When it was first suggested that we share some of our thoughts related to our most recent — and remarkably positive — Grantee Perception Survey (GPR), I struggled. It felt awkward to promote practices that we learned from you, our peers, and which are practiced by so many.

In fact, in our 10th anniversary year, we have so many foundations to thank for their words of wisdom, invitations for site visits, and open sharing of information. We must have visited 10 foundations in our first year and several more since then. When a foundation hands you their grant guidelines and says to just put your name in place of theirs, you gain an appreciation quickly for the family of philanthropy. We are so grateful.

In that same spirit of sharing, though, we wanted to offer what has worked for us. Through our 10 years, we’ve routinely assessed our progress through governance assessments, grantee surveys, and community health needs assessments. Most recently, we used the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s (CEP) Grantee Perception Survey. Here are a few of our practices that have been affirmed through these tools.

  1. It’s all about relationships and collaboration.
  2. Some of our most impactful work is in the space beyond grantmaking.
  3. Contributing to field knowledge benefits both funders and grantees.

So, where do we go from here? The last survey was very affirming, but we can always do better for our community. In short, we heard more time, more community, and more celebration from our grantee partners.

Read the full article about learnings by Christy Connolly at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.