Can Feedback Fuel Change at Foundations? (2011): What emerges from a Grantee Perception Report (GPR) is the story of a foundation told through the eyes of its grantees. Foundations learn whether they are seen to understand and have an impact on the fields and communities in which they work; how their interactions and communications are experienced; whether the assistance they provide is seen to be helpful; and how helpful their selection, reporting and evaluation processes are to those they fund.

Among foundations that use the GPR repeatedly, the tool appears to be contributing to changes in foundation practice.

Analysis of eight years of grantee survey data suggests little change in the perceptions of foundation in general among those they fund. From 2003 to 2010, the ratings of foundations subscribing to the GPR for the first time have not shown any statistical change on the vast majority of measures in the grantee survey.
But that analysis also suggests that those foundations that use the tool on a repeated basis are making changes that are benefiting those organizations they fund. Foundations that use the GPR once and then use it again, on average, receive substantially improved ratings on their second GPR.

We have seen that when foundations make the commitment to getting feedback that is candid and comparative, they can make substantive changes that result in different—and better—grantee experiences. The experiences of three such foundations are explored in case studies:

Download the full report

View all of CEP’s publications