Earlier this week, my colleague Emma Relle shared a post to kick off the new year featuring a selection of candid feedback for funders from grantees that CEP surveyed in 2024. Their comments bring into sharp relief the grantmaking practices, strategies, and attitudes that help amplify nonprofits’ work and foster thriving organizations — and those that don’t. Emma suggested that funders might use the new year to consider what to bring forward into 2025 or leave behind in 2024.
Here, I’d like to use this same reflection-based framing to showcase a different set of perspectives: donors who have shared feedback with their community foundations via CEP’s Donor Perception Report.
The challenge of gathering candid, constructive feedback isn’t limited to grantees. Donors, too, are inclined to respond more favorably to these requests for input, since the very act of giving to and through a community foundation is often inherently positive. The Donor Perception Report allows donors to provide anonymous feedback so that community foundations can learn from donors’ insights, thereby improving their approach to donor engagement and maximizing their shared impact.
With this in mind, and as we step into the new year, I’ll share some of the unvarnished feedback collected from donors in 2024 — their praise and admiration, their suggestions for improvement, and even some harsh truths — that spotlights what matters most for donors in collaborating with community foundations. These donor comments also speak to the broader importance of funders engaging in conversation with their key partners, reinforcing that listening, reflecting, and learning is always meaningful, no matter the time of year.
NB: these quotes have been edited for clarity and to maintain the confidentiality of grantees who responded to CEP’s survey.
What do donors want less of in 2025?
Lack of understanding of donors’ personal charitable goals:
“I am surprised that in the several years we have had a donor advised fund with [the Foundation], I have never [shared] which values motivate my charitable giving, what topics I want my charitable giving to address, and which specific nonprofits I would like to support and how I choose to support them. I have never been connected with other individuals who also have DAFs at [the Foundation] who share these values, topics of interest, and nonprofit affiliations. I think this is a huge area for improvement and the [Foundation] would see incredible strength gained from building a stronger community amongst its DAF holders.”
Not having a clearly designated contact at the foundation:
“I have no person who is my point of contact. I used to be involved with [the Foundation’s] activities…but I am no longer asked to participate. No one calls to talk to me nor to set up a meeting to discuss my philanthropic goals. The only contact I have with [the Foundation] is the donor portal.”
Not working to help educate donors:
“As a community foundation, I believe [the Foundation] has a moral duty to proactively put their assets to work for the good of the community, and to inspire and encourage DAF holders to put the assets in their DAFs to work in the community. I also believe they have both a duty and role to play in educating fundholders… [These] should be overarching goals and are the reasons I opened our DAF at [the Foundation] instead of at Fidelity, Vanguard or the like (despite [the Foundation’s] significantly higher fee structure). That means active and ongoing fundholder education and encouragement to make grants.”
Not including more perspectives to inform foundation strategy:
“The foundation needs to be less strident about how to fix [the community] and realize that it needs to seek a wide variety of people with different views if it wants to be successful. It preaches to the choir — and I am mostly in the choir — but alienates a lot of people with money unnecessarily. It has an arrogance about it.”
Difficult to use donor portals:
“The donor portal and platform is still cumbersome. Our history of giving is not accessible and I have to rely on my own spreadsheets — thank goodness I kept them! There is no way for donors to edit the information when making grants or changing recurring grants’ dates and donors must contact their advisors and have them do it. I have to check with grantee organizations before making a grant and then reviewing the default info for errors, and then communicate that with my advisor and wait for that change to be corrected to complete the grant request.”
What do donors want to see more of in 2025?
The community’s foundation’s deep knowledge of nonprofits in the community:
“I believe that the Foundation knows more about the totality of charitable needs in [the community] than any other organization does. The staff, and of course the donors, care deeply about improving the lives of the people in the [community]. My contribution is small compared to many other donors’, and I don’t keep close track of what the Foundation is doing at any given time. But I do trust the Foundation to know their field and do the best work possible.”
The ability to bring together actors for change:
“The Foundation’s role as convener of charitable people in the community is its greatest strength. Providing charitable people with the ability to contribute to our community in collaborative and meaningful ways is the mark of a community Foundation. Its staff members are all knowledgeable, dedicated, and responsive to questions that arise. The broad community expertise contained within staff shines a light on organizations and community needs that aren’t always obvious.”
Connecting donors to their community:
“I feel very confident that my donation to this pool is in the very best hands and is distributed in a way in which I can be part of [the broad effort] in a coordinated, just, and fair way. I like knowing that [the Foundation] keeps up to date on new organizations … The [Foundation] makes me feel part of the fabric of the region, part of a group. The strength of the Foundation is connecting me to the best way I can be helpful to … the region.”
Addressing issues of race and inequality:
“[I] trust that our philanthropic interests will [be] honored after we are gone. Addressing community issues leading to systemic change. It is uncomfortable to address issues of race, inequality, etc., however, we MUST do this. We commend the Foundation for doing so.”
The foundation being community-based:
“I love how they include community. I don’t have a lot of resources to offer as a donor but I feel that my small contribution is appreciated and used to benefit the people, programs, and services that I value the most. I truly love that they are community-based and community strong and that they love [the community]. I feel well cared for and listened to.”
The ability for donors to give anonymously:
“For me, personally, I love love love that I … have an easy way to give big chunks of money ANONYMOUSLY to my preferred charities. While most of the money goes to international or national charities, going through [the Foundation] has gotten me to give more to local charities … than I otherwise would have given. It is an especially convenient method to give to multiple charities via the same interface, rather than keeping track of each charity’s donor websites… The [Foundation] is a great mechanism for giving to my broad selection of charities ANONYMOUSLY. (And did I mention that I love the ANONYMOUS aspect?)”
Kara Doyle is an analyst on the Assessment and Advisory Services team at CEP. Find her on LinkedIn.
