Reflections from Joffe Charitable Trust on over 145 anonymous grantseeker reviews

Joffe Charitable Trust have received over 145 anonymous grantseeker reviews on GrantAdvisor UK. CAST Programme Lead Ellen Smyth speaks to George Pope, Grants Manager at Joffe Charitable Trust to hear how constructive feedback from grantseekers helps the team find ways to continuously improve their approach to grantmaking, including how they are responding to feedback about their eligibility criteria. George also reflects on why it is important for funders to keep grantseekers informed about how their feedback informs change — and why she thinks replying to the anonymous feedback is an important part of bridging the feedback loop.

“We read the anonymous reviews as they come in and respond. It’s great to have that new functionality to respond to each review.” George Pope, Grants Manager at Joffe Charitable Trust

Do you want to improve communication between grantmakers and grantseekers? Read on to see how anonymous feedback makes a difference.

Ellen Smyth (CAST): Welcome George! Congratulations on receiving over 145 anonymous grantseeker reviews. Tell us one thing this insight suggests Joffe Charitable Trust is doing well?

George Pope (Joffe Charitable Trust): Reading the feedback grantseekers share is usually a really nice positive process. We get quite a lot of positive reinforcements about the Trust’s approach, which is to be very open, collaborative and responsive with grantseekers. So it is really nice to see that approach is appreciated.

“Joffe is a flexible and easy funder who go beyond the usual funding relationship. Our contact at Joffe Charitable Trust is great at engaging on the substance and he feels like part of the team. In fact, being a Joffe grantee feels like being part of a family.” Anonymous grantseeker feedback Oct 2023, GrantAdvisor UK

How is that positive feedback helpful when you are reviewing your approach to grantmaking?

I think it’s important to get positive reinforcement because we put time into making decisions about our process and approach. So the team and the Trustees need to know that is time well spent.

Tell us one thing your anonymous reviews suggest could be improved?

We have seen some feedback that our criteria could be a bit clearer, that has come up through feedback. We have tried to make our website a bit clearer to improve that. We also try to make it very clear that we’re always open to people getting in contact if they’re unsure if they’re eligible for our grants.

The gold dust: Feedback’s really important in that regard. It’s a good prod to improve something and you know, we do take it seriously.

“The Trust have quite focused guidelines, but these are clear and help give you a strong sense of what they will and won’t fund. The 2 stage process is helpful and a good use of time, though it can be hard sometimes to distil your project into just a few paragraphs (however it’s a really good opportunity to work on and hone this!). The Trust appear really open and transparent about their interests and process” Anonymous grantseeker review Nov 2023, GrantAdvisor UK

“Thanks so much for this positive feedback on our application process, much appreciated. Yes, it’s tough to distil proposals into a few paragraphs & it requires real clarity in the case being made. Hyperlinks to reports/evidence are also okay & perhaps we can make more of this in our guidance.” Reply from Joffe Charitable Trust Nov 2023

Many of the reviews mention that Joffe Charitable Trust is open to feedback and continuously seeks to improve its grantmaking process. How do you share your reflections back with grantseekers so they know they have been heard?

Yes, that’s really nice to hear. We reflect as a team on all the feedback we receive — including the anonymous reviews from GrantAdvisor UK — and we put this into an annual report that’s shared to the Trustees. We also publish it on our website. Hopefully that signals that we do take the feedback seriously and try to take it on board.

The GrantAdvisor feedback is one part of our wider approach — we also ask for feedback in all our reports. It is really valuable when there is something concrete, constructive feedback. We discuss the feedback as a team and go back to the grantee to let them know we appreciate the feedback and share our thoughts. We want to show that we are approachable and willing to engage.

Ellen Smyth (CAST): It is great that you are building those two-way feedback loops so that grantseekers feel reassured that funders are listening to the feedback shared. I noticed that you also respond to the anonymous reviews on GrantAdvisor UK. Tell us a bit about your approach to reading and responding to the reviews?

George Pope (Joffe Charitable Trust): Yes, we read the anonymous reviews as they come in and respond. It’s great to have that new functionality to respond to each review. I don’t think that was possible before my maternity leave so my maternity cover was replying to the reviews before, can you share a bit more about how that works?

Ellen Smyth (CAST): Of course! So how it works is, when grantseekers write a review, they can choose to tick a box if they’d like to be notified when the funder responds to their feedback. To do this the grantseeker would need to share their email address so that the GrantAdvisor UK team can share a link to the funder’s reply.

This is of course completely optional for both the grantseeker and the funder — not everyone who shares their experiences wants to share their email address. And not every funder replies to each review. Though we do strongly encourage funders to respond to the reviews they receive.

All the responses are published openly on the site, along with the reviews. We hope that by increasing the response rate to reviews, we can reassure grantseekers visiting the site that funders are listening and considering the feedback. It also gives funders a chance to clarify anything mentioned in the feedback, or signpost to further support. This new feature helps improve two way communication, while maintaining anonymity — which we know is important.

Any other questions or things you would like to share?

George Pope (Joffe Charitable Trust): I’d just add that I think there is a value in having this as an anonymous platform, because the hope is that people will feel that they can be totally honest. People are still very polite, and we really hope that everyone feels comfortable enough to share their genuine experiences with us.

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 anonymous feedback helps grantmakers push further on their pledge as a flexible funder — including how it has helped Joffe Charitable Trust improve their reporting.