Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve been using the hashtag #CrappyFundingPractices to publicly call out funders who were doing ridiculous and/or harmful things. Well, several years have passed, and it seems some funders are still doing crappy things. In fact, there are several innovative new shenanigans! Thank you to all the funders who are awesome. However, we still have many funders whose unreasonable and clueless requirements are jeopardizing nonprofits’ work and thus harming people.

Here is a list of #CrappyFundingPractices that have been called out under the hashtag. If you are at a foundation, please check that you’re not doing these things below, because your foundation may be called out by name:

  1. Excessive requirements for small amounts of funding. 
  2. Making nonprofits translate their budget into a funder’s budget format.
  3. Insisting that grant applicants print out and mail in or deliver grant proposals. 
  4. Not funding overhead. 
  5. Not funding staff salary.
  6. Restricting the funding of overhead to a certain percentage, usually 10%.
  7. Cutting off accepting grant proposal submissions after a certain number has been reached.
  8. Requiring any sort of documentation of board approval for the grant application.
  9. Having nonprofits to farm for votes in popularity-based contests.
  10. Making nonprofits make an online account to view grant questions and requirements.
  11. Not allowing questions to be seen in advance in online applications.
  12. Having LOIs that are basically a full grant proposal.
  13. Requiring grantees to pay an application fee.
  14. Not revealing character limits on online applications at the onset.
  15. Requiring the entering in of information that can be found on an attachment.
  16. Making application or report due dates December 31st, January 1st.
  17. Requiring more than annual reports/surveys. 
  18. Having ridiculous character limits.
  19. Asking for excessive or nonsensical information. 
  20. Having ridiculous and nonsensical questions on impact.
  21. Demanding that nonprofits be financially self-sustaining.
  22. Requiring attendance at quarterly trainings or meetings.
  23. Asking nonprofit to return grant money for ridiculous reasons.
  24. Rescinding funding because a staff said or retweeted something negative about the funder or about funders in general.

Read the full article about bad funding practices by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.