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Celebrating Ten Years of Philanthropic Innovation: The New Ventures in Philanthropy Initiative

Publication date: 
February, 2012
Source(s): 
Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers
New Ventures in Philanthropy, an initiative of United Philanthropy Forum, was a bold and innovative experiment to grow new philanthropic giving across the United States and to capture for charitable purposes the enormous transfer of wealth that was predicted to occur over the subsequent decades.
 
Trillions of dollars were expected to be transferred and a record number of millionaires and billionaires created. Philanthropy was changing in other ways, too. Acting on a heightened desire for community, large numbers of people were giving back in new and lasting ways. Their actions were changing the face of philanthropy and creating unprecedented opportunity to build new philanthropic resources to respond to vital community needs. New Ventures was created to seize that opportunity.
 
Conceived by a national collaborative of funders, regional associations, and other philanthropic organizations interested in promoting philanthropy, New Ventures was launched in 1998 and changed philanthropy in ways that continue to this day. The initiative made grants to local and regional collaboratives that explored innovative ways to encourage more charitable giving and resulted in more philanthropic dollars and more people involved in philanthropy. New Ventures inspired new ways for organizations to work together to grow giving and supported the development of a plethora of tools and resources for organizations
and individuals to use to promote philanthropy.
 
New Ventures as a special project of the Forum completed its work in 2008. However, its work continues through various efforts of regional associations of grantmakers and other philanthropic organizations around the country. We are pleased to celebrate 10 years of philanthropic innovation through this important report, and we know that the knowledge, tools and resources will be leveraged for years to come.