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Listening to Nonprofits: Changing our Grantmaking Approaches and Practices
LISTENING TO NONPROFITS: CHANGING OUR GRANTMAKING APPROACHES AND PRACTICES Supporting the arts and by Karen Kemp education in the Triangle region of North Carolina
ORANGE COUNTY DURHAM COUNTY
CHATHAM COUNTY
WAKE COUNTY
How can The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation help strengthen the Triangle nonprofit sector and increase www.mdbf.org the impact of its grantmaking? What do nonprofits need in order to be healthy for the long haul and resilient when times are tough?
Exploration of these questions prompted a series of changes to the Biddle Foundation’s geographic scope, timelines, and grant criteria over the last few years. In 2018, the foundation began to offer a limited number of multi-year operating grants aimed at capacity building.
At the time, no one was thinking about a global pandemic. Then came 2020, a year like no other.
“COVID hit, and it really shined a spotlight on the issue of fluctuating revenue,” says Mimi O’Brien, MDBF executive director. “So many nonprofits that had strong earned income— from ticket sales or charges for services—saw those funds dry up.” At the same time, crowd size restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the new virus erased special event fundraising nearly overnight.
“We saw the impact on local nonprofits. These organizations are important to our communities and we want them to be around when we come out the other side,” O’Brien says. The foundation changed course quickly. Funds intended for a third cohort of multi-year grants and other purposes were redirected to provide operating support totaling $225,000, with an emphasis on organizations led by people of color. POC-led organizations received 54% of these funds. In partnership with MDBF, the Jenny Lillian Semans Koortbojian Trust made gifts totaling $140,000 to the same organizations, 70% of which went to POC-led organizations.
“Because the trustees and staff had already sought out knowledge about what we could be doing differently, we were able to move quickly to make the COVID relief grants,” O’Brien says. “The nonprofits I have talked with appreciate this responsiveness at such a critical time.”
The crisis of 2020 accelerated grantmaking shifts the foundation had been implementing gradually. Beginning in 2021, approximately 80% of competitive grant dollars will go toward two-year operating grants, and 20% toward one-year opportunity grants. This will include 20 two-year grants totaling $20,000 each, half in the K-12 Education Program and half in the Arts Program. In addition, 10 opportunity grants of $5,000
each are planned in 2021, also divided equally between the two areas the Biddle Foundation supports. The smaller grants are aimed at start-ups, organizations without a prior relationship with MDBF, or those seeking seed funding for an innovation.
Racial equity is an important driver of the changes. “We were recognizing that we weren’t seeing applications from organizations that I thought would apply,” O’Brien says. The research is clear: nonprofits led by people of color tend to lack access to financial support and tend to be less well funded. They are less likely to have the staffing needed to comply with the time-intensive application and reporting requirements that foundations often require.
Along with the change to operating support and prioritizing organizations led by people of color, the Biddle Foundation is changing its proposal and reporting processes to reduce the workload for nonprofits. Formerly, organizations would submit a letter of inquiry before submitting a full proposal. Now, the first step of the application process is to schedule a phone call to discuss the funding proposal, a less formal approach that also saves nonprofits’ time. The funding application itself provides more detail on how MDBF evaluates proposals, which brings more translucency into the process. MDBF also will increase outreach to organizations led by people of color as the new grantmaking changes go into practice.
In addition, two-year grantees will not submit a written report after one year. Instead, “we will have a conversation, helping us get to know them better,” says O’Brien. “We are working to reduce the amount of time, effort, and, therefore, expense that goes into working with us.”
The grantmaking changes at MDBF grew out of multi-year exploration by the board along with other members of the Triangle Capacity Building Network, a group of funders working to strengthen the effectiveness and resiliency of both individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector. Nationally, philanthropic organizations are moving toward funding the operational needs of established nonprofits—such as staff, facilities, and supplies—the basics that make their community services possible.
“We’re making significant changes in the way we do our grantmaking,” O’Brien says. “Before, we were funding newer efforts. If a project had been operating for more than five years, it was not eligible. Now we want to support organizations for the good they are doing in their communities.”
New Grants Approved 2020*
2020 New Grants Paid 2020 New Grants Paid New Grants Paid
Arts, $265,000 Arts, $265,000 Arts, $265,000
Total, $1,300,000Total, $1,300,000 Total, $1,300,000
*$1,450,000 total grants paid
