Grantee showcase events

A community foundation's structural position lets it do something no grantee can: put a dozen organizations in one room, in front of one audience, with one catalogue — and make the case for the whole community rather than one cause.

It also resolves the awkwardness of a funder competing with the organizations it funds.

Why it works for everybody

• Grantees get exposure to a donor audience they cannot reach and items sold on their behalf
• The foundation gets a campaign that demonstrates what it funds rather than asserting it
• Donors see the range of work in one place, which is the foundation's entire argument
• Businesses are asked once for an event supporting a dozen organizations instead of a dozen times
• And the volunteer load spreads across every participating organization

Settle the money first, in writing

The arrangement lives or dies here, and a funder-grantee relationship makes it more delicate rather than less.

• Which entity receives, holds and receipts — usually the foundation
• How proceeds divide: equally, by items contributed, by a fixed split, or into a shared fund
• Whether the foundation takes anything for costs, stated openly
• What happens to items that do not sell
• Who owns the donor and bidder list afterwards
• And that participation has no bearing whatever on grant decisions, said explicitly and in writing

That last clause is not optional. A grantee invited by its funder is not in a free position, and only the foundation can remove that pressure — by saying so, in writing, before anybody is asked.

Let grantees be visible, not decorative

• Each organization presents its own work, in its own words
• Items sourced by grantees carry their name
• Grantee staff and volunteers attend as participants rather than as exhibits
• Their beneficiaries' privacy rules govern their material, not the foundation's marketing preferences
• And a short, genuine account from each organization beats a foundation summary of all of them

The privacy point matters. A shelter, a refugee organization or a family service has confidentiality obligations that a foundation's communications team may not know — so each grantee approves anything published about its own work.

Formats

One shared fund. Everybody raises for a pooled grant round the foundation then distributes. Simplest to run, and it lets the foundation direct money where it is most needed.

Split by organization. Each grantee names what its share funds and that is published. More motivating for the grantees and more concrete for donors.

A showcase with each grantee's own lots. Organizations source and keep their own, and the foundation provides the platform, the audience and the event. Least foundation revenue and the most goodwill.

Use it to open funds

The foundation's own return, and the reason the event is worth its cost. An audience seeing a dozen organizations in one evening is an audience that has understood what a community foundation does — which is the hardest thing to explain and the precondition for every fund, bequest and endowment gift that follows.

Have somebody at the event whose job is talking to interested people about opening a fund, and follow up within the week.

Run it annually

The compounding is the point. By the third year it has a date, a reputation, a combined list and businesses that plan for it — and it becomes the county's philanthropic occasion rather than one organization's event.

General information, not legal or tax advice. The rules governing donor-advised funds, incidental benefits and fiscal sponsorship are technical and carry penalties — your own counsel and your fund advisors' advisers decide how any of this applies.