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“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” This maxim has long served as an excuse for nonprofits to avoid having honest dialogues with their funders. However, behind closed conference room doors, listen closely and you may hear a grumbly grant writer whisper or disappointed development director lament, “Where, oh where, are the funders that provide general operating support?”I agree that we shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds, but what if it’s not feeding us what we need? How can we become more comfortable talking to funders about what would be most impactful to our nonprofits’ success?There’s been a noticeable shift in the funding community over the past decade
. Funders are increasingly focused on results and want more evidence of their social return on investment. This is a positive shift. Nonprofits should be holding themselves accountable for their performance and making investments and adjustments where needed to maximize their impact. The big question is, do they have the capacity to accurately evaluate their performance and, if so, can they obtain the capital needed to make the necessary adjustments?
Now is the time to stop the grumbly conversations behind closed doors and talk to funders openly about what is really needed to be a high-performing nonprofit.The good news is that we’re not the only ones talking about this. Grantmakers for Effective Organizations(GEO), a membership organization made up of about 500 funders committed to promoting “strategies and practices that contribute to grantee success,” released a nationwide study earlier this year called, “Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter?” The study is a follow up to GEO’s 2011 research to see how, and if, funder practices have changed.The results are very encouraging.
Funders are increasingly providing the type of support that leads to increased impact. General operating support has increased after six years of stagnation and multi-year grants and capacity building support is also growing.
Funders also responded that they want to build better relationships with grantees. More than half of the funders surveyed said they directly ask grantees for feedback to assess what’s working and what’s not. What better way to build better relationships with your funders than honestly answering their questions about what’s working and what you actually need?In the introduction to the GEO study, they pose the question:
“How can we, as funders, make smarter decisions so nonprofits can dream big and also act on those dreams?” So, before we pick up the phone, we should ask ourselves:
- What fundraising needs might we be compromising on in order to seem like a better fit with our funders?
- What type of investment(s) would actually help my organization move the needle in the next 12 months?
- How can our organization dream bigger in order to maximize our impact?
These are big questions, but they are ones we should be thinking about so we can start those long needed conversations with our funders.
