaging. We have created and achieved several important milestones that have enhanced our mission to advance policy, build partnerships, and strengthen public health to create communities where people can achieve their best possible health.”

– Brian Castrucci, President and Chief Executive Officer, the de Beaumont Foundation

Foundation & Nonprofit Services

Short- and Long-term Organizational Strategy
  • Organizational development and funding philosophy 
  • Resource planning for short- and long-term revenue goals
  • Scenario or contingency planning 
  • Stakeholder engagement 
  • Program needs-assessment 
Mission-Driven Team Training 
  • Develop high-performing learning cultures
  • Align teams towards larger organizational purpose and principles
Mission-Driver Coaching and Leadership Development
  • Coaching for leaders to develop their capacities as Mission-Drivers in times of transformative change 
  • Leadership Cohort of Executive Directors of grantee organizations to seek and offer best practices with peers in a facilitated setting

Over the past 16 years, Davidoff has applied its Mission-Driven methodology to over 150 national and local foundations, nonprofits, associations, and corporations. Our clients include: