Working With Other Grantmakers In Your Geographic Area
I've noticed a recent trend with our GLM clients finding little ways to make their grant applications easier for applicants. Often times this means creating a shorter, simpler application - but what about creating more similar applications?
Are there any grantmakers out there who are working together with other funders in their geographic area to create a more similar or identical grant application? That way, local applicants have an easier time applying for grants through multiple funders.
If so, what are some best practices or tips you could share?
Comments
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We do not do this...Yet! I do love this idea, and I know we have had conversations with some other funders in our area but it has not yet focused on marrying up our applications. I think this is a great idea though, since we have been spending some time tweaking and modifying our applications. Thanks for the idea @MeredithHoward!
I think we might need to look at your client map again, because in the past, there were not many funders in our area using Foundant. We also missed the last Summit, so we need to catch up with who else has joined in recent years.
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@DanaJeffery That's great that you've had those conversations with other funders in your area! I've heard of a few people interested in this sort of idea so I'm interested to see if others chime in with their thoughts 🙂
Also - Here's a link to the client map!: https://info.foundant.com/Clients.html
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Great timing for this topic. I am just now getting back into the office from having lunch with my counterpart of another local funder where this came up. We're both interested in more trust-based philanthropy, coming alongside our nonprofits and making funding simpler and more of a partnership. We just talked about how we might work more closely together to simplify our applications. With our COVID funding this year, our Community Foundation told our nonprofits that if they had filled out a similar application elsewhere for the same thing they were applying to us, just send us a copy of that application, not to bother going through the hassle of filling out our separate application. Made it a little more difficult on the awards committee because the info was maybe not in the same order or quite "apples to apples" but was worth the minimal extra effort on our part to make it much easier on the nonprofit applicant's part. If another application didn't have something specific (which was rare), it was a simple email/phone call to get the info we needed. The nonprofits were very grateful for the consideration.
So, no concrete examples from here at the moment, but it is an effort "under construction." Would also be interested if others have "been there, done that'' and have partnerships and examples they could share.
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