In September 2017, ORS Impact interviewed co-funders that had nominated at least one Listen4Good (L4G) grantee beginning in 2016, weren’t a Shared Insight Core Funder, and were part of a staffed foundation. ORS spoke with 16 (76% of those who met the criteria) about their experience with L4G and their foundation’s practices around feedback and listening to end beneficiaries. This memo provides a high-level overview of findings as an interim product. Ultimately, findings from these interviews will be included in a final report looking at Shared Insight’s work over its first three years.
Key findings
Overall, the interview findings are promising:
- Almost all co-funders interviewed are very satisfied with their experience as a L4G co-funder
- Almost all co-funders have heard from their grantees about what they are learning
- A few co-funders have made some changes in their foundations based on their L4G participation
- Most foundations try to access data from constituents to inform their work, but these efforts are typically indirect and often not systematic
- A number of co-funders see their grantees as, fundamentally, their direct constituents; about half have ways to get feedback from their grantees
- L4G has mostly re-affirmed interviewees’ thoughts or values related to how they think about feedback processes and nonprofits
- There is greater intentionality around foundations continuing to support grantees’ use of constituent feedback in the next few years than for increasing the foundations’ own use of the feedback
Other Insights
- Sarah Stachowiak
- ORS Impact
