The Future of Grantmaking — are you ready to have your say?

Yesterday CAST hosted a workshop at Charity Digital’s Future of Fundraising Summit. We kicked off our session by asking fundraisers attending to reflect on their experiences seeking funding. The common theme? Fatigue.

We know that charities are working hard to fund and deliver face to face and digital services that support communities.

We also know that grantmakers are working hard to support grantseekers, but struggling to cope with growing demand.

In our efforts to meet shared, ambitious goals, there is a risk that we exhaust ourselves.

How might we create more equitable funding practices and behaviours?

We know the lack of feedback loops in grantmaking practice is a significant barrier to a more effective sector. To help address this challenge, CAST has incubated a new digital service. GrantAdvisor UK is a free online service that allows grantseekers to share anonymous feedback on their experience working with any UK funder, even if they’re not registered yet.

Benefits of using GrantAdvisor UK for grantseekers

1. The service aims to act as grantseekers’ direct line into funders: every review is submitted to the funder concerned, so they can understand what they’re doing well — and what they need to work on. All feedback is anonymous and public by design, enabling honest, user-led, granular and prompt feedback on funders and their funding processes. Funders can also reply to your feedback; improving communication.
2. The site also acts as a useful tool for grantseekers to use as part of their research when applying for funding — grantseekers can read their peers’ comments and pick up valuable information — from length of submission process, to accessibility, to overall funder relationship

If you’re a funder you get:

• Ratings of what you are good at (similar to peer reviews for skills on LinkedIn)
• Ratings for your accessibility
• Granular feedback on what you are doing well
• Advice on what you could do better
• Space to respond to reviews

This is the type of data that can help you become more responsive and accessible to the organisations and causes you want to fund.

Currently there are 30 funders registered on GrantAdvisor UK and over 460 anonymous reviews written by grantseekers. There are some really interesting emerging themes, and we’re already hearing some feedback from funders on how the reviews are helping them refine their funding practices. But we need more fundraisers to share their experiences so that we can have more influence.

We wanted to get a helping hand from attendees at the workshop to explore how we can encourage more charities to have their say in the future of grantmaking.

First, understand the problem

We invited everyone at the workshop to reflect on a time when they had feedback to share with a funder. In breakout rooms we collaborated on a Jamboard and discussed these questions:

• Anchors: What dragged you down? What made it difficult to share feedback?
• Wind: What propelled you forward?
• Island: What opportunities can you see in the future?

My reflection listening to the discussion is that there is a glaringly big gap. The Wind. There were many common reflections on the challenges grantseekers face when sharing feedback, and lots of brilliant ideas on the opportunities to improve feedback loops.

But what propels fundraisers forward to share feedback with funders? What is the incentive? What’s the point?

Example from one of the breakout room discussions where attendees reflected on their experiences sharing feedback with funders

What is the biggest problem to solve?

We invited attendees to vote on which of these statements they feel is the most important to address. There was one clear winner.

• Top priority: I need to feel confident that funders are listening and making changes based on feedback
• I want to feel reassured that others like me are sharing honest feedback with funders
• I need it to be quick and easy to share feedback
• I want to feel reassured that feedback is completely anonymous

Results from the vote

1, 2, 3…..let’s come up with 8 ideas to solve this challenge!

Now we’re clearer on what problem we want to solve, it was time to have a go at coming up with ways to solve it. We used a technique called Rapid 8’s — it’s a tried and tested creative tool for coming up with new ideas. Everyone had a go individually writing (or drawing!) 8 ideas in 8 minutes. Each idea aims to address this challenge:

How might we reassure grantseekers that funders are listening to feedback? How might we demonstrate that funders are making changes based on feedback?

Here are some of the creative ideas attendees came up with to address this challenge:

• A badge for funders who demonstrate they have made changes based on feedback and consistently respond to reviews. This could be placed on the GrantAdvisor UK website so it is visible
• A quarterly statement of change from funders sharing a reflection on their reviews, what actions they have taken, and next steps.
• A forum that brings together grantseekers and grantmakers to discuss the feedback and next steps to address it
• A Trello board or google doc that lists the key themes from reviews and the actions funders are taking

… And a few more brilliant ideas below!

Ideas shared by attendees on how we can reassure grantseekers that funders are listening and making changes based on the feedback they receive

What’s next?

The CAST team will review all of the insight and ideas shared in the workshop in depth to consider how to take forward and test these suggestions. Our aim is respond to the needs we heard in the workshop and reassure more grantseekers that funders are listening to their feedback. The more reviews we gather, the more influence we have together.

Are you a grantseeker? Visit GrantAdvisor UK to share your experience working with any UK funder, even if they are not registered yet. We would love to hear your experiences working with trusts, foundations, corporates, local authorities or any other UK funder.

Are you a funder? Please register on GrantAdvisor UK, in order to gather insights that will help refine your systems in line with applicants’ needs, and ultimately result in funding practices that are more transparent, inclusive, accessible and user-friendly.

Are you interested in supporting CAST to test one of the ideas we came up with in the Future of Grantmaking workshop? I’d love to hear from you at grantadvisor@wearecast.org.uk