Building Great (Small) Organizations

The Sills Family Foundation

The Sills Family Foundation likes to invest in small organizations led by passionate people working on the front lines of early childhood education, helping families in crisis, and environmental justice. But even small organizations need to invest in themselves or they risk burnout and breakdown. In 2007 the trustees invited a small group of grantees to apply for capacity building grants of up to $25,000 “to be used in whatever way you think would best contribute to the strength of your organization.”  Among those chosen were a NYC criminal justice group and a battered women’s shelter in Vermont. 

The Foundation trustees know their grantees very well, because they fund most of them over many years.  So they were able to select grantees that they knew faced serious challenges in growth, sustainability, leadership or governance.  Because the capacity building grants were made on top of the foundation’s regular grants, the organizations were able to tackle internal needs that are typically very hard to fund, yet are vital to their survival.  Examples of recipients and how they chose to invest the new money are:

•  JusticeWorks Community, a NYC criminal justice group who will upgrade their technology to increase staff communications, website functionality and build an online community.

•  Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, who will address organizational change, staffing and strategic planning. 

•  Battered Women’s Services and Shelter of Washington County, who will develop and strengthen their board governance.

The first batch of capacity building grants will be completed this spring, but the trustees are already convinced that this experiment is a success and have invited a fresh batch of grantees (some repeats from 2007) to apply this year.  These are investments in making small organizations become great organizations.

“Capacity building grants allow you to learn much more about the organizations you're funding,” says trustee Peter Sills. “It encourages them to acknowledge their needs, even their flaws, and creates an attitude of trust between grantee and grantor.  I remember one grantee employee telling me, ‘We love your foundation because we can tell the truth to you.’”