Main challenges in the funder/charity relationship
Steph: Welcome everyone. Firstly I would like to explore the kinds of relationships you have with funders. What do you think is one of the main challenges you face in making those work?
Jo Davies (WILD Young Parents Project): I think it has become a cultural thing between charities and funders that you feel obliged to have the answers to every question and find ways to make that happen, as if it’s a payment-by-results kind of contract.
Part of the problem is that relationships with funders can vary so hugely. We have worked with funders who have not worked in a similar field to us and hadn’t had a clue what life was like for real people. So therefore the evaluation seems impossible to fulfil.
It’s things like charities not having different departments. For us and a lot of other small charities, for instance, everyone gets stuck in and does a bit of everything. You have to clean the loo, buy the toilet roll, as well as sorting everything else out.
Steph: I mean we can’t move every charity sector person to the funding sector but I do think there’s something about funders who are interested in more than just due diligence.
John Hallett (ACE): With such a broad range of funders, you will have great experiences, real reciprocity, partnership and support, and not so great experiences, funders who say ‘don’t expect to hear from us’, or ‘have you done this, yes or no’ rather than ‘how’s it working’?
Sometimes, you work extensively on an application, and receive an automatic reply saying don’t expect a response at all, basically, don’t ask any questions either. Communication varies massively, from very set, form-based processes, or one go-to person who’s not massively accessible at times, to over communication and demands. It’s often who you know, introductions and influence that helps you understand how to apply, develop relationships and gain funding.
Jo: As an example, we used to have a grants officer that would come down and spend some time doing activities with the young mums. She suddenly disappeared due to structural changes the funder was going through.
From then on, we would receive a very prescriptive form that we have to fill out every six months that is linked to the outcomes that you want to make over three years. After that, it took six months for them to just say they received it. We had no feedback on it - until they said they were inundated with grant applications. All we got was 'Thank you for your application'. I think there’s a real trick being missed there.