Reflections from Grant Review: Fall 2023

This blog is estimated to take two minutes to read.

As we often mention, the fall is a busy season for our foundation’s team as we read our grant applications. I am proud to say we talk about each and every application we receive as a team. This means, of course, a longer review period (and more time applicants have to wait), but I believe it ends up being an incredibly thoughtful process. As I reflect on this year’s review, a few key reflections come to mind: 

• Gratitude! We had the opportunity to read and discuss incredible work happening in our community, all of which is truly incredible. Thank you for taking the time to share your stories and your honesty about where you want to get better in your equity journey as well as what excites you about your work. We learn so much through this review process and do not take lightly the energy put into the applications we read.  
• Measuring your progress in your organization’s equity journey is critical. With the help of Mynesha Spencer at All of Us Together Co., we reworked our equity questions to be more specific and measurable. Where we focused our review was how organizations were taking action to make progress in those metrics, and it was so incredibly helpful to understand the real impact of organizations’ equity work. This has also made me reflect more about how we might improve measuring our own foundation’s equity progress.  
• Organizations are working hard to adapt as COVID-19 funding goes away and competition for funding gets tighter. We read about a number of organizations really working to diversify their funding or even considering earned revenue sources to ensure they are not dependent on any one funding stream. This will continue to be incredibly important for organizations to work toward as funding sources change. 
• Support beyond the grant check is important. We appreciate the honesty and transparency organizations provided when answering the question about other needs. We will be spending time really digging in to the responses and growing our technical assistance offerings in 2024.  

Our team is presently working with our board to finalize our 2024 grants! If you applied for a grant, you will be hearing from us in the next few weeks. We are moving to email notifications and paperless grant agreements, so stay tuned! If you applied for funding, we recommend that you add noreply@givingdata.com to your contacts so you don’t miss any emails from us. As you receive notifications, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for feedback or if you have any questions. You can also leave an anonymous review at www.grantadvisor.org.