As a funder, it’s sometimes easy to think that everything you are doing is right, effective, and welcomed by others. So it’s good to get a reality check every once in a while and ask: What are we doing well and what could be improved upon? What can we do to increase our effectiveness and impact? How can we strengthen relationships with and support of our nonprofit grantee partners?

The Endowment for Health periodically gathers feedback from a variety of people including grantees, declined grantee applicants, Board and Advisory Council members, and opinion leaders. The foundation uses this information to better understand what it does well and what it can improve.  In Fall 2007, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) conducted a survey of our grantees on their experiences with and perceptions of the Endowment.  This is the second such survey we commissioned. The first was administered in 2004.

We were pleased to learn that our 2007 results indicate substantial improvement since 2004 in key areas such as advancing knowledge, affecting public policy, and creating social impact.  Grantees perceive the foundation to be doing well and having made improvements since 2004.  The Endowment is seen as having a positive impact on organizations receiving larger and multi-year grants, such as theme implementation and operating grants, but less of an impact on organizations that receive smaller and shorter duration grants.

But the 2007 survey also underscores room for improvement.  While the Endowment’s changes to grant-application and reporting processes have been viewed positively, more could be done in this area. In general, the administrative time spent by grantees on application and grant requirements is higher for the Endowment’s grantees than grantees of other foundations.  Grantees also indicate that the foundation’s reporting and evaluation processes could be streamlined and strengthened, including discussion of evaluation results and sharing the findings more broadly. 

Next Steps

In response to survey results as well as other feedback, the foundation is instituting the following changes:

• Short Form Application available soon -- Endowment for Health applicants applying for any type of grant of $5,000 or less will be able to use the “short form” application online.  This feature was previously only available for Discretionary Grants.  The revised small-grant process is aimed at better aligning the administrative time involved with the complexity and dollar value of the grant.  Look for the short-form application link online at the Endowment’s website after October 1.
• Close Out Process – The Endowment has begun instituting an internal grant “close out” process which will ensure that project lessons and evaluation results are recorded, discussed, and shared more broadly, including with grantees. In addition, we are exploring innovative ways to more broadly disseminate knowledge.
• Application Streamlining – Endowment staff will review each step of the application and grants management processes this year, continuing to look for ways to streamline the process and provide more flexibility for applicants and grantees as well as for foundation staff.
• Visiting Sites – The Endowment for Health does not conduct formal site visits as part of its grant application or monitoring processes.  However, program staff will be making a more concerted effort to visit community partners on an informal basis to strengthen partnerships and gain a better understanding of the work grantees do. 
• Ongoing Feedback Solicitation – We expect to continue to gather feedback from grantees by undertaking a formal survey every 4 to 5 years and through grantee focus groups in the mid years. As always, the Endowment for Health staff welcomes one-to-one input from grantees and applicants.

For the full report on the CEP Grantee Perception Survey, click here

Endowment for Health Operating Grant Pilot Program Evaluation Results

Deadline to submit Letters of Inquiry for Theme Implementation and Applied Research & Data Grants.  

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