Necessary but Not Sufficient

Abstract

Despite normative claims that elite foundation boards select elite nonprofits, foundations increasingly use community volunteers to allocate grants. There is an assumption that community involvement in grant making leads to better grant decisions. However, no one has tested this assumption and explored whether community members are even making different grant decisions than traditional boards. Drawing on a sample of six funders who use a community and traditional board, their 616 grantees, and 955 nongrantees, this paper empirically tests anecdotes replete in literature, identifying the organizational and financial determinants that influence community boards grant decisions versus those that influence traditional board decisions.