7 survey respondents
Location: 140 S Dearborn St Ste 1200, Chicago, 60603 IL
EIN: 23-7093598
80%
20%
40 hours
Median
43%
57%
57%
43%
2017 Deadlines:
Types of Grants Awarded:
Geographic Focus:
For Fiscal Year
Total Assets:
Total Grants:
Change in Assets FY :
Amount of Grants to Minnesota Nonprofits:
Largest Grant:
Smallest Grant:
Average Grant:
Reviewer 5153 - Grant Applicant - applied before 2014
If you are successful expect a lot of supervision, not to say micromanaging by the foundation, and be prepared to file frequent reports. It’s clear that the funding officers we worked with had their favorites, and their not so favorites.
Difficult to work with, Bureaucratic, Risk averse
Virginia
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
Before 2014
Bad
Average
Be more transparent about your processes; don’t intrude on the grantees and their day to day work. And if you’ve given programmatic support and want to shift priorities, give the programs ample time to shift funding sources.
Note: we were an overseas operation, so I could not check a particular US state.
100
Grant Applicant - applied in 2016
Macarthur is a large foundation and our program officer had a large and diverse portfolio of grantees. When applying a grantee should weigh the likelihood that their work is central to the mission of the foundation. If you feel on the fringe, with few fellow grantees to collaborate with, you will likely stay that way and receive very little attention from your grants manager.
Array
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2016
Average
We went months without e-mails being answered but when a crisis came up we did receive prompt attention.
Average
It remains to be seen how the current changes in their environment funding will play out. They are closing long standing programs to create a new strategy.
When changing strategies it would be helpful to work with current grantees to provide support through the transition. This might include strategy discussions, intros to other organizations or funders.
Gives grantees alot of freedom.
40
Reviewer 7276 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2017
It is extremely important to have the "subject matter experts" involved in any initial outreach. Their program staff "know their stuff" . Most of their programs do not have open RFPs, so it is important to develop relationships.
Culturally sensitive, Builds relationships, Responsive
Illinois
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2017
Average
Some program staff are responsive; others are not as much - but developing relationships is very important.
Average
Their goals and strategies have gotten to be much more narrow in the past few years; perhaps there is impact on a more global scale, but in the local community, it is not as evident.
Drop the one "big idea" process. The "contest" for funding promotes competition and "winners/losers" in the nonprofit field -- which is detrimental to us all. The contest model collectively wastes likley millions of hours of valuable staff time.
MacArthur Foundation has undergone a lot of change in the past few years. With their presidential search, it will be interesting to see what happens in the future.
Their arts and culture program is very strong and is a huge asset to the Chicago community.
40
Reviewer 1430 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2017
Our 20-year successful organization advocates for communities that are disproportionately affected by bad stuff. So our grassroots work, while empowering, requires dealing with captured agencies and going up against the military and governmental regulators that cause direct harm to minorities. MacArthur Foundation only funds sunny, feel-good programs. It took us years to figure this out, because they are a waste of time.
Alaska
Applied and not funded
2017
Average
I don't know about accessibility.
Good
They are successful, but their philanthropic goals do not actually support "soldiers in the trenches" who are muddy and need food and water--the basics--to do their work. They only support the well-fed officers behind the lines who can be glorified. MacArthur Foundation is really great at tooting their own horn by funding projects that are wonderful. Some of us are doing work that must be done to stop genocide, which is just not "sexy" enough for MacArthur.
Be more radical. Take a clue from the NoVo Foundation.
Understand they support popular stuff. They are like a college fraternity looking to support the good deeds of the good-ole-boys who have graduated. They cannot even see what needs to be fixed i society. They are conservatives in a society that needs radical hope.
They are great at funding winners who make everybody smile while they avoid funding those who make us wince--those who advocate against genocide, for instance.
60
Grant Applicant - applied in 2016
Staff are pretty thorough in doing their due diligence so this is a relationship that takes time to develop. But staff members are, in my experience, professional and responsive, even without a strong relationship. As part of their due diligence staffers seem to show up at a lot of conferences/gatherings so that can be a helpful avenue for getting a door open.
Builds relationships, Openminded, Responsive
New York
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2016
Good
Professional and responsive
Average
Their strategy is very new so hard to say how effectively they are meeting their goals, but I think they've raised the sights of the field by making bigger investments.
There are some longstanding grantees in your portfolio that probably merit taking a hard look at in terms of the impact they are making. Some of the established/entrenched institutions you fund have been surpassed by newer/more innovative organizations.
MacArthur tends to provide general support for multi-year terms -- their support for core organizational capacities is helpful and inspiring.
10
Reviewer 441 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2016
The web portal application form is VERY thorough! It will require a fair amount of time to write since there are many questions and they require in-depth responses. The budget form is kind of a pain since it requires you upload your budget but ALSO input your numbers into their system. Be prepared to crank on this one since they gave us only a week after the invitation to submit the proposal.
Friendly, Builds relationships, "Gets" nonprofits and issues
Pennsylvania
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2016
Average
Average
This funder has such a large portfolio - it's unclear to me.
The grantmaking program we were part of was state-based . This was a legacy of an earlier version of the organization and the project, and MacArthur did not seem to be able to figure out how to transition us from state-based to national or sector-wide support. Having a better (and clearer) way to support orgs as they grow and mature would help.
Our Program Officer really took the time to talk to us and understand our work!
80
Reviewer 419 - Grant Applicant - applied in 2016
The MacArthur Foundation is a large, complex foundation and our organization fits multiple funding priorities. The do not have very good ongoing, regular communications with their grantees. For example, they are winding down one program area in which we have been funded for years (they gave buy-out packages to several program officers), yet they have never communicated "officially" with us about it. We get a lot of information through informal channels (sch as former staff or other funders in their same program areas). Their online system is also pretty onerous, asking for lots of narrative information which I doubt anyone needs (and possibly no one reads) . They should publish every RFP in a pdf with all of the questions (including word/character counts) and requested attachments so that it can be easily shared with internal departments (finance, program. etc). Right now you need to fill in the questions to advance to the next section -- so time consuming.
While I have always been impressed with the "MacArthur Genius" program, this new $100M change competition they ran seems like huge waste of nonprofit resources. I heard that more than 1,700 organizations prepared responses to their RFP for 1 grant. That's a lot of wasted effort in the field.
They do continue to give general operating grants to some organizations in Chicago thorough their "Chicago Commitment", but it doesn't seem to be a high priority.
Positive leader in the field, Bureaucratic
Illinois
Current or former grantee
Funded for amount requested
2016
Bad
It is hard to get program staff to call you back, even when you have active grants.
Average
It's hard to tell what their current philanthropic goals are and whether they are being accomplished.
Communicate more with your active grantees -- including the development staff. Let us know directly when there are changes.
They do really well with visibility.
0
