Creating a philanthropy strategy

Please note: This article does not constitute advice. Barclays Private Bank does not endorse any of the companies or individuals referenced in this article.

Effective philanthropy is not wishful thinking with money, nor is it an act of simply writing cheques. It is about the thoughtful creation of something that adds value to the world through your time, effort, skill, money and/or connections. 

For those fortunate to find their passion in giving, this may be a lifelong pursuit. Successes, failures, learning and personal growth are all an important part of the journey. 

As Professor Beth Breeze, Director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent, says: “Philanthropy is forever a work in progress. Not even the most accomplished philanthropist starts their giving fully confident of their ultimate goals and how to accomplish these.” 

Creating a strategy can help you to clarify your path and remain accountable for your progress. As we have set out in our chapter Motivations for giving, a first step is often to consider your values, aspirations and intentions. 

You can then move through a period of research and reflection to identify cause areas and the changes you wish to make through your philanthropy. How you will go about contributing to this change will be your giving strategy. 

Understanding the landscape

One of the most useful starting points is to take the time to understand the problems you would like to address. A landscape analysis enables you to map out answers to key questions, including:

• Who is working on your chosen issue?
• What evidence exists (or needs to be developed) to identify the scale and scope of the problem?
• What are the root causes?
• What interventions have been tried, and what has (or has not) worked?
• Where are the gaps and opportunity areas?

• Who else can you learn from or with?

By following this process, you are less likely to duplicate efforts or waste your or others’ time and energy.

You can undertake a landscape analysis by: 

• Conducting desk research to map what is already funded. You might consult reports, articles and data sources, such as (but not limited to) 360Giving, Publish What You Fund and the OECD’s Private Philanthropy for Development.
• Speaking to a range of organisations addressing the issue(s) and, if possible, communities affected. You may even consider making a handful of smaller grants to experienced organisations to help you build knowledge and relationships.
• Consulting other funders with expertise in your chosen cause. There may, for example, be funders’ groups or local community foundations that are sharing intelligence around particular themes.
• Some donors commission consultants or hire experts to help with their analysis. This may be useful if you are certain of the area you wish to support, have limited time, would like to start work in the near future and/or expect your giving to be very public.

In the case study below, Myrna Atalla, Executive Director of venture philanthropy organisation Alfanar, explains how understanding the landscape is not simply an exercise that philanthropists need to undertake as a one-off. It is instead an imperative that every donor should commit to if they want to develop a relevant, impactful and responsive strategy.

Writing your giving strategy

Once you are clear on your values, resources you can contribute, interests and the needs in your chosen areas, you can begin to determine your strategy. Before you do so, it’s worth considering your intended audience. Will this be solely for use within your foundation or family? Or will you make it more public, so that potential partners and/or recipients can understand your approach and intentions? 

Either way, documenting your giving strategy can be a useful exercise. Not only will it allow you to record the work you have put into your decisions, but it will also give you a starting point from which to measure progress and allow you to align any other financial plans. 

At the very least, you might set out the following:

• Your motivations for giving, your values and beliefs.
• What are your focus areas? Consider the themes and geographies for your giving.
• Who will you give to? What communities, what types of organisations?
• What resources can you donate beyond money? Consider your time, skills and connections.
• How will you contribute funding? Will you give multi-year donations, or will they be a one-off? Are you interested in social investing, which considers both financial return and social purpose?
• Will you work alongside family? Do you intend to do the work yourself, or will you need help to manage your giving?
• How will decisions be made? Some families articulate who will be involved in great detail and draw up a family charter. In other cases, family dynamics are less relevant but organising a clear decision-making approach helps to demonstrate a thoughtful process.
• Are you open to collaborating with other funders? How can you ensure you are exposed to the right expertise, intelligence and lived experience?
• What impact do you hope to contribute to, and over what time period?
• How will you measure progress and be accountable to yourself and others?

A dynamic, evolving approach

It’s worth not getting too hung up on creating a ‘perfect’ strategy. Whilst it should ideally be well-informed, remember that a strategy is dynamic. It can, and should, evolve as you gain new experience and insight, or indeed as the context in which you’re working changes. 

You can maintain a degree of flexibility by allocating portions of your giving to different ‘pots’. For example, you may decide that 70% of your giving goes towards your main strategic goals, whilst the remaining 30% can be allocated to unplanned requests or commitments to more personal charitable interests.

You may wish to read our chapter Measuring the impact of your giving for information on developing a Theory of Change for your strategy, and how to think about monitoring your progress.

Implementing your plan

Once a strategy is in place, the next challenge is the question of how to bring it to life. Our chapter How donors can turn plans into action touches on three of the key technical areas – identifying organisations to support, using power wisely and collaborative giving.

Case study

Myrna Atalla: Adapting to the needs of beneficiaries

Myrna Atalla, Executive Director of Alfanar, a venture philanthropy organisation working in the Middle East and North Africa, discusses her efforts to understand the evolving needs of the social enterprises and communities that she supports.

Established in 2004, Alfanar (meaning ‘beacon’ in Arabic) is the oldest venture philanthropy organisation focused on the Arab region. We differ from traditional philanthropic institutions by supporting social enterprises not only to grow their impact for vulnerable women and children, but also to become financially sustainable through the development of self-generated revenue, namely the sale of goods and services.

We were born out of a frustration with the level of donor dependency hampering the growth of social purpose organisations in the region. This situation often made these enterprises more accountable to the donors funding them than the communities they serve.

Supporting women, young people and children

When we started Alfanar, we were motivated by a mission to help women, young people and children access high-quality education and dignified employment.  

As time went on, we realised that funding alone could not encourage the growth and financial sustainability of the social enterprises we supported. We also learned that these organisations struggled to report on their impact. 

In response, we created a training and mentorship programme to complement the funding provided while shepherding social enterprises through growth. In addition, we developed an app-based impact management and financial sustainability tracking tool. This helps social enterprises visualise progress and make evidence-based management decisions.

Reflecting the changing landscape

As the social enterprise ecosystem evolved, we adjusted our approach and began providing what few others in the region do: multi-year, patient and flexible funding. As our investees’ cashflow improves, we can offer interest-free loans to encourage discipline and self-reliance. 

We also became aware of the need to help social enterprises to scale. As a result, we are working to launch the region’s first impact investment fund. The objective is to grow the pool of impact-driven investors committed to helping businesses generate measurable social or environmental impact, while also increasing their revenue and delivering financial returns to investors.

Philanthropy in a crisis

In August 2020, an explosion in Beirut’s port killed at least 218 people, injured 7,000 and displaced hundreds of thousands¹. We hit a pivotal moment. Did we remain in the sustainable development space? Or did we find a way to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe?

We launched an Emergency Lebanon Appeal to enable our social enterprises to provide food boxes, as well as hot and vacuum-sealed meals. Additionally, we provided emergency aid to social enterprises that had been impacted by the blast. Finally, we supported a social enterprise, which trains disadvantaged young people to work professionally in the construction industry. Thanks to these joint efforts, we helped to rebuild 70 schools and small businesses that had been destroyed.  

Our assessment of the landscape helped us support those affected by the catastrophe, while also remaining focused on our mission to foster the sustainable growth of social enterprises.

In the years that have followed, COVID-19, economic crises and war proved that understanding the landscape is not simply an exercise that philanthropists need to undertake during annual reviews. Every philanthropic organisation should continually engage with stakeholders, assess evolving needs and update their knowledge in order to provide impactful, responsive support.

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