Grantee Survey Results Now Available
Overview
A key value of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation is excellence. The Community Foundation holds itself to high standards in its transactions with the community. As the Foundation hopes to make grants that achieve exceptional results, its staff strive to treat grantees with respect and to be very approachable to the nonprofit community. The Community Foundation is also a “learning organization,” assessing its results and striving to continuously improve its processes, its programs and increase its impact in the community.
To demonstrate this accountability to the community and to assess its interactions, the Community Foundation has twice engaged the Center for Effective Philanthropy (the Center) to conduct a survey of its grantees' perceptions of their interactions with the Community Foundation. The first survey was conducted in the fall of 2004. The Center has conducted the anonymous survey for foundations all over the country and is able to provide data allowing the Community Foundation to compare itself with other community foundations and private foundations nationwide.
Some key findings from the fall 2007 survey include:
Strengths
Generally, the Grand Rapids Community Foundation receives ratings similar to the median foundation on many measures, though higher than the typical community foundation. There was little change in the ratings overall between 2004 and 2007.
Grantees report that the Grand Rapids Community Foundation has a significant positive impact on their communities and a higher than typical understanding of these communities. The Community Foundation also receives higher than average ratings for its effectiveness in creating social impact.
The Grand Rapids Community Foundation provides assistance securing funding from other sources to 40 percent of grantees – about twice as many as typical. Grantees report that this assistance is very helpful in securing other funding. They also rate the Community Foundation in the 99th percentile for having a positive impact on their organizations.
Challenges
Grantees rated the Community Foundation more positively where they had higher levels of interaction with staff during the selection and reporting processes. A significant number (35 percent) of suggestions for improvement concern either the selection or the reporting and evaluation processes.
Grand Rapids Community Foundation grantees reported that they spend more administrative time on applying for and reporting on grants from the Community Foundation than is typical, relative to the size of the grants awarded.
Finally, the quality of the communications the Grand Rapids Community Foundation has with its grantees is fairly typical. However, where grantees are unable to identify where their organization fits within the Community Foundation’s funding strategies, they reported lower satisfaction with the quality of their communications with the Grand Rapids Community Foundation.
Strategies for Improvement
The Community Foundation has taken seriously the suggestions for improvement provided by its grantees and has instituted some changes, while others will occur over the coming months. Some of the steps taken or planned include:
- Improve the clarity and frequency of communications with grantees through improvements to the website, particularly related to the online application and reporting systems.
- Increase contact with grantees, especially during the application process and during the reporting and evaluation periods.
- Review and revise application and reporting processes, simplifying those processes wherever possible to improve grantee and staff efficiency.
The Community Foundation continues to welcome additional suggestions or questions regarding interpretation of the findings and plans for improvement. The survey will be conducted again in 2010. The Community Foundation truly appreciates the time and effort put forth by the nonprofit community in completing the survey.
Please click here to review highlights of the report.
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