Enter your email address below to receive current MMT news and weblog posts delivered to your inbox.
As we move closer to implementing an Initial Inquiry process in our Responsive Grants program, we thought it might be useful to give you an update so the future is more predictable for all of us.
Through 5 p.m. on Dec. 22, 2005, we will be accepting full Responsive Grant proposals, as we have always done. Those proposals will be read and summarized under our traditional first review process during the month of January, and presented to our trustees for their initial review at their February meeting. At the February meeting, our trustees will determine which proposals they want studied further, and we will assign them to program officers and put them on our meeting calendar. This has been our standard operating procedure for more than two decades.
However, after Dec. 22nd, we will no longer be accepting proposals as the first stage of our Responsive Grant grants program. During the last part of December and the first part of January, we will be very busy behind the scenes transitioning to an online Initial Inquiry process as the first stage of our Responsive Grant program. The online application will go live on Monday, January 16, 2006. You will be able to apply then.
The first part of the Initial Inquiry online application form will collect information about the applicant organization and its finances, substituting for our existing Responsive Grant Application Cover Sheet. Once grantseekers complete that portion of the application, they will answer four questions:
1. Describe your organization, its purpose, brief history, current major programs and/or activities, and the demographics (e.g., number, ethnicity, age, income levels, geographic area, etc.) of the people you serve.
2. Describe the project for which funds are requested. Explain the need for the project in the local context, why your organization decided to address it as you propose, and your expected outcomes.
3. Summarize the project budget. Briefly describe the project expenditures and the sources and amounts of committed and projected revenue. Indicate the amount requested from MMT and how funds would be expended over time.
4. If appropriate, explain how your organization would sustain the project after the period of the grant.
Initial Inquiries will be reviewed monthly, just as proposals are now. For example, Initial Inquiries that are received by January 25, 2006 will be read by program staff during February, and presented to our trustees for their decision at their March meeting. At that point, the trustees will decide which applicants should submit full proposals. That means that the first round of Initial Inquiry decisions at MMT will occur in March 2006.
We will let you know more about our new post-Initial Inquiry/full proposal procedures by the end of January 2006.
We look forward to this change as we think it will be a more streamlined and efficient process, especially for grantseekers.
If you have questions or comments about this change, please post them as comments here so we can have an interactive discussion.
Thank you, we look forward to this change and hope you will as well.
Marie
Okay, so we are puzzled about something and need to level with you and ask for your feedback.
It seems that, despite our best efforts to communicate that it's not necessary, grant applicants are afraid that if they don't meet with us before submitting a proposal, they will be at a disadvantage. Folks tell us they feel they need to establish and nurture a relationship with a program officer. They report they believe they need to cultivate a program officer, who will then shepherd their proposals through the grants application process.
We'd like you to know that just isn't so. And we're worried that nonprofit organizations are spending time trying to do something they don't need to do. We're worried that they are worrying about things they don't need to worry about.
Here's the truth: Program officers at the Meyer Memorial Trust do not provide special access to any organization. We all work hard to consider each proposal equally. Organizations are not assigned a program officer at MMT. All proposals are read by all program officers, and we discuss them at first review. Although each proposal is assigned a program officer, we work as a team in identifying important issues to investigate during further study, and all findings are discussed in a peer review meeting with input from all other program officers and our executive director. You might be interested to know that program officers are now rarely assigned subsequent proposals from organizations they were assigned to in the past so we avoid "special" relationships or even the appearance of "special" access.
We don't want to appear rude or inaccessible, but we want you to know you don't need to present yourselves in our office to get on our radar. We give as much consideration to proposals from groups we don't know as we give to organizations we already know.
The truth is, given our workload and staffing levels, we simply aren't able to routinely meet individually with all nonprofit organizations. And when we meet with one group, we worry that makes other groups feel left out if we don't meet with them as well. We have spent a lot of time and energy trying to provide a complete view inside our grantmaking process on our website. We actually include on our website the list of criteria we consider when we review grant proposals. In addition, we have compiled Frequently Asked Questions and archived Less Frequently Asked Questions. We provide you with the opportunity to submit questions online.
We respond to specific inquiries by email and over the phone. Often, questions can be resolved quickly and easily that way. Sometimes there are particular circumstances where it's mutually beneficial to meet to discuss a specific problem or dilemma. In that case, we are happy to meet. For example, if an organization is in the middle of a crisis or major transition, it might be helpful to meet to discuss what's going on. Sometimes it's useful to meet when a proposal addresses an issue no one has heard about. But we want you to know there are no "obligatory" meetings.
And don't forget, every Responsive Grant proposal that passes the first review stage at MMT gets a site visit, where organizations have as much time as they need to tell and show us anything and everything they want us to know about who they are and what they do.
We hope this clarifies our program staff's role and the challenges we face in dealing in a timely manner with the large number of grant inquiries we receive. We think we hold ourselves to a high standard when it comes to being accessible and sensitive to needs of nonprofit organizations, and we hope we are effectively communicating that value. Of course, we worry that expressing our dilemma in public will seem insenstive or even rude. We hope not, but if it does, we want you to let us know...
In addition, maybe you can shed some light on what we may not understand about how nonprofits see this issue? We invite your comments...
Permalink | Comments (24)First, we're so excited we are seeing such a positive response to our new website features. At this point, about 550 people have signed up for our email updates! More and more sign up every day! Wow! Welcome! We had no way of really knowing if this would resonate with the community, and we are most gratified that it is!
And it's positively thrilling to see you posting comments on our blog. Thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to us... please keep those virtual cards and letters coming.
Today I was at a meeting of local grantmakers and someone asked if nonprofits in our area are experiencing any effects from so much recent attention and fundraising efforts directed at disaster relief in other areas. Lucky me, I thought. I'll just ask them...
So that's what I'm doing. Please let us know if and how your own organization is being affected by the need for disaster relief fundraising and activities in other parts of our country and world. What do you want Meyer Memorial Trust (and one another) to know about your experiences in this context?
We really want to know,
Marie
P. S. In addition, I heard about an event I wonder if you know about: McKenzie River Gathering Foundation is inviting folks to a forum Seeking Justice in the Wake of Katrina in Portland on October 25 and Eugene on October 26. Contact sheryl@mrgfoundation.org or 503.289.1517 for more information.
Some have advised us not to open our website to invite visitors to tell us what they think. They tell us that foundations usually keep themselves above the fray and more removed from direct and open exchange with nonprofits and anyone who happens by. But that’s not the kind of foundation we want to be. We want to open ourselves to those we serve because we think that makes us stronger and better at what we aim to do.
What do you think? Are we being naive or do you think this is a healthy move for a foundation?
Permalink | Comments (31)