Foundations

Grant-making is both an art and a science. To make grant-making decisions that leverage benefits in an ever-changing world, foundation leaders must be thought-leaders with vision - and both feet on the ground. The work of foundations is highly nuanced and strategic. Yet now as always, it requires proactive leadership. The Boulware Group’s reputation in the foundation community rests on three qualities: our sensitivity to differences among foundations and their unique cultures, our grasp of current developments in grant-making and our longstanding dedication to the nonprofit community.

Boulware at Work

Christine Boulware “knows the world of not-for-profit agencies as well as anyone in Chicago and understands the organizational and financial challenges that high level managers must deal with in those agencies.”

George Galland
Chair, Board of Trustees,
Abraham Lincoln Center, Chicago

At Issue:  A nationally known philanthropic organization dedicated to increasing opportunities for women and girls turned to The Boulware Group to find its next Executive Director. Under the leadership of the previous Executive Director (also recruited by The Boulware Group), the Foundation’s endowment had grown fourfold in four years. The challenge now was to find the right leader for the organization’s current (and dynamic) stage of growth, which called for the strengthening of its infrastructure, a deepening of its program impact, and continued enhancement of its national profile.

At Stake: The enhanced capacity of a national advocate for girls and women 

Our Response:

• We contributed our extensive knowledge of the nonprofit landscape based on scores of successful recruitments for senior nonprofit leaders.

• We developed a search strategy to identify individuals with both rigorous corporate backgrounds and executive-level involvement in issues affecting the lives of women and girls.

• We drew on our understanding of the knowledge of the life-cycle of organizations to find two superb leaders appropriate to two phases of organizational growth.

Ultimately, our mission is our client’s mission.
Christine Boulware
The Boulware Group,
Managing Director 

The Result: The successful candidate, a respected leader and veteran fundraiser, had herself led a national organization for girls through a period of outstanding growth. The Boulware Group knew of her by reputation.  Upon hearing that she had just moved to a new city, we promptly arranged for a meeting with her. She was later to say for publication that this meeting was a turning point in her life.

Foundation Clients

• Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

• Ford Foundation

• Greater New Orleans Foundation

• Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

• Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation

• Kellogg Foundation

• MidAmerica Leadership Foundation

• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Clients on Issues Pertaining to Girls and Women

• Chicago Foundation for Women

• Michigan Metro Girl Scouts Council

• League of Women Voters of the United States         

• Planned Parenthood of Southeast Michigan

• Women and Philanthropy 

Advocacy Clients

• Business and Professional People for the Public Interest

• California Tomorrow

• Center for Creative Leadership

• Center for Neighborhood Technology

• Center for New Media

• Chicago Lawyer’s Committee

• Coalition for the Homeless

• The Community Builders

• District of Columbia Coalition for the Homeless  

• DevCorp North (formerly Howard/Paulina Development Corp.)

• Environmental Defense Fund

• Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT)

• Food Research and Action Center

• Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation          

• Inquilionos Borcusas En Accion (IBA)

• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

• Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law     

• Michigan’s Children

• MidAmerica Leadership Foundation

• Mississippi Action for Community Education (MACE)

• National Black MBA Association

• National Forum for Black Public Administrators 

• The Nature Conservancy

• Prevention First

• Society of Organizational Learning

• Towards A More Perfect Union

• United Food and Commercial Workers

• Zero Population Growth 

 

• To learn more, Contact us
• Representative Client Listing