Giving Compass' Take:

• In this Forbes post, consultant Kris Putnam-Walkerly shares common hurdles in philanthropic efforts. She explains how funders can overcome these obstacles to give with impact. 

• What are the highest-value changes you can make to your process to reduce or eliminate bottlenecks?

• Read about the best practices of extraordinary grantmakers. 

As funders, we often forget—or never truly realize—how much our decisions and actions can affect our grantees and partners downstream, and thus the people and causes they serve. When we delay decision or action, those who depend on our decision can get caught in limbo.

In my experience, there are three main reasons why bottlenecks form: avoidance, overload and lack of confidence. Fortunately, there are things we can do to address each form of bottleneck and prevent them from happening altogether:

1. Avoidance.
Let’s face it, there are some tasks that are essential, but that you simply don’t want to do.

Try breaking an unavoidable task into smaller bites. Set aside an hour a day, or even 15 minutes here and there, to concentrate on the task. Then reward yourself with another task that’s both pleasant and productive.

Still can’t make yourself complete the task? Try delegating to someone else who enjoys it or who at least is willing to do a good, efficient job at it in return for compensation.

2. Overload.
Often we’re simply too busy to get to everything on our to-do list.

Think of giving as you would any other enterprise and consider the manpower needed to get it done. What can you delegate and what requires your full attention to move forward?

3. Lack of confidence.
Even those who are used to making billion-dollar corporate decisions can lose their footing when considering philanthropic investments.

You can do the research yourself as part of your decision-making process, or you can delegate if research isn’t your thing or you’re too busy (see the points above). The key is to recognize that researching to inform a decision is perfectly acceptable—as long as you don’t fall prey to “paralysis by analysis,” in which the research never ends.

It’s also helpful to remember that making philanthropic investments is not an exact science, and there are no universally right or wrong answers.

Read the full article about bottlenecks to effective giving by Kris Putnam-Walkerly at Forbes.