Executive Director's Letter
Since 2009, the Altman Foundation has focused on two challenges in its grantmaking: the balance between supporting high-performing nonprofit organizations and allowing our endowment to rebound from 2008; and the desire to sustain long-time grantees while leaving room to explore emerging areas of interest. We will continue to walk this line for the near term, with few, if any, funds available for new, non-Foundation-initiated grantmaking. However, as project grants come to their natural end or organizations leave our portfolio, we will be redirecting some of our resources toward scalable approaches to improving early childhood education, summer learning, and college success; we are also exploring additional opportunities presented by the current healthcare environment. We are still only accepting full proposals from current Altman grantees. However, if after reviewing the information presented on this site, you believe that your work and the results you can document achieving are directly in line with the results we seek, please feel free to send in a Letter of Inquiry to let us know what you are doing. We will then contact you if we need further information.
New Website
Paul Connolly of the TCC Group recently wrote in Foundation Review about what he characterizes as the false dichotomy between the technocratic and the humanistic approaches to philanthropy. Paul’s position is that rather than being a dichotomy, these approaches are on a continuum. He writes that the best tools from each approach can and should be brought to bear, including the well-thought-out and disciplined strategies and results-orientation of the technocrats, and the values base, intuition, responsiveness, and flexibility of the humanists.
I like to think that here at Altman we fall increasingly into that golden middle ground, infusing a results-based-approach throughout our work but retaining the very individual, direct-service, “best-is-good-enough-for-everyone”, humane approach to grantmaking and to serving individuals and families in communities that has characterized this foundation since its earliest days.
Our new website reflects this approach; we wanted to end up with something that was clear, technically excellent, easily navigable, with the critical and practical information that our audiences—grantseekers, grantees, colleague funders, the general public—would need, but at the same time, to create something that captured the beauty and the excellence of the work itself, and the human face of the many constituencies we touch.
We hope that you will enjoy exploring this new site, and that it provides you with the information you are seeking. This is still a work in progress, and we look forward to hearing your reactions; please e-mail info@altman.org with any comments. We thank Todd Rengel and his staff at Animus Rex, Inc. for the amazing work they did in walking us through this process and bringing our ideas, and this website, to life.
An Anniversary
This past March I had the pleasure of marking twenty-five years of working here at the Altman Foundation. It has been, and is still, a privilege and an honor to work with our dedicated Trustees, led by the incomparable Jane O’Connell, who, while trusting and respecting the work of the Altman staff, never fail to ask the hard questions; with our gifted staff members, who combine intellectual curiosity and rigor with passion for the Foundation’s mission in equal measure; with invaluable and inspirational colleagues, both public and private; and with the extraordinary grantees whose transformative work in the communities we all serve bring our mission to life. I am grateful to all of you.
Vice President & Executive Director