What’s in this guidebook

Let’s be honest — most philanthropic capital isn’t being used to its full potential. While foundations and funds give generously through grants, the majority of their capital — the corpus — remains invested in traditional portfolios, often disconnected from the mission they support.

If you're wondering how to better align your investments with your values, this guidebook lays it out clearly and simply — from how PAFs and PuAFs work, to practical steps for using your corpus to drive measurable impact.

Grant-making will always be essential. But in the face of urgent challenges like climate change and inequality, relying on grants alone is no longer enough. We need to unlock the power of investment capital to work alongside donations — to scale solutions, support innovation, and bring in private capital that would otherwise stay on the sidelines.

This guidebook shows how PAFs and PuAFs can move beyond traditional models, using the corpus not just to preserve capital — but to accelerate change.

Ultimately, this guidebook is an invitation — to think bigger about your role as a capital allocator, and to use more of your foundation’s capital to drive the change you were set up to create.