By John LaFleur, Managing Director, Strategic Philanthropy, Ltd.
This article was originally published by Exponent Philanthropy and is republished here with permission.
Big problems need targeted strategies. You can affect anything you want, but you can’t affect everything you want.
Whether you fund animal welfare, education, housing, or health care, the math is the same: the need is greater than what any one donor or foundation can meet.
That is why a grantmaking strategy for lean foundations begins with focus: not surveying every urgent need but deciding where limited resources can do the most meaningful work.
In our work with donors, the most effective philanthropy keeps coming back to three things: research, relationships, and risk. Here is how one lean funder deployed all three to work on an issue in its own backyard.
Research
Relationships
Risk
Where a Grantmaking Strategy for Lean Foundations Begins
A foundation we advise was funded after its founding donor’s death. During his lifetime, he had spent his own time and money on feline trap-neuter-return (TNR) work in New York City, paying for surgeries and feeding stray cat colonies through what was then a very modest foundation.
The city has no official count of its community cats; however, the rescue group Flatbush Cats estimates more than 500,000 across the five boroughs.
After the donor died, the board committed half of the foundation’s annual distribution requirement to the issue he cared about most. That decision gave the board a clear focus. It did not give them a plan.
Research, relationships, and risk are how they built one.
Research: Start With Conversations, Not Applications
Online research is a first step, and AI tools can speed it up. But real due diligence begins with direct contact, whether by video, phone, or in person. You cannot choose grantees on financials and metrics alone. To build a relationship with an organization, you also need to hear directly from the people doing the work.
Research is about understanding the landscape:
- Who are the key players?
- Where are the gaps?
- Who are the connectors?
- Which organizations are making progress?
- What barriers stand in the way?
Many funders are surprised by what they learn once they move past grant applications and annual reports.
Before you make a significant commitment, talk directly with organizations in the field. You will hear about opportunities, obstacles, and approaches that never surface in a proposal.
Building Relationships: It Takes More Than One Grant Cycle
Understanding what an organization needs to succeed, and how your priorities align with those needs, takes discovery, conversation, and a shared view of the goal. That does not happen in a single grant cycle.
Expect to build the relationship over time. You and your grantee will learn how the other works. You will agree on goals, review progress, and develop a clearer sense of what is working and what needs to change.
As trust grows, conversations get more candid and the learning is more useful. The strongest funder-grantee relationships are not transactional. They rest on mutual respect, shared learning, and a commitment to the same cause.
Funders who invest in relationships tend to make better decisions, because they understand both the opportunities and the pressures their grantees face.
Risk: Philanthropy’s Comparative Advantage
Do the research and build the relationships well, and you have positioned yourself for the third element: taking informed risks.
You are a steward of philanthropic capital, whether it sits in a private foundation, a donor-advised fund, or another charitable vehicle. Your responsibility is to put that capital to work.
There are no guarantees, and there is no reward without risk. What sets philanthropy apart is that we can take risks other sectors cannot. We can fund innovation, back emerging organizations, invest in capacity, and help proven groups expand their reach.
When those decisions rest on research and strong relationships, they become calculated risks rather than blind bets.
What a Grantmaking Strategy for Lean Foundations Can Achieve
The foundation’s approach was to identify the key players and fund across the ecosystem. It worked with large institutions, including Animal Care Centers of NYC and the ASPCA, while becoming a lead donor to grassroots groups such as Flatbush Cats and the Brooklyn Cat Café.
The grants evolved. Early general operating support gave way to larger, multiyear commitments, including funding that turned volunteer-led efforts into paid staff positions.
No one expected this foundation to solve New York City’s community cat problem, and it did not. What it did was increase local capacity, strengthen organizations doing important work, and support approaches other cities have since replicated. That work also contributed to broader momentum on the issue: in 2025, the New York City Council funded a low-cost spay and neuter program for the first time.
50%
of the annual distribution requirement committed to one issue
8 years
of sustained engagement with grantees
$1M+
in aggregate funding drawn by two grassroots grantees
Two grassroots organizations that received multiple years of six-figure support have now drawn more than seven figures in aggregate funding over the eight years since this work began. Along the way, they attracted donors with far greater capacity than this foundation has and extended their reach well beyond what they could have managed alone.
Informed Risk Is Within Reach of Any Lean Funder
What made this strategy work was not the size of the grants. It was the board’s willingness to spend time learning about the ecosystem, identifying organizations with room to grow, and staying engaged long enough to see that growth happen.
You don’t need a large staff or a large endowment to do the same. You need to do the research, build relationships, and then be willing to take an informed risk.
About the Author
John LaFleur is Managing Director of Strategic Philanthropy, Ltd., where he advises donors and foundations on grantmaking strategy and many of SP’s other philanthropic services.