Plan Your Itinerary

As you set out to articulate the problems you want to solve, it’s important to consider your values and stay focused on your motivations for giving. Understand the approaches to finding the most effective solutions.

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Understanding the problems, their causes and approaches to solutions

Understanding an organization's activities, outcomes and impact

Aligning investments with philanthropic focus

Understanding the problems, their causes and approaches to solutions

R E S O U R C E S F R O M

Use these activities to reflect on the problem you’re trying to solve in your focus area and figure out which approaches will achieve your philanthropic objectives most effectively.

Reading

Before you pick organizations to support, it’s important to understand the problem you wish to solve and its possible causes. There are five types of approaches to solutions: Direct services, Research and the development of knowledge, Changing governments or corporate policies, Changing societal mindset and systems, Funding prizes.

Read "Guide to Effective Philanthropy - Chapter 5"

Activities

Develop your problem statement

Pick an approach

I N S I G H T S F R O M

The Catalyst Fund is a grantmaking program of Fidelity Charitable led by our Board of Trustees and separate from the Fidelity Charitable donor-advised fund program. The Catalyst Fund’s goal is to connect donors with promising nonprofits, increasing funding and support for the critical organizations that strengthen communities.

Learn about the Fidelity Charitable Catalyst Fund

Learn about the Fidelity Charitable Catalyst Fund’s new vision directly from the program’s executive director and board committee chair.

Read the blog post

Understanding an organization's activities, outcomes and impact

R E S O U R C E S F R O M

Use these activities to help you define your focus areas and create a framework for decision-making, define your philanthropic goals and assess your program towards them.

Reading

"Ideally, an organization will rely on some form of evaluation to assess whether it is actually achieving its intended outcomes. But some organizations do not have the resources to conduct evaluations."

Read "Guide to Effective Philanthropy - Chapter 6"

Activities

Nurse-Family Partnership's Theory of Change example

Search for an organization on GuideStar

Search for an organization on Charity Navigator

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Aligning investments with philanthropic focus

R E S O U R C E S F R O M

Reading

“While philanthropy can be an effective way to pilot a program or innovation, philanthropy is not big or powerful enough to solve most social programs alone. Impact investing uses the power of the marketplace to achieve scale, and more financially secure solutions."

I N S I G H T S F R O M

Learn about impact investments available to Fidelity Charitable donors

There are a number of funds that consider social, environmental and governance (ESG) factors.

Socially responsible investment funds

Many nonprofits engage in impact investing. Learn how you can support them using your Giving Account.

Impact investing nonprofits

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Keep exploring

Fidelity Charitable has highlighted resources that can help donors like you in your journey with four broad stages, each containing a unique set of activities that will help you get the best results.