When I saw the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's 2004 annual report and 2005 calendar, I knew we'd have to share their incredible photos here within our pages. If pictures are worth a thousand words, this photo essay—"From Vision to Innovative Impact" (p. 20)—will serve as a reminder of the great work Kellogg has done throughout its 75 years of local and international grantmaking.

I hope you will agree that all of the images are striking, but one in particular resonated with me because of its beauty and simplicity. The little girl at right spoke to me with her eyes. She's from one of the poorest parts of Brazil—Ceara. Perhaps I was drawn to her because she reminded me of the similarly beautiful and impoverished children I encountered last September while on vacation in Rio de Janeiro. Many simply begged for a real (Brazilian currency); some sold everything from chewing gum to magic zipper purses (an inside joke for anyone who's been to Rio); others built elaborate sand castles and charged tourists like me to photograph them. What broke my heart, though, was seeing beautiful little girls—some only slightly older than I assume this girl to be—selling themselves on the Copacabana beach prostitute strip.

It is incredibly disconcerting to experience the breathtaking beauty of a country like Brazil, while realizing its crushing poverty. Brochures thrust at you from every direction tout tours everywhere: Corcovado, Forest Tijuca, Sugar Loaf and the Maracana Stadium—billed as the largest in the world. I saved one brochure purposely to always remember this language: "Visit with guide to the biggest Rio slum. Daily departures."

Perhaps there is a fascination with this area because it's immortalized in the movie "City of God." However, I couldn't fathom being chauffeured through an area of such despair as if it were any other tourist attraction. I also thought it unwise—especially after hearing that there are areas within the slum that the police won't even enter.

But, that's actually what grantmaking is about—going into areas where others may fear to tread, then accepting and facing challenging conditions headon to make change. And one key to success for Kellogg and many other foundations is working with the people affected to make sure the changes are "driven by and for" them.

In "My God, I've Become an NGO!" (p. 28), former President Bill Clinton speaks on accepting the challenge presented him by the prime minister of St. Kitts & Nevis to "set up a healthcare network and get medicine to everybody" in the Caribbean. With only 14 employees at his startup foundation, Clinton didn't know where to begin, but he did know that without someone accepting the challenge, people there who did not have to die of AIDS would continue to do so.

Ironically, foundations are now—almost more than ever before—finding themselves in somewhat of a self-help challenge quagmire. In her last state of philanthropy address (p. 10), retiring Council on Foundations President and CEO Dorothy S. Ridings referred to the "pending congressional action that would place new constraints on nonprofits" as "a much-needed kick start to what we should have been paying much more attention to in the first place"—governance, changes in reporting requirements and ethics.

That ground is surely where some foundations fear to tread because it entails uncomfortable introspection. This issue offers two special sections on evaluation and corporate accountability to that very effect. At this point, it's not only about evaluating governance, but also about evaluating grantmaking. In an adaptation of his chapter from Improving and Strengthening Grant Making Organizations (p. 45), former David and Lucile Packard Foundation President and CEO Cole Wilbur writes, "Philanthropy is unusual in that it makes no difference to a foundation's financial status how good or bad its product (grants) or services are." He further notes that foundations can "make grants that are of little value or, in some cases, even harmful."

The bottom line on a financial statement or a Form 990 won't necessarily speak to effectiveness, innovation, integrity or impact. The challenge currently facing foundations is to look within for those answers and address difficult organizational issues that must change.

Photo by Rebecca Hearfield