Resources

Hi GEOlist, Submitting this question on behalf of a GEO member who’s asked to remain anonymous: “We are looking for feedback and/or advice from foundations with experience communicating a reduction in grantmaking to partners and grantees. We are in early stages of strategic planning and have had our budget significantly reduced for future years. Any insight or tips would be helpful -- what strategies and messaging worked or what didn't?” Looking forward to any support you can provide! Kyle

Hi there, I am reaching out to ask this others in this community to share your insights/experiences re: providing stipends/honorariums/payments for engaging in foundation-sponsored activities such as but not limited to: serving on an advisory committee, participating in a learning collaborative, reviewing report drafts, providing expert guidance, participating in a meeting (advising capacity), etc. These could be funds to an individual or an organization. Note: We are NOT talking here about incentives for participating in surveys, interviews, or focus groups (i.e., more direct research type of activities) as we see that as different. We’d love to learn more from this community about your approach and processes for these types of funds. Any and all comments are greatly appreciated, but here are some general questions: • Does your foundation provide funding for participation in foundation-sponsored activities such as: serving on an advisory committee, participating in a learning collaborative, reviewing report drafts, providing expert guidance, participating in a meeting (advising capacity)? • When would you consider providing such funds and to whom? Do you have criteria for making these determinations? • How do you determine the amount of such funding to provide? Do you have criteria for making these determinations? • Does your foundation have standard guidelines or considerations for staff on how to make these decisions (e.g., standard rates, funding limits, restrictions on who can receive these funds, etc.)? Thank you in advance for any information you can share. Gina

Good afternoon – I would like to ask my grantmaking peers willing to share – what did your path to building in equity framework or processes look like as a Grantmaker? We are working alongside an area partner funder to identify our strategies and goals for this work and I was curious if anyone else was willing to share their experiences. We have recently started diving into the Equitable Evaluation Framework (EEF) provided by GEO and their partners. Over the past few years, our organization has increased focus on diversity internally but as we prepare to implement new frameworks or philosophies in our programs, we have a lot of questions. We do not want to set up a process that does not sustain or embed equity across our work. We don’t want to check boxes, so to speak. Have you successfully implemented the EEF or are you working towards it? I’d love to chat with you! Heather

Dear GEO Community, Our foundation works closely with nonprofits that serve families and children in the region. We have focused on organizational resiliency and capacity building, and over the last several years, we noticed a critical need for executive leadership wellness and self-care. The foundation plans to offer new wellness grants to executives at our partner nonprofits, but this is a new funding area for us! What is your experience with wellness grants, leadership burnout support, and nonprofit leadership self-care? I would love to know more about your grant guidelines, how funds were used, and overall feedback from your grantees. Thank you very much! Laura

Dear GEO Community, Siebert Lutheran Foundation (SLF), an independent, private foundation that advances the Lutheran church and its ministries, recently created a new initiative we call Siebert Serves to increase resources and grants for our grantees. This is the first time in our history we are accepting gifts from donors and foundations, which will be used to support our grantees. Some of the ways donors give: 1. Make a "pass-through" gift (money designated for a grantee which is dispersed by SLF directly to the grantee) 2. Create a named Endowment Fund 3. Direct their DAF gift to a grantee 4. Make an unrestricted gift for endowment, bequests, or estate gifts. We are considering implementing a "fee for service" agreement where a percentage (1-3%) of funds from the types of gifts named above will be retained by Siebert to support the fundraising cost associated with securing gifts. We are interested in knowing if your foundation has/has not implemented a “fee for service” agreement, the rationale behind the decision, and the result. Thank you for sharing your thoughts here or if you are willing to take a 2-minute survey to provide your information, please click here: Siebert Lutheran Foundation - charging administrative fees Survey (surveymonkey.com). Thank you! Your input and experience will help us make an informed decision regarding this process.

Hi everyone, We're wondering if anyone knows if there is an "industry" average for the decline rate of proposals? If you do not know of an average, would you be willing to share your decline rate so we can create an average of these responses? Also, if there are funders who have reduced the number of rejected proposals, we'd be appreciative of any tips or methods that helped. Many thanks,

Good morning, CFU has undertaken a process to develop a community impact strategy for our endowment, issue-based funds, and initiatives. We'd appreciate recommendations for any monitoring and evaluation consultants that this group has been especially impressed with. It would be a bonus if there were any experiences with ESG metrics. Many thanks in advance!

Good morning! I’m reaching out to see if there are any community foundations working with their local governments to re-grant ARPA funds to nonprofit organizations in their service area? We have been approached by a county government in our region to manage the distribution of the ARP (American Rescue Plan) funding they have allocated to nonprofit organizations. We could see how this would fit within our purview as the region’s community foundation but have some questions about the financial and legal implications of receiving federal à county funding. Are there any community foundations in this network that have worked with their local governments in general, or more specifically, around ARP funding that could share their experience related to these questions? Thank you!

Hello Everyone, We would love to gain deeper insight from this community about grantmaking committees. Here are our questions: • What is the structure of your evaluating body – do you have one core committee or multiple committees (fund, sector, or program dependent, for example)? • What steps has your organization taken to diversify committees and to incorporate participatory grantmaking? How are community members considered for your committee (application process, word-of-mouth, staff-driven, etc)? • Is your organization utilizing content experts for proposal evaluations? If so, are they part of your core decision making body or used as advisors? • Would anyone be willing to share sample committee materials, such as training documents? • Finally, how do you show appreciation to your committee in cases where they are participating on a volunteer basis?

Dear grantmaking colleagues, Our team is in the search of a grants management system that will help automate our current manual grantmaking process. We’ve narrowed down our top 2 choices - SmartSimple and Salesforce – and want to ask if folks here have any thoughts, opinions, and / or red flags on these systems. Or – please let us know if you know of any exceptional GMS product that has served well for your organization. We are looking for a GMS that is easy to use, highly secure, functional, and continuing to grow in capabilities with our growing organizational needs. Thank you!