Given the scale and complexity of the challenges they face, foundations increasingly need to look beyond their organizations to other stakeholders--both in philanthropy and across sectors--to mobilize sufficient resources and effort to move the needle on pressing social problems. Yet working together remains a challenge: simply knowing what other funders are supporting can require time-consuming research, meetings, and calls.

As one foundation executive recently explained, "When funders come together for a day to talk about an issue, we spend 80 percent of the time talking about what we do, which leaves us with only 20 percent of the day to discuss what we could and should do in the future."

The Strategy Landscape™, created by Monitor Institute and delivered with the Center for Effective Philanthropy, aims to turn this ratio on its head. Developed with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Landscape is an online, interactive data visualization tool that makes it easy for users to see and understand patterns of grantmaking and strategies across multiple funders. Participants are able to see and develop a shared understanding of the larger funding landscape that they are a part of, and to recognize their position within that ecosystem. More specifically, the tool can help:

• Compile in one place and make easily accessible information about the grants and programmatic strategies of multiple funders
• Graphically represent the distribution and relative scale of grantmaking within and across foundations, grantees, geographies, outcomes, and strategies, while allowing for easy maneuverability between these different viewpoints
• Allow groups of funders to understand how the work of different institutions is aligned across various strategies, highlighting critical overlaps and gaps in support across foundations
• Support individual institutions or groups of funders in developing strategy with a better understanding of how they fit into the ecosystem of activity around them, thus helping to identify new opportunities for coordination and collaboration

The initial prototype of the Strategy Landscape™ was completed in early 2010, and illustrates grantmaking related to climate change by more than a dozen funders. Over the next 12-18 months, Monitor Institute will continue to expand the climate change Strategy Landscape™. At the same time, Monitor Institute and the Center for Effective Philanthropy will be working with interested funders to develop Strategy Landscapes™ of additional issues/locations to pilot test the visualization tool further.

• Experience a demonstration of the Strategy Landscape™ for yourself
  Please note that the data appearing in this map is purely illustrative. While the taxonomy of strategies and geographic areas of activity are real, the data is not real and is associated with fictitious foundations and foundation strategies. This "dummy data" is intended only to provide a sense of the tool's functionality, not for analysis of any climate change related grantmaking or foundation strategies.
  
  

• View tips on how to navigate the Strategy Landscape™
  Before viewing the maps some basic instructions may prove useful.
  
  

• Read answers to Frequently Asked Questions
  Or, send inquiries to strategylandscape@monitor.com.