Personal Strategy and Why It Matters

The challenges grantmakers find in ambiguous situations are often further compounded by several tensions that come with their jobs. They work for the public good, but in private institutions. They are called on to collaborate with grantees but know that, because of the power imbalance, few grantees are likely to trust them fully. They aim to connect grantees and their foundations but often end up feeling squeezed in the middle. To master these situations and unusual dynamics, grantmakers need personal strategies for effectiveness.

In contrast to organizational strategies with multi-year time horizons, personal strategies can help individual grantmakers manage a series of near-term situations: conducting a difficult conversation with a grantee; presenting a risky proposal to the board; or giving critical feedback to a grantseeker. And unlike the formal, written strategies of organizations, personal strategies are informal and usually unstated.

Takeaways are critical, bite-sized resources either excerpted from our guides or written by Candid Learning for Funders using the guide's research data or themes post-publication. Attribution is given if the takeaway is a quotation.

This takeaway was derived from Personal Strategy.

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