The Hattie M. Strong Foundation
Prospect research is meant to unveil aspects such as wealth indicators, personal backgrounds, and philanthropic history to assist an organization in identifying the best prospects. The Hattie M. Strong Foundation has shifted the direction of its grants. Such organizations face different challenges during prospect research. Among the challenges that the organizations deal with include the disagreement on the philanthropic interest among the family members. It is a common occurrence in the family foundations as the family members may fail to focus on the set-agreed upon interests and philanthropic mission of the organization. In some instances, the senior family members, for example, The Hattie M. Strong, who generated the wealth, may spin-off different foundations that may affect the process of prospect research.
The change in leadership, such as the one that took place in The Hattie M. Strong Foundation, affects its strategies. For instance, the foundation’s main activity of giving interest-free loans to students was changed when Mr. Henry’s son, Mr. Strong, assumed his position in the company after his death (Harvard Kennedy School of Government). Loss of a long term and good leaders like Hattie M. Strong can pose a threat to the organization as it can affect the loyalty of the prospective grantees. It is because the individuals have a significant influence on the grantees, and the stronger their relationship with a given leader, the stronger their loyalty to the organization. Such a relationship may, however, be affected due to leadership changes.
Changing the strategic direction of the foundation implies that it will have a changing partnership with grantees, which would require it to educate them on the underlying aspects of its strategic priorities and explore new avenues of collaborating in handling such priorities with them (Kraemer & Carr, 2019. It will, however, come with challenges such as delay in the communication of the strategy change. Such a communication stance may lead to delay of disbursement to the grantees. Besides, the grantees may have a different approach that may not align with the introduced vision of the organization since they may be having different priorities. This may lead to disconnects that can make the foundation and the grantees to operate in a cross-purpose, which may contribute to the failing of the beneficiaries. In cases of policy inflexibility, there may be challenges in adjusting and making exceptions that are not included in the recipient control, which will equally affect the grant implementation.
With the changed mission and strategic ideas in the foundation among the information that would be necessary to collect in the prospect research phase of the grant writing process would include establishing whether the prospects have shared goals with the organization to ensure that there is a common fact base during the grant writing process (Kraemer & Carr, 2019). The philanthropic indicators of the prospects should also be assessed by evaluating their affinity towards the organization despite the change in leadership and strategic plans. It can be established based on their past giving to the organization or to other companies. The information on whether the prospects are involved in other nonprofit works should also be determined to establish if they have participated in philanthropic work surpassing the scope of donating. Wealth related indicators of the prospects should also be determined to establish their financial capacity fully. Data on what their stock ownership, assets, and political donations can point out their capabilities. Understanding the business affiliations of the prospects is also crucial for the foundation to be able to establish their affinity to the organization and their chances of committing to it despite the changed mission and vision of the Hattie M. Strong Foundation.