Giving Compass' Take:

• Hallie Preskill and Kathleen Lis Dean offer tips for organizations to remain flexible in their philanthropic support for grantees during COVID-19.

• How can organizations loosen their reporting requirements in order to provide greater support for grantees? What can we learn from the tumult of the pandemic in building back with better support for grantees?

• Read more about why your support matters right now during the coronavirus pandemic.

In this critical time, and with a sense of urgency, many philanthropic organizations are shifting the ways in which they are supporting grantees.

The issue at the core of this situation is “What kinds of outcomes will result from this crisis and how can we best listen for and understand them?” There will be outcomes, but the ones we focus on are not necessarily those that grantees originally proposed. So, how can foundations ensure that the content and process of evaluating outcomes in the wake of this crisis are useful and least disruptive, while also ensuring that we learn during this time? As Sanjeev Sridharan proposes, “The pandemic provides an opportunity for us to ask ourselves how evaluations can be adapted to be helpful at a time of crisis.” And, we would add, in ways that do not get in the way of service delivery.

In the spirit of evaluative thinking and learning, and in place of grantee reports and full-blown evaluations, we believe there are alternative ways of assessing the choices foundations have made and the actions both foundations and grantees have taken.

  • Grantee activities to serve communities, including how they’ve focused on serving those most in need (structural equity lens)
  • Grantee reach to community members—breadth and depth
  • Influence within the community and with policymakers for services and change
  • Grantee resiliency—extent to which foundation support has contributed to grantee sustainability and health
  • Grantee connection to community—extent to which and how new connections have been made or strengthened
  • Grantee efforts to support organizers and advocates to improve access and services
  • Grantee ability to adapt and respond quickly and effectively
  • Grantee efforts to collaborate and work on systems changes

Read the full article about support for grantees during COVID-19 by Hallie Preskill and Kathleen Lis Dean at Geo Funders.