Resources

Is anyone aware of structures where current board members do not ratify the election of new board members?

I am curious about how other funders conduct financial assessments of their prospective grantees during the due diligence phase? What is your process, what do you review, and what sort of tool(s) do you use?

We are looking for examples of great “annual reports” OR any self-reflective summary of an organization’s learnings in ANY media format. We’re curious to see how other foundations have approached both the content and mode of sharing that content with partners.

I am wondering if folks have examples or tips on how to adapt reflective practice methodology in a foundation setting?

If you do use Advisory Committees with external members, what formal and informal approaches do you use? When and how do you use the committees, and what is their role? How do you select the members?

We’d like to provide some general research design guidance or criteria for grantees to consider as they develop their research grant proposals. If any of you have examples of such resources that you’ve developed that you would be willing to share, please reach out.

I’m curious if other funders who fund stipends or wages for youth or adult programming could share what their policies are and any considerations that went into creating them.

Do any of you have a Diversity Plan/Policy in place as it relates to staff, board/committee members and contractors? If so, would you share with me? If you offer General Operations grants, do you offer them annually? Do you restrict them in any manner? A nonprofit can only apply every other year? A nonprofit could apply every year, but only up to a certain percentage of their budget? Do you offer the opportunity every other year?

Our local grant making collaborative, the Washtenaw Coordinated Funders, are examining our grant making practices and tools. Based on feedback from our grantees, we know our grant application could be improved. We also suspect that we aren’t asking the most powerful questions to understand the extent to which a grantee can advance on our priorities. Racial inequity and poverty are two important lenses through which we evaluate a grantee’s proposed work. I would welcome any examples of grant applications and evaluation matrixes that partners in the GEO network use.

If you have helped grantees to identify and/or recruit board members, please share what you have done and what you have learned. What worked? What didn’t work as you hoped?