Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy

Winner of the 2009 Skystone Ryan Prize for Research, Association of Fundraising Professionals Research Council

“All outstanding philanthropic successes have one thing in common: They started with a smart strategic plan,” say authors Paul Brest, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Hal Harvey, president of ClimateWorks.  

Money Well Spent explains how to create and implement a strategy that ensures meaningful results.  Components of a smart strategy include:

• Achieving great clarity about one’s philanthropic goals
• Specifying indicators of success before beginning a project
• Designing and implementing a plan commensurate with available resources
• Evidence-based understanding of the world in which the plan will operate
• Paying careful attention to milestones to determine if you are on the path to success or if midcourse corrections are necessary

Drawing on examples from over 100 foundations and non-profits, Money Well Spent gives readers the framework they need to design a smart strategy, addressing such key issues as:

• Effective use of tools—education, science, direct services, advocacy—that can achieve your objectives.
• How to choose the forms of funding to achieve stated goals
• How to measure the impact of grants or programs
• When to be patient and stick with a winning strategy and when to abandon a strategy that isn’t working

This is a book for everyone who wants to get the most from a philanthropic dollar: donors, foundations, and non-profits.