How Work Goes On in a Limited Life Foundation
In 2020, The Atlantic Philanthropies will close its doors, making it the largest foundation that ever committed its entire endowment during a limited period of time. Since 2001, Tony Proscio, Associate Director for Research at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, has been chronicling the foundation’s work. Others, too, have been writing about how Atlantic has been approaching its final years. Among the topics covered in this collection:
- How Atlantic narrowed its grantmaking focus and set a timetable for the foundation’s concluding period for each program and each country where it operates
- Steps taken to address staff concerns as the realities of the end of foundation set in and how the Human Resources department helped employees prepare for their post-Atlantic careers.
- The issue of grantee sustainability, particularly in countries and for programs where it is unlikely that other funders are going to step in after Atlantic’s exits.
- The creation of a new phase of work called Global Opportunity and Leverage (GOAL) to guide the foundation’s final years of grantmaking.
Featured Resources and News
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Zero is the Hero
A fascinating look at the numbers behind The Atlantic Philanthropies' life-changing projects and world-changing impact—all thanks to the passionate pursuit of getting to zero.
Resource type: Insight
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Operating for Limited Life
An in-depth look at The Atlantic Philanthropies' limited life journey.
Resource type: Insight
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Top 10 Lessons
Mistakes? We made a few. Read what we learned in hindsight.
Resource type: Insight
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Foundation Exits: A Survey of Foundations and Nonprofits
Source: Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University
Since the 1990s, philanthropy has seen a growing share of foundations embrace a limited life, setting a defined endpoint for their operations. More foundations are also funding time-limited strategic initiatives. While foundations use a variety of strategies to manage their exits, little has been known about…
Resource type: Research Report
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Harvest Time for The Atlantic Philanthropies – 2017-2019: Three Endings and a Beginning
Source: Tony Proscio, Duke University Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society
This report is the last in a series of seven chronicling the concluding years of The Atlantic Philanthropies, which is set to become the largest endowed institution thus far to put all its charitable assets to use in a fixed period and then close its…
Resource type: Research Report
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Harvest Time for The Atlantic Philanthropies – 2014-2016: Finished, But Not Done
Source: Tony Proscio, Duke University Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society
This is the sixth paper in the “Harvest Time” series on the concluding years of The Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest endowed institution to put all its charitable assets to use in a fixed period of time and then close its doors. “Finished, But Not Done”…
Resource type: Research Report
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Value, Time, and Time-Limited Philanthropy
Source: Tony Proscio, Duke Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society
Leaders of limited-life foundations often assert that spending all of their resources in a relatively short period gives them the ability to do more good, to produce more social value, than if they were to hold the same resources in a lasting endowment and disburse…
Resource type: Research Report
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Harvest Time for The Atlantic Philanthropies – 2013-2014: Final Priorities
Source: Tony Proscio, Duke University Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society
This report is the fifth in a series on the concluding years of The Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest foundation ever to decide to put all its charitable assets to use in a fixed period of time and then close its doors. Covering late 2013 through the…
Resource type: Research Report
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Harvest Time for The Atlantic Philanthropies – 2012-2013: Decline & Rise
Source: Tony Proscio, Duke University Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society
This report, the fourth in a series about The Atlantic Philanthropies’s concluding years, details unexpected turns in the foundation’s approach to commit its entire endowment in a limited time frame. The report covers late 2012 through the end of 2013, some three to four years…
Resource type: Research Report
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Harvest Time for The Atlantic Philanthropies – 2011-2012: Focus, Exit, and Legacy
Source: Tony Proscio, Duke University Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society
This report is the third in a series to chronicle the concluding years of The Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest foundation ever to decide to commit its entire endowment in a limited timeframe and then close its doors. It covers events that occurred from late 2010…
Resource type: Research Report
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Winding Down the Atlantic Philanthropies – 2009-2010: Beginning the End Game
Source: Tony Proscio, Duke University Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society
This report is the second in a series to chronicle the concluding years of The Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest foundation ever to decide to commit its entire endowment in a limited timeframe and then close its doors. It captures the foundation between late 2009 and…
Resource type: Research Report
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Winding Down the Atlantic Philanthropies – 2001-2009: The First Eight Years
Source: Duke University Center for Strategic Philanthropy & Civil Society
This report is the first in a series to chronicle the concluding years of The Atlantic Philanthropies, the largest foundation ever to decide to commit its entire endowment in a limited timeframe and then close its doors. It addresses questions raised by the seminal decision made of Atlantic's founder…
Resource type: Research Report
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End-Game Evaluation: Building a Legacy of Learning In a Limited-Life Foundation
Source: The Foundation Review
In "End-Game Evaluation: Building a Legacy of Learning In a Limited-Life Foundation," co-authors Ashleigh Halverstadt and Benjamin Kerman share the emerging hypotheses of The Atlantic Philanthropies and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation about the opportunities and challenges for evaluation in the limited-life context. The authors argue…
Resource type: Research Report
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From Alpha to Omega: Choices and Challenges of Limited Life Philanthropy
By Joanne Florino Many thanks to the Center for Effective Philanthropy for a thoughtfully structured and informative research report on the why and how of limited life foundations. Any foundation donor and/or board considering an option other than perpetuity will be well served by a…
Resource type: News
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Why More and More Philanthropies Are Choosing to Put Themselves Out of Business
The limited-life foundation–where big donors pledge to spend all their money in a certain short period of time–offers the potential for a bigger immediate impact at the expense of longevity.
Resource type: News
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How Atlantic Philanthropies Plans To Keep Making Change After It Shuts Down
The foundation will have given away more than $8 billion when it shutters in 2020. Now as it spends its last millions, Atlantic is innovating better ways to leave a lasting impact. [caption id="attachment_79059" align="alignnone" width="650"] [Illustration: Sylverarts/iStock][/caption]By Ben Paynter When it was founded in…
Resource type: News
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Funding’s Not Forever, But Foundations Must Help Grantees Manage Transitions
[caption id="attachment_76637" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Grantmakers in Health Conference, 2016. Photo: Paul Rieckhoff / Twitter[/caption] By Maryann Jacob Macias, Associate Programme Executive Change is always hard, especially when it involves bringing something one has invested in to an end. It is difficult for us as grantmakers adjusting to…
Resource type: News
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Perpetuity or Spend-Down: Does the Notion of Lifespan Matter in Organized Philanthropy?
Are foundations with set periods for spending down their assets more effective as grantmakers than their peers who are established to exist in perpetuity?
Resource type: News
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Feeling the Pressures of a Limited Life
By Tony Proscio Leadership changes, strategic reviews, the closing of some programs and a fresh emphasis on others — all these are part of the normal cycle at just about any foundation. They may feel momentous at the time, but at most foundations, where endowments…
Resource type: News
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“Deliberate Deployment” or Perpetuity? Questions to Inform Timing Strategies for Philanthropy
Perhaps “deliberate deployment” should replace “spending down” in the philanthropic glossary.
Resource type: News
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Time is of the Essence: Foundations and the Policies of Limited Life and Endowment Spend-Down
Five U.S. foundations that spent all of their assets offer lessons for modern donors who might also consider a limited lifespan for their foundations, according to this report by the Aspen Institute’s Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation. Time is of the Essence: Foundations and…
Resource type: News