Winter 2005

One Question for Three Funders
How Do You Gather Grantee Feedback to Inform Your Grantmaking?

Anita Pampusch
President, Bush Foundation

The Bush Foundation solicits feedback from our grantees for a variety of purposes: to help us evaluate specific programs, gather ideas for new programs, assess the effectiveness of our communications, and much more.

Last year the foundation participated in a more formal study by commissioning The Center for Effective Philanthropy in Cambridge, Mass., to conduct a survey of our grantees to assess their satisfaction with the foundation’s work. The survey was different from other ways in which we have sought grantee feedback in that it was conducted by an outside group using statistically relevant measures, and they provided comparisons with other foundations on a variety of grantmaking features. We participated in the survey together with 29 other foundations across the country, including large, nationally focused foundations, family foundations and community foundations. The results provided us a snapshot of our grantees’ perceptions and also gave us a sense of how our results compare with those of the other foundations.

The survey was sent to all of our 2003 grantees, and we are pleased to have received responses from 74 percent of those organizations. All survey responses were anonymous.

We learned a number of important things from the survey results. We were pleased to rank third-highest among the foundations surveyed on making a significant, positive impact on the organizations to which we make grants. At the same time, we received some important feedback from our grantees that have prompted us to ask some questions about how we do our grantmaking work:

• Should we spend more time with grantees during the period of the grant and afterward? Many foundations are perceived as being more “hands on” and helpful than our foundation throughout the grant review process and after the grant has concluded. Such follow-up contact has not been our practice, so we were not surprised by this finding, but the survey results have prompted us to re-examine this practice.

• Should we aim to have more impact on the fields in which we work and not just on organizations? Grantees gave us high marks on making an impact on the individual organizations that we fund, but were not sure about our foundation’s effect on the broader fields that we fund.

• Is the process we follow in reviewing grants as helpful as we think it is? Some grantees praised our grant review process and the ways in which it made grantee programs stronger, but others found that the rigor was not helpful to them.

• Are our guidelines and priorities clear to those who seek to learn about them, either through our written materials, Web site or contacts with grant officers? Grantees gave us mixed reviews on how the foundation communicates its guidelines and priorities, with some feeling that we could be clearer about what we fund and why.

The Bush Foundation plans to examine these questions during the next few months and may consider changes in our practice, as appropriate. We are pleased by the honest and helpful feedback we received from grantees through the survey, and we plan to continue seeking their thoughts and impressions about our performance at regular intervals as we go forward.

Karen Kelley-Ariwoola
Vice President, Community Philanthropy, The Minneapolis Foundation

Gathering feedback from grantees is done in many ways at The Minneapolis Foundation, from informal interaction with grantees to more formal efforts. With the encouragement from our board, in spring 2003 The Minneapolis Foundation conducted a Grantee Perception Survey through The Center for Effective Philanthropy. We were pleased to receive a 66 percent response rate.

We learned a lot from the survey responses about what our grantees think The Minneapolis Foundation does best. Grantees believe that we have had a strong impact on public policy; that we fund innovative ideas; that we are making a positive impact on their field; and that they are satisfied with the quick payment of grants once they have been notified of an award.

The survey also pointed out some areas in need of improvement. Grantees told us that they were confused about the foundation’s changing priorities (during a period when our guidelines changed from a neighborhood focus to a statewide focus on systems and policy change); that in some cases our interactions with them could be more responsive; and that we could do better in keeping them informed of the status of their grant proposal.

The Minneapolis Foundation’s staff and board carefully reviewed and discussed the grantee feedback from the survey. In response, we have developed a process to keep grant applicants more informed of the status of their proposals, and we have instituted an internal process of gathering grantee feedback on a continual basis.

Grantees now receive a one-page survey at the conclusion of each grant round that asks for feedback on aspects of the grantmaking process they find most helpful, things that could be improved, and any other comments or observations they would like to share with the foundation about its grantmaking or the foundation’s broader work in the community. All written comments can be given anonymously and are shared with the foundation’s board. We also meet with grantees following each grant round to talk about their work and our current funding priorities. These meetings help build a peer network of grantees while also building relationships between our staff and grantees.

To help further clarify the foundation’s funding priorities, we recently issued updated grantmaking guidelines to explain our focus on policy and systems change. We also use our Web site and Catalyst magazine to highlight grantees whose work is consistent with our policy and systems change focus.

The survey results highlighted the fact that in order to build effective relationships with our grantees, it all comes down to effective communication. We will continue to listen to feedback from them. We will work hard to be out in the community listening and learning about ways in which we can have a greater impact with our grantmaking. We will continue to periodically survey our grantees and communicate with them as clearly as we can about how we hope to work with them to make a positive difference in our community.

Elsa Vega-Perez
Senior Program Officer, Otto Bremer Foundation

The Otto Bremer Foundation has had a longtime interest in understanding how nonprofits perceive our information and application processes. To help us build this understanding, we issue a questionnaire to all grant applicants, regardless of whether or not they received a grant from us. The survey is very simple and straightforward and has about eight questions.

We began using the survey in October 1993. The survey results often provide us with positive feedback from nonprofits about the foundation and its work. But the surveys have also helped us identify areas for improvement.

For example, the survey results helped the foundation realize that it could do a better job of clarifying our grantmaking guidelines, so we have made improvements in that area. The survey also has helped the foundation’s board of trustees understand that after more than 20 years with the same number of staff, it needed to add new staff in order to increase its personal interactions with nonprofits. As a result of that finding, the organization added three new program staff over a period of nine years.

The survey results have also given us an opportunity to identify areas where we could improve our engagement with our Bremer communities through improved communications. To help us accomplish this goal, we recently expanded our communications department and hired Viva Yang as our first communications staff person, in the newly created position of communications associate.

Although the survey provides useful information to foundation staff, it is designed to be a governance tool for the foundation’s board of trustees. The survey provides the trustees with useful feedback to help them track our grants process, assess our external relations with the communities we serve, and make any necessary changes.

© Copyright 2005 Minnesota Council on Foundations
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