Proven strategies and nonprofits making them work
To demonstrate high impact philanthropy in practice, we spotlight evergreen areas that are foundational to people’s survival: education, health, housing, and conservation and livelihoods. These are not the only issues that matter. But when resources are limited and the needs feel overwhelming, it can be helpful to focus on these foundational areas as one starting point for creating high impact.
We highlight best practices that effective nonprofits are using to meet these needs:
Early Learning & Education
Provide a web of support – at home, in school, and in the towns where children live – to unlock early learning
Health
Bring services to people, at or near home, and then connect those services to larger, preexisting health systems
Housing
Increase access to safe and affordable housing through innovative practices in ownership models, building materials, and zoning
Conservation and Livelihoods
Align incentives so that environmental protection brings concrete economic benefits to the communities directly affected
In these toolkit, you’ll find details on why and how each best practice achieves greater impact. You’ll also find multiple examples of real-world nonprofits that exemplify the use of the best practice. Throughout, you’ll see how community input is a common best practice across all areas and nonprofit examples.
The nonprofit examples include organizations that we have profiled in the CHIP’s earlier guidance and some that we are highlighting for the first time. We identified these organizations through our own applied research and through our partners at Lipman Family Prize, Ivory Innovations, Lever for Change, and the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.
These nonprofit examples can serve multiple purposes. If you’re simply looking for a high impact organization to support, they are all worthy of your consideration. If you’re already supporting nonprofits working in these issue areas, or work with communities not served by these organizations, these examples offer models to guide your giving and enhance the impact of your chosen grantees.