Fund for Shared Insight moves into a busy fall with these announcements:
- A new video spotlights what Shared Insight’s Listen4Good feedback initiative means to the clients and staff at a California nonprofit.
- The deadline to apply for the next round of co-funded L4G grants is coming up fast: Submissions are due September 20, 2019.
- A new evaluation report examines L4G from the perspective of nonprofit clients.
New Video Spotlights Listen4Good’s Impact at a California Nonprofit
Shared Insight, in conjunction with one of its core funders, The James Irvine Foundation, has released the latest video in a series illustrating the impact of Listen4Good, the collaborative’s national initiative helping organizations build sustainable, high-quality, client-focused feedback loops that lead to meaningful change.
In this video, produced by Irvine, clients and staff at Students Rising Above, a San Francisco nonprofit that helps first-generation college students get to and through college and into thriving careers, talk about how they experience feedback and the L4G process.
Nakeeya Garland, a college student who participated in the organization’s programs, says that “you really have to understand where [students] are coming from, and how to best serve them.” And the way to do that, she says, is through feedback.
Deadline for Listen4Good’s Next Co-Funded Grant Round Fast Approaching
Shared Insight continues to accept applications for the next Listen4Good co-funded grant round — due by September 20, 2019, at 11:59 pm Pacific time.
L4G supports customer-facing nonprofits — across issue areas, communities, and budget sizes — as they build high-quality feedback loops with those they serve. L4G’s survey methodology offers a simple, yet systematic and rigorous way to listen to, and respond to, the people at the heart of our work. To participate in L4G’s co-funded grant round, a nonprofit must be nominated by a current funder (existing or new). Nominating funders will contribute $15,000 to Shared Insight for each nonprofit selected to participate. Shared Insight will match the money and grantees will receive $30,000 for an 18-month grant period, plus one-on-one L4G coaching, paid access to a premier SurveyMonkey account, and unlimited access to a resource-filled interactive website, which includes step-by-step guides to implementing feedback loops.
For more information, nonprofits can look here; funders, here.
New Report: Nonprofit Clients Like Giving Feedback, but Closing the Loop Remains a Challenge for Some Groups
In prior reports, Shared Insight’s learning and evaluation partner ORS Impact analyzed Listen4Good from the perspectives of participating nonprofits and funders. In this latest report, ORS examines what nonprofit clients, the people taking the L4G surveys, think about the experience of providing feedback and what impact it has. Results were mixed.
The majority of clients felt happy to complete the L4G surveys, and nearly all clients said they felt that their voice matters. But the report also found that organizations face challenges with reporting back to clients, and thus some clients said they don’t see changes made in response to feedback.
Shared Insight’s funding and nonprofit partners believe that closing the loop is a critical part of the feedback process, a part that builds agency, trust, and partnership with survey takers. Closing the loop is also essential, they say, for feedback to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), a lens Shared Insight aims to apply to all its work.
In the coming months, Shared Insight will look closely at the latest evaluation report to see where and how Listen4Good can help organizations implement feedback loops at their best. At the same time, the funder collaborative will be launching a communications campaign to explore the many connections between EDI and feedback.
Please feel free to contact Fund for Shared Insight with comments, questions, or ideas. And don’t forget to subscribe (link below) to Shared Insight’s newsletter to stay on top of the coming EDI campaign and all the news.
