Reflections from City Bridge Foundation on influencing decision makers with anonymous feedback from grantseekers
As we approach one year following the re-launch of GrantAdvisor UK, we caught up with City Bridge Foundation to hear about their experience collecting anonymous feedback from grantseekers. CAST Programme Lead Ellen Smyth speaks to Sam Grimmett-Batt, Funding Director at City Bridge Foundation to hear why anonymous feedback is a powerful tool for influencing senior leaders, and why their team are so engaged in reading the reviews.
“It is really useful to be able to use that data to influence board members, or Trustees or committee members, or whoever it is that’s making decisions or signing off on strategy in your organisation. Because, you know everything’s more powerful with data behind it” Sam Grimmett-Batt, Funding Director at City Bridge Foundation
Do you want to create more open and trusting grantmaking practices? Read on to see how anonymous feedback is making a difference.
Ellen Smyth (CAST): Welcome Sam! Tell us a bit about your experience on GrantAdvisor UK?
Sam Grimmett-Batt (City Bridge Foundation): It’s going really well. The anonymous feedback we receive is reviewed regularly by our Impact and Learning team, Funding Managers and freelance assessors so we can learn what grantseekers feel we are doing well and where we can improve. We collect feedback from our funded organisations in lots of other ways too, for example we recently commissioned some research looking at our successful and unsuccessful applicant’s experiences. It’s really helpful to see that the feedback we receive on GrantAdvisor UK aligns with our other research.
The gold dust: It is brilliant that we’ve reached over 70 reviews, the more feedback we have, the more significant the data is.
What is the process for reviewing the feedback you receive?
So the reviews are collated on a regular basis by our Impact and Learning team along with other feedback we receive from funded organisations. The themes get shared internally — around once a quarter — to draw attention to the kind of feedback we’re hearing. Our Data Analyst also produces a more structured analysis — this brings in data from a range of different sources, from the GrantAdvisor UK reviews, our Annual Impact Form and data from our database which helps us understand how long it takes for an application to be reviewed, and the average wait time for funded organisations to receive a funding decision. As part of our Annual Impact Form we also invite grantseekers to rate how we are performing against IVAR’s Open and Trusting Grant-making criteria. All this gives us a really rounded picture of how we are doing as a funder.
The gold dust: The feedback that comes through on the GrantAdvisor UK reviews almost always aligns with the principles of IVAR’s Open and Trusting Grant-making initiative, and best emerging practice across the sector. We are constantly reviewing our practice and improving our approach.
Have you made any changes based on the insight you have gathered?
Absolutely, I estimate that more than 50% of changes we’ve made to our grantmaking practice in the last two years are based on feedback we’ve received in anonymous reviews. For example, we are doing a review at the moment of the end-to-end user experience for funded organisations. So from the first moment a funded organisation searches us on Google, through the grant being delivered, right to the moment the grant is closed. The feedback we receive on GrantAdvisor UK helps us improve our approach.
“They need to check the portal used to make applications and to report as sometimes we have difficulties with this process…we make reports and this does not show in the portal of the Trust so I don’t understand this process clearly…they need to check into this to avoid misunderstanding and deadlines” Anonymous grantseeker review March 2023, GrantAdvisor UK
“Many thanks for your feedback, we are currently undergoing a review of our systems so hope to be able to improve this soon.” Reply from City Bridge Foundation, March 2023, GrantAdvisor UK
Could you share another example of how anonymous grantseeker feedback helps you make changes ?
For example, we have a grant manual that works as a guide for Grant Managers when they are supporting grantseekers. We regularly update this to shift our approach — not only based on feedback we receive from GrantAdvisor UK, but also the combined feedback we receive from other sources I mentioned. There are tangible moments where we will go into a certain page of our manual and say — we need to amend the way we are asking funded organisations this question, because the feedback we have received says it is causing confusion.
The manual is not a static thing — we constantly update it to improve our approach. So for example we received feedback that some of our language is unclear so we include guidance in the manual around how the Funding Manager can support grant applicants to understand what we mean by signed accounts, management accounts or cash flow — language that we might use, but our applicants might not be as familiar with.
The gold dust: The feedback we receive will also form part of the work that we’ll be doing over the next few years to inform the kind of direction we should be taking in terms of what we fund and how we fund.
What would you say to grant seekers who are thinking about sharing their anonymous feedback with you?
I think I would say that we do use the information from the reviews. We do actually make changes to the way we do things. So it would be great to be able to shout about that more and how their feedback is ongoing, anonymous, and independent.
What would you say to a funder who is considering signing up to GrantAdvisor UK?
I would say that it is a really really useful tool. And there are two things I would highlight.
One thing is that our funding team — you know, they don’t have to be encouraged to read the reviews. I know that all of them are regularly looking at these because they’re all really committed to their work, and they want to know what the feedback is. And so it’s a really nice thing to give your team access to anonymous feedback, and that you don’t need to do anything to make it happen or do any analysis necessarily, it is all there for you. So it is great if you are low on capacity as it is a low resource way to give your team access to insight on what is working well, or what isn’t.
The gold dust: And the second one is, and this is probably most important for me — it is really useful to be able to use that data to influence board members, or Trustees or committee members, or whoever it is that’s making decisions or signing off on strategy in your organisation. Because, you know everything’s more powerful with data behind it. And so I’d say it’s really useful for influencing stakeholders, but especially stakeholders that aren’t embedded in the world of charities and non-profits.
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 also read more reflections from Sam Grimmett-Batt, Director at City Bridge Foundation. How did City Bridge Foundation respond to anonymous feedback from grantees that visits to funded organisation from Trustees or Grant Managers ‘felt like a tick box exercise’? Find out more including why City Bridge Foundation hope their new training and guidance will improve the experience for charities they fund.
