What Do Funders Say About The Organizations Who Want Their Money?

As a Non-Profit or Agency do you ever wonder what Funders say behind your back?  Well, you should.  As a consultant and evaluator I have had a lot of opportunities to hear from Funders.  Following are some the principal comments and complaints they have about the organizations who are seeking money from them.

• Applicants and Recipients track input and output instead of measuring outcomes

Input and Output = activities, number of people touched, number of training completers, etc.

Outcome = Product, Systemic Change, improvement, enhancement

• Organizations are focused on activities, not outcomes and do not usually show what change they plan to bring about or have accomplished
• Organizations very often want funding for something (staff, operation, equipment, etc.) and try to disguise their need inside a lame attempt to show they are seeking funding for a project or program that aligns with the Funders’ goals. But Funders have seen this before and they can smell 
• Funding requests often do not provide adequate proof that the fund seeker can deliver the proposed or expected outcome. The fund seekers often do not use evidence based elements such as:
• Needs - lacks data
• Situations – lacks examples and trends
• Programs – does not appropriately correlate a program to a solution/outcome
• Training – typically use homegrown instead of evidenced based
• Improvements – lacks data
• Differences – lacks measurement and/or proof of the improvement

                You cannot say “We’ve got this, we are                professionals

• Reporting often does not prove that the organization is producing the promised outcome; they may be doing it, but are not showing evidence in reports.
• Organizations usually only think of a Funder as a money source. This often means organizations hamper the ability of a Funder to help with things other than money.  They provide sugar coated reports to make them look good to the Funder.    However, if they shared information on obstacles with a Funder they not only look more realistic and the also provide openings for Funders to help with:
• Identifying and establishing partnerships
• Identifying and obtaining resources
• Finding a way around regulations
• Removing roadblocks
• Getting an audience

Remember Funders have money and connections – people listen and respond to them

A larger and disappointing reality

Sometimes an organization still gets funding because it is known to the Funder, but this can cause its own set of problems:

• Complicates reporting – how do you report on things that are not definitive?
• Vaguely
• No or little proof
• With anecdotes and testimonials which is not true substantiation
• Jeopardizes future funding from the funders that know you because reports are lacking in statistics and other data; there is little justification for continued funding
• Limits you to getting funding only from Funders who know your organization. Limiting the number of Funders results in limited funding.  Regional and national Funders will are not likely to consider your requests.  Even new local Funders will be a hard sell since if you do not have a foundation of proof to show them.