Study shows top‐ranked funders go extra mile to listen, understand their constituents
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30426 |
| Date | 01 March 2018 |
| Published date | 01 March 2018 |
MARCH 2018
7
NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR
© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved
DOI: 10.1002/nba
Foundations
Study shows top-ranked funders go extra mile to
listen, understand their constituents
Charitable foundations that go out of their way
to listen to their grantees—and the end constituents
they seek to help—are viewed most favorably and
perceived as most effective by their grantees, accord-
ing to new research from the Center for Effective
Philanthropy.
The ndings—detailed in a new report, Staying
Connected: How Five Foundations Understand Those
They Seek to Help—are based on surveys conducted
in 2016 and 2017 that asked grantees how well their
funders understood the needs of their intended bene-
ciaries—whether it be homeless populations, students
from low-income schools or military vets returning
from the warzone. The CEP then conducted in-depth
interviews with senior leaders from ve of the most
highly ranked foundations cited in those surveys.
Looking at what these organizations do to under-
stand the “end users” of their funding and ensure their
grants are making the biggest impact possible, the
CEP divined three best practices that all center around
getting down to the “ground level” of philanthropy:
• Listening to and learning from grantees as the ones
doing the work on the ground. According to Jennifer
Glickman and Ellie Buteau, two of the co-authors of
the report, this involves more than the typical efforts
to collect feedback from grantees after a grant has
been put to use in the eld.
“The best funder-grantee relationships go beyond
these one-off things like surveys, and have more of a
culture of collaboration,” where they speak openly
about the issues they are confronting, Buteau told
Nonprot Business Advisor. “Nonprots say the best
funders are humble, open and collaborative, where
there’s an ongoing dialogue,” she said.
• Recognizing the importance of going out into
the elds and communities their work supports. Some
funders hesitate about conducting eld visits and
educating themselves on the challenges faced by
their ultimate constituents—preferring to rely on
their grantees to ll them in on the current state of
affairs and what interventions are most promising,
Glickman said.
“They are worried about stepping on toes,” she
explained.
However, developing in-depth understanding
about how things are on the ground and what the
current needs and challenges are for the ultimate
beneciaries of a foundation’s grants is crucial to
guiding their strategy, according to Buteau.
“If they don’t develop that understanding, how do
they know who and what to fund?” she said.
Further, having the depth of knowledge makes it
easier for funders to have dialogue with their grant-
ees and bounce ideas back and forth, and promotes
information-sharing across the board, she said.
• Hiring staff from the elds in which they fund.
This too helps funders develop a keen understanding
of the issues and greatest challenges faced by their
constituents, Buteau said.
“Hiring people who have a background in the
field your foundation’s involved in just provides
greater insight that can help guide grantmaking,”
she said. Several of the senior foundation execu-
tives highlighted in the report had substantial work
experience in the program areas covered by their
foundations—and some had personal experiences
and connections to those issues as well, giving them
additional insight into the challenges faced by others
in similar circumstances.
That’s not to say that staff from other elds and
backgrounds can’t do the job, though. They can, so
long as they have deep listening skills and are adept
at developing that understanding through dialogue
and experience with grantees, Buteau said.
As demonstrated by the high-ranked foundations
featured in the report, these efforts to listen to grant-
ees and those they seek to help go a long way toward
achieving measurable on-the-ground impact and mak-
ing progress toward their overall charitable missions.
For more information
Jennifer Glickman is manager of research and Ellie
Buteau is vice president of research for the Center for
Effective Philanthropy, a nonprot organization with a mis-
sion to provide data and create insight so philanthropic
funders can better dene, assess and improve their
effectiveness and impact. Glickman can be reached
at jenniferg@cep.org, and Buteau can be reached at
ellieb@cep.org. ■
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