The Open Road Alliance and the Rockefeller Foundation developed a Toolkit which serves as a framework providing guidance to funders on how to implement best practices in risk management, including how to determine their appetite for risk, communicate that tolerance to grantees, incorporate risk in both internal and external discussions throughout the grant cycle, and other actions. The New York Times ran a story, “A Tool Kit for the Donor Eager to Grasp All the Risks of Donation,”  about this work to help funders talk about and manage risk more effectively. My hope is that by having explicit conversations about risk, this will help donors to take on more risk in their grant making, which includes funding smaller, more under-resourced organizations doing innovative work.

The Toolkit includes ten adoptable and adaptable tools that cover a spectrum of practice including how to determine your organizational risk profile and how to integrate specific financial, governance, and other procedural risk management activities into daily philanthropic practice. The tools are designed to be used in total or a la carte. Ultimately, the Toolkit is meant to facilitate and mainstream comprehensive risk management in philanthropy in order to preserve and maximize impact.