Grantee feedback helps Foundation improve its work

The Charitable Foundation strives to be collaborative, open and efficient in helping nonprofits meet the needs of our communities. The more successful our grantees are, the stronger all of our communities will be.

The Foundation contracted with the Center for Effective Philanthropy to conduct an anonymous survey of our grantees to learn more about how they perceive our work. Thank you to all who participated. This feedback was invaluable and we are taking steps to improve our work as a result. We invite you to explore and learn more about the survey results.

    Read the CEP Grantee Perception Report (PDF)

Grantee Perception Report
In October 2014, the Foundation engaged with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to conduct a grantee perception survey – an anonymous survey about how grantees perceive the work of the Foundation. We use these survey results to improve our grant programs and better meet the needs of New Hampshire’s nonprofit organizations.

The 2014 Grantee Perception Report combines quantitative and qualitative data and compares our results to our community foundation peers as well as to our previous survey results from 2004 and 2008. Learn more about CEP and its Grantee Perception Tool here.

What we learned
In 2008, the Foundation identified areas for improvement based on the grantee perception survey including:

• Application response time,
• Length of applications relative to grant size and
• Clarity around the Foundation’s goals.

Based on that feedback, the Foundation’s Community Impact Department worked to cut turnaround time in half for small grants and by 25 percent for large grants, discontinued a number of application requirements, shortened the Express Grant application, started providing more operating and multiyear grants and began communicating more with grantees about our strategic direction. The 2014 grantee perception survey results reflected many of these changes with significant improvement in grantee perception of Foundation impact, understanding and turnaround time.

What we’re doing
In 2016, the Foundation plans to continue to improve based on the most recent grantee perception survey, including:

• Providing more information about our application process, including past rates of submission and selection, clearer guidelines on what makes a strong application and common reasons for applications being declined;
• Ensuring every grantee receives an individualized response to their final grant report;
• Piloting an in-person grantee convening as an alternative to written grant reports in December 2016 for the Piscataqua region; and
• Holding regional gatherings open to all nonprofits to discuss 2016 grantmaking.

We welcome your thoughts and suggestions
While 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 on how we can improve our practices. We will periodically update you on our progress.