Skyline Foundation seeks to partner with our grantees, incorporating their feedback to inform our approach and better support them. In response to feedback we received through the CEP Grantee Perception Report, we hosted two virtual sessions in the fall of 2024 to gather input on how we can better support our grantee partners beyond the monetary support we provide. These were thoughtful and rich discussions, so thanks again to all who took the time to participate! You helped us pinpoint promising opportunities.
Grantee feedback about non-monetary support
We invited grantee partners with annual budgets of $5 million or below to attend the two optional sessions, and we are grateful that 40 grantees across all four Skyline programs participated. A few also provided input outside of the sessions. These discussions spotlighted some recurring themes that are helping us focus our efforts to provide non-monetary support. Here is a quick summary of some key takeaways:
- Support with Fundraising. Grantee partners expressed the strongest interest in getting our help with fundraising, including showcasing their work to other funders, making direct introductions to new funders, and refining communication strategies to tell their stories more effectively in philanthropy circles. “One of the highest leverage actions funders can do is endorse their grantees to other funders,” a grantee partner told us. “Help us understand how to be more effective with our outreach,” requested another. “Take us behind the curtain, if you will.” Grantee partners suggested a host of specific ways that Skyline program staff could help open doors, including inviting grantees to funder conferences, making personal connections to other funders, and highlighting the work of grantee partners in our staff’s public speaking or writing.
- Help with Capacity Building. Grantee partners also told us that they would benefit from having access to – and, ideally, dedicated financial support to pay for – capacity building resources like high quality facilitators, executive coaching, and consultants for financial planning, HR, and strategic planning. Grantee partners suggested it would be helpful to connect them to vetted technical assistance, consultants, and trainers – or even just a community of nonprofit leaders who can share insights and peer support. “Whether it’s a great consultant for a tech issue, a headhunting firm or a graphic designer, being able to share resources with other grantees would be super helpful!,” one grantee partner stated.
- Regular Check-ins and Thought Partnership. Grantees mentioned that more consistent communication about Skyline’s evolving priorities would reduce their worry and help them feel more connected. Said one grantee partner: “Having informal check-ins instead of formal reporting is a great way to manage funder relationships without overwhelming us with paperwork.”
To go beyond this summary, review the complete set of ideas and suggestions from Session 1 and Session 2.
Our response to your feedback
In response to the session feedback, we plan to target our initial efforts on support with fundraising – because it’s the top priority of our grantee partners and an area where we’ve had some impact already. Here are some steps we are committed to:
- Sharing program or project descriptions that program staff write to recommend grants to our board with the respective grantee partner. It is our hope that a better understanding of what resonates with Skyline about your work could be useful as you develop your fundraising communications.
- Whenever possible, make connections to specific funders that we know, and build relationships with funders with related priorities so that we might be in a better position to introduce you in the future.
- Create a plan within each program area to showcase our grantee partners’ work to other funders. We’ll consider key factors like equity, gaps in casemaking, and potential for growth.
- Internally tracking these efforts to enable us to learn over time what is most helpful to grantee partners.
We know the efforts we’ve described above don’t respond to all of the feedback we received. We think of our initial focus on fundraising support as a good place to start our learning journey. We’re a small team, and over time we hope to be able to expand our “beyond the check” support to some of the other areas grantee partners emphasized in their feedback.
In the coming months, watch this space for more updates as we share our ongoing responses to grantee feedback and requests for more communication from us. It’s our intention to target our efforts where grantee partners need them the most. We appreciate the honesty and the time our grantee partners have taken to inform our work and leverage our help.
Stay tuned!
