In a CEP blog post published earlier this week, I offered up a list of 10 Grantee Perception Report participants who had made their assessment results public in 2023 as a way to both thank our many partners in the last year and reflect on what role feedback might play for grantmakers in the coming year. As a companion to that piece, my colleagues and I thought it would be interesting (and maybe a little fun) to highlight some feedback directly from grantees surveyed by CEP in 2023. What follows is a list of 10 quotes from CEP Grantee Perception Reports that bring into focus the rich perspectives that nonprofits provide about funders, and how important these sentiments can be in reframing how best to listen to partners, build relationships, and measure impact.

These comments were pulled from responses to open-ended questions included in CEP’s grantee survey: suggestions, observations, and even some venting from grantees about both funders’ strengths and areas for improvement. As you’ll see, they run the gamut from pragmatic to idealistic, effusively appreciative to soberingly critical.

(Note: these quotes have been edited for clarity and to maintain the confidentiality of grantees who responded to CEP’s survey.)

On a flexible grantmaking approach…

“Their attitude has been a grantee’s delight: they are always eager to hear from us but they give us abundant flexibility to do the work we need to do. For example, they seldom fuss about transferring funds from one budget category to another. They have been there for us through thick and through thin. We have benefited greatly from their self-restraint and from their generous support.”

On onerous reporting processes…

“I think reports should be via [a video call]. Let’s be honest here — there’s usually a development person or grant writer who writes the reports. Possibly the same person who wrote the grant. It’s grunt work. It’s never an opportunity for reflection, and even if it was — do we really need a foundation to help us reflect? Isn’t that a kind of paternalism? […] If you really want to know how a project went, skip the five essay questions and ask for a quick meeting with the people who are actually in charge. You will get more from those 15 minutes than all the essays in the world.”

Read the full article about grantees' perspectives by Joseph Lee at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.