Our services for philanthropic foundations

In many parts of the world, philanthropic foundations are playing an increasingly critical role both as a ‘last line of defence’ against poverty traps as well as source of risk capital for social innovation. At the same time, foundations are challenging themselves - and being challenged by stakeholders - on their historic ways of operating.

At GAP we embrace the opportunity to work with progressive and open-minded foundations to develop a philanthropy for the 21st century, one which is truly inclusive, community-led and catalytic.

  • Strategy & Design

    - Developing grant-making strategies (for new foundations or those going through a strategic refresh)

    - Designing programmatic strategies (for specific issue areas or cohorts or places)

  • Partnership Development

    - Landscape research to identify potential grantees aligned with strategy

    - Due diligence on specific opportunities

    - Partnership design (including activities, goals, and reporting)

  • Measurement & Evaluation

    - Developing theories of change / logic models at all levels: foundation-wide; program-level; individual partnership level

    - Developing measures, goals and benchmarks for tracking and monitoring progress against impact/outcome ambitions

    - Evaluations and reviews for individuals grants or a portfolio of grants, with a focus on learning and insights (in addition to understanding contribution to impact)

  • Balance Sheet Alignment

    - Developing impact investing strategies for foundation balance sheets

    - Portfolio construction and due diligence

    - Evaluations and reviews to generate insights as well as communicate impact to stakeholders