Catalytic Philanthropy

The philanthropic approach which the Trump Foundation embraced at its outset is a spinoff of what is known as “catalytic philanthropy”. First introduced in 2009 by Mark Kramer, the catalytic approach calls upon foundations to mobilize an ecosystem of stakeholders to operate in tandem in order to solve social problems together. It requires foundations to shift from the traditional comfort zone of grant making towards raising demand and awareness, providing non-monetary assistance and weaving networks of relationships.

In order to make the foundation’s case more accessible, we approached Leslie Crutchfield, who co-authored books on philanthropic practices with Mark Kramer. Crutchfield wrote “Do More Than Give”, a book on catalytic philanthropy which documents cases and stories of foundations using this innovative approach worldwide. Crutchfield is proposing to write a case study of 25-30 pages focused on the foundation’s catalytic approach in the five-unit mathematics endeavor.

The case will be based on the foundation’s roadmap, the documentation prepared by experts after five years of operation, the grantee perception reports the Center for Effective Philanthropy conducts every other year, as well as academic and scholarly publications which used the foundation’s story as a case. Crutchfield will also conduct interviews with experts in the philanthropy field such as Joel Fleishman and Lee Shulman.

The case will form the opening chapter of a book of case studies documenting a decade of educational philanthropy by the Trump Foundation which we are currently preparing. Additional cases in the book will focus on the national impact of the foundation, the establishment of professional learning communities, the relationship with partners and the Collective Impact process.

The book will be distributed to the participants of the foundation’s International Advisory Council gatherings to take place in November 2022 and will also be presented to our philanthropic colleagues abroad.