Grantee Feedback
Funders who request regular feedback from grantees say the answers they receive strengthen boardroom and staff advocacy for change. At the same time, grantees who initiate meetings to verse funders on their multi-year strategies have built funders’ trust and broadened their thinking on timelines.
Data Highlight
Funders rated board values as the number one most influential factor in shifting toward more flexible funding and more unrestricted funding (Accelerating Equitable Grantmaking Survey, MilwayPLUS, November 2021, n=30).
Additional Resources
“Advancing Equity Through Feedback,” Fund for Shared Insight and Leap of Reason Ambassadors Committee’s article on using feedback to advance equity
“The Power of Feedback,” SSIR article, video, and slideshow collection on the power of feedback in the social sector
“How Listening to Constituents Can Lead to Systems Change,” SSIR article on listening to participants to promote systems change
“Resetting the Grantor-Grantee Relationship,” SSIR article on how changes in behavior and mindset can strengthen grantor-grantee relationships
Getting Started:
-
Review CEP’s Grantee Perception Report surveys and consider conducting one.
-
Identify opportunities for the foundation to solicit feedback from grantees more systematically, and ensure that the feedback is acted upon.
-
Regularly solicit feedback from your grantees about how you can better support them and make the grantmaking process more efficient, and what kind of grantmaking time scale and flexibility would best support their work. Provide opportunities for both direct one-on-one feedback and anonymous feedback.
-
Provide funders your theory of change and multi-year vision and connect your strategy to both, demonstrating the arc of change and funding required to fuel outcomes versus outputs. If you are invited to complete a GPR, participate—funders that seek feedback take it seriously.