In the summer of 2010, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) surveyed 387 grantees of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Of those, 309 or 80 percent responded. CEP kept the grantees’ responses confidential, while collecting much information. The feedback that we received from this survey has been valuable to us in assessing and strengthening our work with our grantees.

Compared to other funders that CEP has surveyed, the Foundation was given high ratings for its impact on and understanding of grantees’ fields, overall grantee satisfaction, and the quality of its relationships with grantees. CEP noted that “Grantees describe Cafritz and its staff as ‘very strong and accessible,’ ‘extremely responsive,’ and consider the Foundation ‘a premier foundation in every way.’” Although the Foundation was rated as typical in the clarity of its communications, we have been looking for ways to improve our performance in this area.

In addition, the CEP report observed that Cafritz awards tend to be smaller amounts and include a lower proportion of multi-year grants, but that the Foundation provides more general operating support than is typical. Over 60 percent of our grantees were interested in having an online option for submitting materials. Many also indicated that they would welcome more staff involvement in helping to strengthen their organizations.

We are grateful for the excellent work of CEP and for the candid participation of so many grantees. Over the past year, the Foundation staff has been developing responses to these grantee suggestions and requests. Here are some of the initiatives that we have undertaken:

We have streamlined the process for interim reports on grants of $30,000 or less;

We are piloting a “Question and Answer” session for new prospective applicants, offered approximately one month before the upcoming proposal deadline;

We are currently testing, with a small group of grantees, an optional online application process; and

We participated in the revision of the common grant application, which will be released by Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers on May 29, 2012.

In partnership with other funders, our Foundation continues to explore how best to address the evolving capacity-building needs of the nonprofit sector.

In addition, we are now part of the DC Cultural Data Project. For more information on the Cultural Data Project, please click here.

Please note that, for our upcoming July 2012 application deadline, we will be offering an online option for submitting proposals. This option will be available on our website beginning on June 1, 2012. For more information, please click here.

As always, we welcome your feedback at info@cafritzfoundation.org. We will continue to share updates on our progress through our website and other communications.