CASE STUDIES
The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund is a donor advised fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. It is one of the largest permanent rural philanthropies in the country. It is guided by a local advisory committee and distributes more than $3.5 million annually. Since 2006, more than $41 million has been awarded to organizations in Coös County and surrounding regions. Since 2010, Groundswell Consulting has supported multiple program initiatives and the Fund’s small and large grants programs. Highlights of this work include: the design and implementation of a public advocacy and awareness campaign that led a youth grantmaking initiative; over a decade as a staff reviewer for the Fund’s large grants program.
The Lincoln Institute, a nonprofit operating foundation that works around the world to improve quality of life through the effective stewardship of land, was seeking to strengthen relationships with place-based funders in the United States. We worked with Persimmon Consulting on a multi-phase research and analysis project to help the Institute advance that goal. Research included first-person interviews with funders and other partners and included a comprehensive, searchable database of potential funder relationships. Analysis resulted in a suite of recommendations for Lincoln’s work. For our part, we co-designed the participation of research and led the interview process and follow up analysis.
Founded with a mission to work alongside and in partnership with local community members bridge the opportunity gap and raise the living standards of the present generation of children and their families living in the Bateyes of the Dominican Republic through education initiatives, entrepreneurship programs and other community driven investment activities. Groundswell worked with Foundation twice over the course of its lifespan. First, early in its development building capacity, leadership and a guiding strategy to advance their mission. The second and most powerful opportunity to work together came following the 2020 Covid pandemic. The organization’s infrastructure and program partnerships were decimated. Our work together carefully took stock in the local community needs, capacity and the organization’s ability to continue to fulfill its mission. Ultimately the data collection and analysis led the organization to a difficult but necessary and well informed conclusion to dissolve. Supporting this process had real pain points and was a powerful demonstration of what happens when organizations take time to gather information, listen to the communities they serve and use that information to inform change.