The Insider's Guide to Grantmaking: How Foundations Find, Fund, and Manage Effective Programs

Foundation Phobias Regarding Public Policy

Given the make-or-break potential of public policy to leverage or deflate project impact and to advance or harm the field, one might assume that foundations are generally eager to enter the policy fray. Such an assumption would be incorrect. Although a number of foundations do participate effectively in the policy process (among the exemplars are the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation in health care; the Annie E. Casey Foundation in youth development; and the Kettering and Johnson Foundations in multiple areas of interest), the vast majority of U.S. foundations participate sporadically, if at all. There are a number of reasons for this: some based on conscious choices, others ...