Dilemma: Right vs. Right
To Give Big or To Give Small, That is the Question
The LBZ Foundation was established and began making grants five years ago. Still in the building stage, the foundation endowment is now approximately $3 million.
The grant-making process is influenced by the foundation's recent birth and by the small size of its endowment and staff. These influences are felt most specifically in reference to grant size. In the context of the LBZ Foundation, larger gifts are in the $70,000 to $100, 000 range; smaller gifts fall within a $5,000 to $10,000 range.
LBZ Foundation staff are experiencing a dilemma in deciding whether to give larger grants to fewer organizations or smaller grants to many organizations. Staff feel it would be more manageable to make and then monitor fewer rather than more grants each year. Smaller grants, however, could fund several innovative programs or less experienced but worthy organizations.
What policy should foundation staff follow?
Note: This and other dilemmas on this site come to you without their real-life resolutions. We encourage you to think for yourself about how you might resolve them, since the nature of each dilemma is highly individualistic. In sharing these dilemmas, we do not endorse them in any way, but rather offer them for your consideration.
