The Heising-Simons Foundation supports organizational effectiveness (OE) to help current Foundation grantees address organizational needs in a variety of areas — including talent investment, financial health, strategic communications, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Grants are meant to complement the grantee’s core program grant, and address key and timely organizational priorities. The Foundation’s OE initiatives focus on providing support that is flexible and responsive to grantees’ unique needs.
The Foundation may adjust its OE-related offerings over time based on feedback received from grantees, Foundation program teams, and a triennial grantee survey of overall organizational effectiveness needs.
Please see below for more information about current offerings.
The Foundation established two responsive funds for existing grantees that provide timely, one-time grants to address organization-wide or project-specific needs. The funds are:
Grants are intended to fund costs that help grantees initiate activities they would otherwise not be able to fund.
Foundation programs determine which grantees are eligible to apply for the responsive funds. If your organization is eligible, you will receive an email invite. Invitations to apply to the two responsive funds are sent in Spring every year. Open to applications on a rolling basis until resources are depleted.
Grantees initiate requests to receive support through either fund. Final funding decisions are made by Tides Foundation (for the Organizational Capacity Responsive Fund) and Philanthropic Ventures Foundation (for the Communications Responsive Fund).
The Foundation believes in investing in the development and sustainability of leaders working at grantee organizations across our program areas, offering opportunities for leadership development, and supporting organizational growth and development. This can include leadership assessment, one-on-one coaching, support in developing a multi-step organizational development plan, and participating in small cohorts for intensive peer learning and support.
If your organization is at an inflection point, we encourage you to reach out to your main Program Officer.
The Foundation works with grantees and consultants to provide in-depth and tailored consultation to selected grantees.
Program staff can nominate grantees for tailored support at any time of the year, and this could include training, coaching, or other OE support for individual grantees or cohorts of grantees. Tailored OE support can cover any OE need, such as professional development, strategic communications, leadership transition, fundraising, business planning, and strategic planning.
If your organization would like to discuss potential tailored OE support, we encourage you to reach out to your main Program Officer.
The Foundation offers trainings and workshops throughout the year. These opportunities are available to current grantees. If you have questions about any of these offerings, please contact the Organizational Effectiveness team at [email protected].
Questions? Please contact the Organizational Effectiveness team at [email protected].