Regional Funders Forum

1

• Regional Funders Forum
• Meeting Purpose
• To learn about a project led by US-based
  Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO)
  that is helping to lead change in grantmaker
  practices that improve community and voluntary
  sector results
• To network with our colleagues and jointly
  reflect on our grantmaking practices
• To imagine ways to improve our own practice that
  will lead to even greater impact for the
  community and voluntary sector in our region

2

• 930-10 Gather, coffee and tea
• 1000-1030 Framing of meeting and introductions
• Robyn Scott of Philanthropy New Zealand and
  Hugh Lawrence of the Office for the Community
  and Voluntary Sector, along with local hosts
  welcome and set the context for the days
  discussion.
• 1030-1100 GEOs Change Agent Project and key
  discoveries Advancing an agenda that unleashes
  the potential of the NGO sector.
• Courtney Bourns from Grantmakers for Effective
  Organizations presents GEOs findings and
  frames questions for New Zealand funders.
•  
• 1100-1215 Applications to the New Zealand
  context
• Small group discussion and large group
  dialogue facilitated by Courtney Bourns from
  GEO.
• 1215-1230 Next steps and meeting evaluation
• Gather suggestions for next steps.

3
GEOs Change Agent ProjectIdentifying grantmaker
practices that improve nonprofit results
4
GEOs mission

• Understanding that
• grantmakers are successful only to the extent
  that their grantees achieve meaningful results,
  GEO promotes strategies and practices that
  contribute to grantee success.

5
GEOs Change Agent Project

• What are the key changes that grantmakers could
  make that would have the biggest impact on
  nonprofit organizations ability to achieve
  results?

6
The Barriers List

• Sustainability Issues
• Providing short-term grants for long-term work
• Lack of funding for infrastructure and planning
• Avoiding leadership development and board support
• Grantmaking Mechanics
• Inappropriate and inconsistent application,
  evaluation and reporting processes
• Lack of clarity and focus for capacity-building
  funding
• Slow or unpredictable grant cycle time

7
The Barriers List

• Grantmaker-Grantee Relations
• Unclear communications and inconsistent messages
• Lack of a productive and supportive working
  relationship between grantmakers and nonprofits
• Strategy and Approach
• Addressing symptoms rather than root causes
• Forcing collaboration rather than fostering it
• Controlling from the top-down
• Lack of sensitivity and respect for various
  cultural communities and marginalized groups
• Lack of predictability and consistency in
  philanthropy

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Priority changes called for

• Three shared priority areas
• More unrestricted support
• More multi-year support
• Improve the productivity of the relationship
  between grantmakers and grantees

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GEOs Change Agenda

• 1. THE MONEY
• 2. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
• (the people, the relationshipthe power?)

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Unrestricted support

• General Operating Support funding directed to
  an organizations operations as a whole rather
  than to particular projects
• Negotiated Operating Support based on an
  agreed-upon strategic plan with outcome
  objectives.

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Multi-year support

• Project Steamline report Drowning in Paperwork,
  Distracted from Purpose
• Transactions Costs
• Lack of reliability over long-term impacts
  ability to deliver on mission
• Grants Managers Network (GMN)

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Change Agent Example

• THE MONEY
• The Philadelphia Foundation

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Stakeholder Engagement

• The assumption is that practitioners are not the
  experts in the work they dothat instead the
  expertise lies in the academic and philanthropic
  worlds.
• -GEO nonprofit focus group participant

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Stakeholder Engagement

• Those closest to the issue/the problem have some
  of the greatest wisdom about how to address it.
• Dont do anything about me, without me

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Change Agent Example

• STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
• Raymond John Wean Foundation (Ohio)

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GEOs work ahead

• Promising practices are encouraging
• Building momentum for field-wide change

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• Grantmaker-Grantee Relations
• Unclear communications and inconsistent messages
• Lack of a productive and supportive working
  relationship between grantmakers and nonprofits
• Strategy and Approach
• Addressing symptoms rather than root causes
• Forcing collaboration rather than fostering it
• Controlling from the top-down
• Lack of sensitivity and respect for various
  cultural communities and marginalized groups
• Lack of predictability and consistency in
  philanthropy

• Sustainability Issues
• Providing short-term grants for long-term work
• Lack of funding for infrastructure and planning
• Avoiding leadership development and board support
• Grantmaking Mechanics
• Inappropriate and inconsistent application,
  evaluation and reporting processes
• Lack of clarity and focus for capacity-building
  funding
• Slow or unpredictable grant cycle time