Methods & Case Studies
Strategy Development
method
Using Artificial Intelligence in the Grantmaking Process
This report examines how AI is currently being used across the grantmaking cycle, including problem definition, prioritization, strategy development, partner identification, grant management, and evaluation and learning. It draws on documented case studies identified through desk research conducted between July and December 2025.
case study
Siegel Family Endowment’s Inquiry-Driven Grantmaking
Siegel Family Endowment’s Inquiry-Driven Grantmaking is a questions-led approach to grantmaking and learning based on scientific methods. The approach focuses on asking questions, revising those questions, applying the findings across the foundation, and sharing out relevant insights with the wider field…
method
Digital Ethnography
Digital Ethnography is the process of using digital technologies to learn about the shared ambitions, behavior, culture, and experiences of communities across different issues...
method
Futures Studies
Futures Studies is the process of examining how systems could evolve over time in order to anticipate and prepare for multiple future outcomes...
Evaluating the methods’ maturity level
While many of the methods included on the platform are new to the philanthropic sector, these methods have been tried and tested in several other domains.
The Gartner Hype Cycle is a framework that can be used to assess the maturity level of digital innovations and whether they will be sustained overtime. The following figure summarizes our distillation of where the methods included in DATA4Philanthropy are situated within the Hype Cycle. This positioning was based on our own sense-making of the method performs in terms of the following questions: