Call for grantmakers to solicit more feedback from recipients
Howard Lake | 29 June 2005 | News
Writing in the US Council of Foundations’ newsletter, Kathleen P. Enright calls on grantmaking foundations to break out of their silos and actively seek feedback from the organisations whom they fund.
Ms Enright, executive director of Grantmakers for Effective Organisations in Washington, DC, reports that, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute, “most foundations don’t regularly solicit any grantee feedback – whether anonymous or open.”
As a result “foundations often fail to gather feedback to verify that their support is on target.” It is not simply the fault of the foundations: “given the power differential, grantees rarely feel comfortable being candid.”
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She does see some signs of progress and makes a number of recommendations on best practice.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.