At CEP, we strive to make our assessment tools as accessible as possible to as many funders as possible. Since our inception, assessment tools such as our flagship Grantee Perception Report have primarily been used by larger foundations with annual giving of over $5 million. More than a decade later, over 235 foundations across the globe have used the GPR to gather grantee feedback, and receiving that feedback in a comparative context with other foundations has allowed them to clearly identify their strengths and opportunities to improve.
However, the fact that our assessment tool users tend to be larger foundations does not overshadow the importance of reaching a broader array of foundations. We recognize that the vast majority of private foundations in the US report annual giving under this $5 million threshold. Over the years, we’ve listened closely to feedback from many of these foundation leaders who have asked us to consider creating a low-cost version of the GPR for their assessment and benchmarking needs. I’m excited to share our response to that feedback.
Starting in 2014, a new streamlined version of the GPR is now available for as low as $5,500 for funders making less than $5 million annually in grants.
We’ve seen time and again that smaller funders that use the GPR, just like their larger counterparts, are making meaningful improvements in the ways they work with grantees – whether it’s in improving their relationships with grantees, helping to allocate limited resources for grantmaking most effectively, or making their processes more helpful in strengthening grantees’ programs and organizations.
“Funders that haven’t used a GPR don’t know what they’re missing. The GPR has provided meaningful feedback to help us assess our processes and our interactions with grantees. For example, as a result of the feedback we received, we have made revisions to application procedures that grantees found to be cumbersome. We feel it’s important for us to be flexible and responsive, and the GPR gives us the information we need that grantees would otherwise not feel comfortable providing.”
Scott Moyer, President of The Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, which granted $4M in 2012 to support the health and well-being of underserved populations
Our hope is that this new offering will help more foundations to improve their effectiveness. For more information on commissioning this streamlined version of the GPR, please join us for a webinar with John Esterle, Executive Director at The Whitman Institute, a San Francisco-based funder and user of the GPR, on February 20, at 2pm EST. During the webinar, we’ll be sharing more about the GPR process and hearing about John’s experience receiving grantee feedback.
Kevin Bolduc is Vice President of Assessment Tools at the Center for Effective Philanthropy. You can find him on Twitter @kmbolduc.
