Giving Compass' Take:

• Casey Pechan highlights the success of the Surdna Foundation is shifting its grantmaking strategy to rapidly respond to the COVID-19 crisis and the needs of their grantees. 

• How can you better serve your grantees during this time and beyond? 

• Read about implementing racially equitable grantmaking. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on grantmaking. In a matter of months (and just weeks for some), funders began to pivot and employ rapid-response grantmaking tactics in order to quickly support their grantees’ urgent and growing needs.

In a recent webinar, Fluxx and Grantbook partnered to explore this topic and share how funders can rethink grantmaking strategy to incorporate rapid-response grants and make practical changes to streamline their funding process and make it easier on grantees. The presentation also features the Surdna Foundation, who shared how they quickly adjusted their giving by employing seven rapid-response grantmaking tactics.

Like Surdna, use these seven rapid-response recommendations to help adjust how you grant:

  1. Prioritize a fast registration/LOI process: Use an easy eligibility quiz to quickly determine who meets funding requirements. Save everyone time by focusing on only core information for applicants.
  2. Design a simple grantee portal: Provide grantees with a dedicated information page and be sure to reserve a section of the grantee portal for emergency applications so that they can easily be found and tracked.
  3. Save everyone time and streamline your application forms: Be sure to only include key questions that will expedite a yes or no approval. Use colors, markers, or bold font to clearly identify any information that is required.
  4. Make all application workflows clear and direct: This process can be as easy as creating new workflow buttons to move a record quickly to the right party.
  5. Keep grantees informed with automated email alerts: Lessen follow up by automatically informing grantees about their submission and application status.
  6. Adjust grantee reporting requirements: Keep your reporting requirements simple and make sure that you collect data in form fields – not via attachments.
  7. Keep staff engaged by enabling them to do their work: Ensure that your staff is trained on your system. Speed up the onboarding process with configurable dashboard views and filters that make it easy for them to find what they need.

Read the full article about rapid-response grantmaking by Casey Pechan at PEAK Grantmaking.