How Grantees Think Funders Can Improve

Funders want to be the best versions of themselves. A critical step on that journey is getting feedback from grantees. However, not every foundation has the time or capacity to collect grantee feedback.

Exponent Philanthropy helps lean funders collect feedback from their communities through the Grantee and Applicant Perception Survey. Over the past 2 years, they’ve worked with six foundations to survey more than 400 nonprofits to learn what lean funders do well and where they can improve..

In this publication, they’ve compiled feedback from those surveys to try and help lean funders understand what nonprofits want them to learn. We’ve organized that feedback into two main sections:.

1. How nonprofits think funders should increase their impact
2. How nonprofits think funders should improve their processes.

Throughout this publication, you’ll find data from our surveys and direct quotes from nonprofit leaders. We provide additional context and data from the 2023 Foundation Operations and Management Report (FOMR) and links to additional resources to learn more about these topics.