The Organizational Effectiveness subprogram offers current grantees the opportunity to undertake projects that transform their organizations in sustained and meaningful ways. Our grants support a variety of capacity-building efforts for grantee organizations and networks. Grant funds are primarily used to cover the cost of outside consultants.
The Packard Foundation supports the following efforts:
- Organization or network assessment, which may include social network analysis or mapping
- Strategic planning, business, or operational planning
- Financial and executive coaching
- Mergers or other restructuring efforts
- Fund development planning and feasibility studies
- Executive search services during senior leadership transitions
- Cultural competence or diversity initiatives
- Board development and governance
- Training for network coordinators (e.g., facilitation skills)
- Strategic communications planning, including planning for use of social media, and
- Building the organization or network’s capacity to evaluate its work.
The Organizational Effectiveness subprogram projects are often more complex and require more time than other projects, and can easily become unwieldy. The staff encourages grantees to submit projects of only one or two closely related components, addressing highest priority needs.
In addition to funding individual organizations, grants are also made to nonprofits that provide organizational capacity building to a group of grantees or sub-grantees.
We do not fund organizations or networks that are not current Packard Foundation grantees. We do not reimburse grantees for projects already underway or for expenses already incurred. We do not fund projects to build the field of organization or network effectiveness.
The Organizational Effectiveness subprogram does not support core operating costs to sustain organizations or networks and related expenses such as staff salaries, administrative overhead, computers or software, rent or other occupancy expenses, Web site design, financial audits, tuition for degree programs, conference costs, recurring staff training expenses, printing of strategic plans or other reports, and legal fees.
