Feedback from grantees helps Foundation improve its work

The Charitable Foundation strives to create and maintain strong and productive relationships with our nonprofit partners so that, together, we can most efficiently and effectively advance the work that makes New Hampshire better for everyone.

In October of 2018, the Foundation contracted with the Center for Effective Philanthropy to conduct a confidential survey of our grantees to learn more about how they perceive our work, and ways we might improve it. The Grantee Perception Report survey went out to all active grantees and asked for feedback about the Foundation’s impact on their organization and community, our understanding of their work and the people served, and other topics related to the grantee-funder relationship.

We have received the results and want to share them and to extend our thanks to those who chose to participate in the survey. Your feedback was immensely valuable, providing insights about where grantees see our work as most valuable, and where we can improve.

What we learned:

Grantees rated the Charitable Foundation’s impact on their organizations as high overall, though ratings varied depending on the grant program through which they were funded, and the scale of investment. Grantees also rated our impact on local communities as strong. Grantees gave the Foundation’s online application processes high marks for being straightforward and fast. Areas we can improve upon include our understanding of the needs of grantee organizations and the people they serve, and increasing communication with Foundation staff, particularly in the Community Grants program and during grant reporting. Grantees also told us they would welcome technical assistance beyond the grant.

    Read the CEP Grantee Perception Report (PDF)

What we are doing:

The results of the survey are comprehensive, and we are in the process of developing a corresponding plan to respond to what we learned.  Changes already made include increased communication with grantees during staff transitions and offering new technical assistance and training opportunities for our Community Grants Program grantees.

We are working on plans to spend more time listening and better understanding grantee needs and those of the communities they serve, particularly populations that have historically been marginalized. During all this, we will continue our commitment to multiyear, unrestricted grants — a change that came out of past grantee feedback — and look for ways to continue to strengthen that work.

The Grantee Perception Report is one of many tools we use to evaluate our work. We value your input and want to hear from you about how we can improve our practices.