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I was having a philosophical conversation with a grant administrator and we were chatting about the average approval rate for grant processes. What would you consider a 'normal' approval rate (partial or full funding) for your competitive grants?

Hi folks, I'm looking to connect with other community foundation colleagues who have undergone strategy shifts that made significant changes to grant processes (e.g., decreased grant amounts, sunsetting previous grantee relationships that no longer are strategy aligned). We are shifting discretionary resources to 'upstream' policy and systems solutions, and this will have a significant impact on many 'legacy' direct service partners. Would love to hear any lessons learned or intel you might have on these topics!

Hello,

Our Community Foundation is expanding our Nonprofit Capacity Building. We would like to survey our nonprofits to determine: nonprofit size in our community, staff, budgets, role (arts, animal welfare, etc), board demographics/need, facility needs, current funding streams, desired funding streams, nonprofit collaborative efforts, desired nonprofit collaborative efforts, short term outcomes, long term outcomes, volunteer needs, educational needs (board assistance, leadership/management assistance, financial management assistance, donor cultivation, grant writing, grant search tool assistance, etc).

Does anyone have a Survey that you can share? What did you like about your survey? What would you change? How has the Survey helped your Community Foundation improve your relationship with nonprofits?

Any information would be appreciated! Thank you!!

We require the students to write their "thank you to the donors" on the follow-up form when they claim their scholarship. If they received more than one scholarship, they write one thank you. I attach the letter and email it to the donors/fund advisors. I'm curious on how others handle thank you letters. This is our second year with this procedure. We had one complaint this year as they felt it was not personal enough and because it was emailed. I believe this works quite well, we are not chasing down thank you notes/letters from students and holding up scholarship payments. I would love any feedback! Thank you!