Folly #61: Feedback
What a simple question – How are you doing? – can tell funders.
[Ed note: Last week marked Folly #60. In your email, it was Folly #6. The universe gave a nod to the Sisyphean task of writing each week.]
This week, I learned about the Nonprofit Voice Project – a brilliant program to capture information from top grantees and grantmakers. I also love the name of the report – State of Nonprofits 2024: What Funders Need to Know [my emphasis].
Published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), they are seeing new or continued efforts to improve grantmaking practices by the majority of funders participating in this report. This is great news! I’m just learning about CEP, and there is much to appreciate in how they approach and share their work.
This week, they presented in a webinar hosted by a collaboration of California funders, also a great idea.
Collaboration
Philanthropy CA is an alliance of Northern California Grantmakers, Southern California Grantmakers, and Catalyst of San Diego and Imperial Counties. Their combined state-based membership represents more than 600 foundations, corporate funders, philanthropic individuals and families, giving circles, and government agencies who, collectively, fund billions of dollars each year.
Their stated purpose is to collaborate more closely. Love it! Yet their stated goals appear to be mostly self-serving – unfortunate – until you get to the last one:
A stronger statewide philanthropic presence that bridges geographic and organizational boundaries and diverse interests among funders
A united voice for public policy issues affecting philanthropy
Improved opportunities for learning and collaboration
The ability to engage a broader range of stakeholders
Streamlined support for nonprofits and philanthropy
You would think that streamlining support for nonprofits and philanthropy would be the first step in bridging boundaries, learning and collaboration, and engaging more stakeholders.
If foundations and funders exist to support nonprofits, then shouldn’t a regional network be making the area’s nonprofits their top priority?
Um, just a thought.
Self-Reflection
In a world where nonprofits are expected to complete an absurd number of questions and characters to define program effectiveness, we rarely see this same kind of introspection from funders. CEP’s services include assessments and they wow me with how they approach this.
CEP believes in “feedback that drives effectiveness” and offers unique insights into philanthropic effectiveness by providing candid and actionable feedback from key stakeholders, and benchmarking results. Key stakeholders include grantees, donors, staff and youth.
Perhaps not surprisingly, CEP’s State of Nonprofits 2024 data found that burnout ranks high as a nonprofit concern, and this was a focus of the webinar. I’m adding one panelist’s excellent question to my 6-question universal grant proposal:
Having funders really ask us how we’re doing [as grantees] elevates the level of discourse about burnout.
It’s a question we ask strangers: How are you doing? Of course it should be something that’s asked of organizations receiving funding!
And funders that understand the need for grantee staff’s well-being end up funding it.
Nonprofit Staff Burnout
Funding general operations, capacity building and well-being of staff, including sabbaticals, were also suggested as solutions to burnout among nonprofit staff. Or, as one wise panelist stated:
As the Executive Director, I’m really not the one you want dealing with IT issues!
Another webinar participant posted this excellent question anonymously:
In meeting with dozens of MacKenzie Scott grant recipients, including many grassroots organizations that care about their teams, I have found that very few have dedicated their multi-million dollar unrestricted gifts to sustainable staff salary and benefits increases and wellbeing. How can funders incentivize or encourage the use of general support grants to improve the wellbeing of their teams first and foremost?
Nonprofit staff feel such intense pressure to take care of huge problems. They rarely see taking care of themselves as a priority – and largely because funders do not seem to value this.
If they did, they would provide more general operating support.
Know a regional collaboration or network of funders – or nonprofits? Please share!