Foundation Applications- Board & employee giving

EphraimGopin

Hi everyone!

In your experience, what percent of foundation applications ask if

• Board members donate to the organization
• employees donate to the organization?

Thanks in advance!

Ephraim

TrishBachman

I'm curious about this too, Ephraim! What are the best practices? And is it equitable?

EphraimGopin

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

erickaharney

I get a fair number that ask about the board but rarely any asking the employee giving question (only one I can think of is United Way). Personally, I'm encouraging clients to rethink how they count board giving, rather than dollars alone. There is plenty of discussion about the dynamics and equity in employee giving, which I honestly hope will go away. I think AFP just posted about an article or study on employee giving campaigns.

But overall, I have no quantitative data or percentages to give you :) it would be an interesting research paper though.

BarbaraFloersch

I agree with Ericka. That's also been my experience. But I will add that when foundations do ask about board contributions they take the response quite seriously. I have encountered numerous foundations that more or less say "no serious board giving, no grant award."

EphraimGopin

Hi @erickaharney !

So @DianeHLeonard told me that in her experience, 50% of applications ask about Board giving but only 10% employee giving.

As far as research paper, I just published an ebook on employee giving, based on a survey I did on the topic. (I did a webinar for AFP Global a few days ago on the issue. That may have been what you saw posted.) It includes some data about Board and senior management giving. I do discuss in the ebook the issue of Board members giving something other than dollars. As far as equity and employee giving, I discuss that as well. It's a very complicated topic :)

erickaharney

@EphraimGopin - That's why the topic seemed familiar!! I had saved the link to your book over on LinkedIn and haven't had a chance to read it. (Grant Brain right now). I look forward to getting to it soon.

EphraimGopin

i just call it "Life Brain" :)

AlbaAustin

Agree with @erickaharney