How anonymous grantee feedback supports Joffe Charitable Trust to push further on their pledge as an open and trusting funder
One year after re-launching GrantAdvisor UK we caught up with Joffe Charitable Trust who have so far received the highest number of anonymous grantseeker reviews on the service. CAST Programme Lead Ellen Smyth speaks to George Pope, Grants Manager at Joffe Charitable Trust to hear how the team used anonymous grantseeker feedback to improve their reporting. George also shares how her team brings grantee feedback into day-to-day decision making, reflecting on the ways of working, partnership and tips that can help others funders get started with, or complement, their pledge as an Open and Trusting funder.
Do you want to build more open and trusting grantmaking practices? Read on to see how anonymous feedback is making a difference.
“We’ve cut down the number of reports we need. We’ve always tried to be quite light-touch and this was partly to do with our pledge as an Open and Trusting funder. We’ve also made it clearer that we encourage grantees to reuse or repurpose reports they already have and include links to supporting documents as part of their reports. It’s not a major change, but I think every year, with the feedback you get, you can push further along your journey to become a really open, supportive and responsive funder.” George Pope, Grants Manager at Joffe Charitable Trust
Ellen Smyth (CAST): Hello George! Tell us about your experience gathering anonymous feedback on GrantAdvisor UK?
George Pope (Joffe Charitable Trust): We’ve been gathering feedback for quite a while and GrantAdvisor UK supports our feedback processes nicely. It’s an efficient way for us to gather feedback. We’re also signed up and committed to IVAR’s Open and Trusting Grant-making initiative and 360Giving. They all complement each other well.
Ellen Smyth (CAST): Yes it is wonderful that many of the funders signed up to GrantAdvisor UK are also signed up to IVAR’s Open and Trusting commitments — which is all about encouraging funders to adopt more open and trusting practices that make life easier for those they fund. You mentioned that the anonymous reviews complement this commitment. Could you tell us more about that?
George Pope (Joffe Charitable Trust): We have our Open and Trusting commitments which we’re asked to review every year with support from IVAR. There are 8 commitments which include accepting risk, enabling flexibility, acting with urgency, being open, asking with urgency, communicating with purpose and being proportionate.
We get together as a team to review how we’re doing on each of these through a self-reflection piece. We ask ourselves, where are we fulfilling our commitments? Could we go any further?
The gold dust: It is valuable to bring grantseeker feedback into this reflection activity as it helps us think, actually yes, we should push a bit further on this commitment because we have some feedback from grantseekers that says we could improve.
The commitments and the reviews on GrantAdvisor UK cover similar themes which I think is a good sign that IVAR understands the challenges grantees face. And the feedback gives you quite a nice, rounded picture of how you are doing as a funder. They fit together really well.
Can you share an example?
One of the Open and Trusting commitments is around reporting. So when we reflect on that as a team and how our reporting is going, it is really helpful to have feedback from grantseekers. The fact that some people have commented on our reporting does help us to reflect and it does feed into the approach we’re taking.
“Thank you for keeping the application process flexible and not too cumbersome, administratively. The grant we received was very welcome indeed, but smaller than many others that we have received, so it is helpful to keep the administrative burden (application, reporting etc) as light as possible.” Anonymous grantseeker review October 2020, GrantAdvisor UK
We are committed to creating easy, simple reporting, and we review the feedback we receive to see if we are meeting our goals.
Has this approach helped you make any changes?
We’ve cut down the number of reports we need. We’ve always tried to be quite light touch and this was partly to do with our pledge as an Open and Trusting funder. We’ve also made it clearer that we encourage grantees to reuse or repurpose reports they already have and include links to supporting documents as part of their reports.
“Keep doing what you’re doing, and keep the (written) reporting requirements light. Better to connect regularly on the phone, than to submit endless reports, in my opinion.” Anonymous grantseeker review October 2022, GrantAdvisor UK
The gold dust: It’s not a major change, but I think every year, with the feedback you get, you can push further along your journey to become a really open, supportive and responsive funder.
Be proportionate is one of IVARs Open and Trusting commitments
We will commit to light-touch reporting — we will ensure that our formal reporting requirements are well understood, proportionate and meaningful.
Is there anything else that supports you to reflect on your approach?
Through the grantee feedback it’s clear that people strongly appreciate the chance to have unrestricted funding and core funding. It comes through very strongly and that is really helpful for us to see when we are reviewing, so we know we are going in the right direction with our unrestricted funding.
‘If you had one piece of advice to give to this funder, what would it be?
There is a need for multi-year, unrestricted funding in the area of funding for systemic change’ Anonymous grantseeker feedback March 2023, GrantAdvisor UK
Unrestricted funding is very important and not many other funders have grants available to cover core costs. We know it can help organisations become more sustainable and stronger. So it’s always really nice to know that our unrestricted and core funding is appreciated.
As part of the reflection activity when reviewing our Open and Trusting commitments we were matched to a peer organisation to share our reflections and provide friendly challenge to each other. That was really useful.
Enable Flexibility is one of IVARs Open and Trusting Commitments
We will enable them to respond flexibly to changing priorities and needs — we will give unrestricted funding; if we can’t (or are a specialist funder), we will make our funding as flexible as possible.
If you were going to give any piece of advice to a funder who is considering signing up to GrantAdvisor UK, what would you say?
There’s nothing to be afraid of in gathering feedback. If you want to demonstrate that you’re interested in what your grantseekers have to say, I think being out there and being quite direct about asking for feedback is a good way to go about it. Perhaps think in advance about how you want to gather the reviews and about how you will share what you learn with your Trustees.
Join the conversation:
- Share your anonymous feedback with funders: Are you a grantseeker interested in sharing your experience working with UK grantmakers? Funders are listening. It takes 5 minutes to share your anonymous feedback. You can also browse almost 500 anonymous grantseeker reviews — this is the kind of peer-peer insight that can help you with your funding applications.
- Register for free on GrantAdvisor UK: Are you a funder interested in hearing what grantseekers have to say? Want to gather in-depth insight — for free — on what you are doing well and how you can improve? Register here.
- Questions? We’d love to hear from grantseekers and grantmakers. Share your reflections, questions and ideas so we can create more impact together. If you are a funder — what support do you need to start gathering feedback from grantees? If you are a grantseeker — how do you feel about the changes funders have made, so far, in response to grantseeker feedback? How can we make it easier for you to share your experiences? Contact us at grantadvisor@wearecast.org.uk
You can read more reflections from George Pope, Grants Manager at Joffe Charitable Trust on how constructive feedback from grantseekers helps the team find ways to continuously improve their approach to grantmaking. George also reflects on why it is important for funders to keep grantseekers informed about how feedback informs change, and why she thinks replying to the anonymous feedback is an important part of bridging the feedback loop.
Interested in Open and Trusting funding practices? Sam Grimmett-Batt, Funding Director at City Bridge Foundation also reflects on how the feedback collected on GrantAdvisor UK often aligns with IVAR’s Open and Trusting pledge, and how she is using this anonymous grantee feedback to influence decision makers, and strive for best practice in the sector.
