Giving Compass' Take:

• Sachin Sachdeva explains how Paul Hamlyn Foundation is working to streamline its grantmaking to improve its impact. 

• What burden are you placing on nonprofits you are interested in supporting? Can your own grantmaking be streamlined to better serve nonprofits? 

• Read about five grantmaking best practices.


Often, donors approach nonprofits with a set agenda, a pre-designed methodology, and a ready log frame, at the beginning of a partnership. However by doing this, we risk making the role of the nonprofit that of just an implementation partner, instead of a creative arm.

Our approach at PHF is a ‘light touch’ one and includes a combination of fixed, law-abiding statutory requirements, and support as and when requested. But most importantly it is based on a feeling of mutual trust between us and our nonprofit partners. Here are some of the processes that have helped us, and might prove useful for other funding organizations.

1. Sourcing applications
Applications are sourced online through the PHF website. In the interest of transparency, our website outlines the India Programme Strategy. We require organizations to clear a short eligibility quiz, following which they need to upload their basic concept note in response to a set of questions. We do not actively seek proposals. Our application portal is always open, and anybody who is eligible can apply online. We review proposals twice a year, and we are sector agnostic in the organizations we choose to fund. This allows us to streamline the process, and give any organization, no matter how small, the opportunity to be considered for a grant. And, our team doesn’t serve as a bottleneck.

2. Statutory checks and balances
Like other foundations, PHF does a thorough check of all statutory requirements. In addition to this, before we take on a nonprofit partner, we ask them to submit a self-authorized statement on the systems and procedures they are following on organization management.

3. Reporting
We try to maintain a flexible approach to nonprofit reporting. While our nonprofit partners are required to submit a six-monthly narrative and financial report, this can be done in a format of their choice.

4. Budget allocations
A PHF grant budget is split into three main groups: salaries, programme, and overheads. We believe that salaries paid to staff members should be fair and reflect the work they are doing. Therefore we do not insist on capping salaries expenditure at a fixed percentage of programme expenditure.

5. Site visits and reviews
We make occasional visits (a minimum of one per year) to our partners that are scheduled based on a need felt either by our nonprofit partner, or by us. The visits are a combination of understanding what has happened at the community level through direct interactions with them, and also to spend time with the organisation’s team, understand their work, successes, dilemmas, and challenges in the project’s implementation.

Read the full article about an approach to streamlining by Sachin Sachdeva at India Development Review.