Mission

The mission of the Duke Foundation Research Program (DFRP) is to catalyze research and teaching for the purpose of developing a clearer understanding of foundation strategic decision-making, more accurate methods of measuring the impact of foundation initiatives, and more effective and more extensive mechanisms for increasing the accountability of foundations to the public.

Teaching Case-Writing Program

The goal of the DFRP Teaching Case-Writing Program is to create a library of decision-forcing case studies similar to those used at Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government, as well as other professional schools. DFRP teaching cases describe critical decision points in the lives of foundations, dramatizing the kinds of challenges, conflicts, and dilemmas foundation executives encounter in the real world. Through analysis and discussion of cases, students gain a clearer understanding of how, why, and to what extent foundation grantmaking strategies have succeeded or failed in their intended purposes. Barry Varela directs the DFRP Teaching Case-Writing Program and can be reached at varela@duke.edu or 613-7434. 

Program Description

Philanthropic foundations in the United States give $33 billion annually for charitable purposes to domestic and international organizations, but little high-quality research is being done on either the decision-making processes by which foundations choose and implement their strategies or the impact foundation grant-making initiatives have on society. An initiative of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism in the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University, DFRP has three aims:

  • To stimulate rigorous, policy-relevant research on foundations, including issues of strategy, accountability and impact, and to publish the research results;
  • To offer courses, seminars, and certificate sequences, and to develop new teaching materials on foundation decision-making and impact for Duke University graduate and professional students, as well as for use in other universities;
  • To offer short-term executive education courses tailored to the interests and needs of foundation trustees, foundation creators, and wealthy individuals who are contemplating the creation of new foundations.

The research, courses, and teaching materials are aimed at developing new theory and methods on topics such as how foundations seek and achieve impact; how they select and implement strategies for grant-making initiatives; how they might improve strategy selection and implementation; how to diagnose successes and failures to guide future grant-making; and how to enable foundations to provide more detailed information to the public, scholars, nonprofit practitioners, and public policy-makers on foundation successes and failures.