You Spoke, We Listened: Changes Inspired by Our Grantee Survey (And What Still Needs Work)
By Amy Page, Grants Manager
This year, I celebrated my 25th anniversary working at the Foundation, and I have been the grants manager for the past 11 years. Over my 25 years here, I’ve seen our grantmaking process evolve in many ways. One of the most valuable tools we’ve introduced to help guide that evolution is our annual grantee survey.
Every year, whether applicants receive funding or not, they get an email from me asking for feedback via a short survey. It asks about their experience with our grant application process, interactions with our team, how clear (or unclear) our communications are, and how much time the whole process took on their end. We launched this survey back in 2014 with the goal of gathering feedback to make our grantmaking process better. It is a chance to hear directly from our partners and build stronger relationships that ultimately lead to improvements in how we all do our work.
As the grants manager, I’m the person who oversees the entire application process. Think of me as the GPS of the grantmaking process. I help guide our applicants from their starting point—their initial interaction with the grant cycle information on our website—to their destination—the funding—making sure they avoid any unnecessary bumps along the way and arrive at the destination as smoothly as possible. That means that for my work, the feedback we gather from these surveys is invaluable in guiding the changes we make each time we open a new cycle.
What We’ve Learned So Far
We’ve heard a lot, both good and bad. And that’s exactly what we need—honest, constructive feedback.
For example, many of our applicants have told us that they appreciated our personal consultations and found them helpful in navigating the application. On the flip side, we’ve heard that our application is too long and could be streamlined.
In response, we’ve made some changes, including:
Streamlining the Application: Based on feedback about its length, we’ve simplified the process to make it easier to navigate.
Requesting Fewer Documents: Previously, we required a project budget, board list, staff list, and operating budget. Currently, we only ask for an organization’s fiscal year budget.
Adjusting Timeframe for Feedback: We recently shortened the response time for our feedback survey. Previously, one month was given but it has now been changed to 2 weeks. We have found that typically, people are more likely to respond when a shorter window of time is given. This increases the amount of feedback we are able to get.
Incorporating a Letter of Inquiry: We recently added a letter of inquiry to our application process partly in response to the amount of time applicants were spending completing our grant applications. This step allows potential applicants to provide the Foundation with a summary of their proposals and for our team to determine if we are the best fit for their funding needs before spending more time on the full application.
What Still Needs Work
While the survey has helped us improve a lot, there are still things that need work.
Low Response Rate: Less than half of the grantees we funded last year responded to the survey. This means we’re missing out on feedback from a significant portion of our partners.
Bias in Feedback: We tend to hear more from those who received funding than from those who didn’t. This makes it harder to get a full picture of how the application process feels for everyone, not just the winners.
Unheard Voices: We don’t have a solid way of gathering feedback from organizations that didn’t apply because they ran into barriers—whether that’s with the application itself, the technology, or other challenges.
Candid Feedback: Even though the survey is anonymous, we understand that some grantees might still hold back from sharing full, honest feedback for fear of it affecting future funding. We’re working on making sure there’s a safe space for grantees to be open with us.
What’s Next
We’re committed to being transparent. We believe it’s essential for making the entire process more effective, efficient, and impactful. Your feedback helps us get better at what we do and ensures that our partners have everything they need to succeed.
If you haven’t yet shared your thoughts, or if you have more to add, we’re all ears. Do you have a suggestion on how we can make our grant process smoother? Feel free to email me at [email protected] with your thoughts and ideas! I look forward to hearing from you.
Amy Page is the Mary Black Foundation’s Grants Manager. She is responsible for maintaining grant-related software, interacting with grantees and potential applicants, and assisting the program team with the evaluation of grantee performance and progress.
Open Philanthropy is a recurring column in our monthly newsletter dedicated to pulling back the curtain on how we make funding decisions, why we structure things the way we do, and how we’re always working to be a better partner.
