In line with our commitment to learning and growth, the Internet Society Foundation’s Philanthropy organization recently commissioned a Grantee Perception Report (GPR) to gather feedback from grant partners on our effectiveness. We partnered with the Center for Effective Philanthropy to issue this survey and receive transparent and confidential grantee feedback to help us understand what we’re doing well and where we can improve.
The survey consisted of a mix of quantitative and qualitative responses, benchmarked against our peer funders. As this is the first time that we have conducted a comprehensive grantee survey, these results provide a point of reference for us going forward. We’re extremely grateful to our grantee partners for their rich, thoughtful, and candid feedback. At the conclusion of the survey, Internet Society Foundation staff met to explore the results and discuss how we can improve our work, in service of our vision of an Internet for Everyone.
Below we share what we’ve learned, along with highlights of our internal work underway so far.
What We Learned
We received consistently positive feedback from our grantees in three important areas – community impact, communications, and processes.
“The Internet Society Foundation has positively impacted and influenced our field and given hope to under-serviced communities in our country. The Foundation is an important tool that accelerates digital inclusion.”
Grantees rated our impact on their fields, organizations, and local communities as a major strength, with rankings that placed the Internet Society Foundation above the typical funder for most measures related to field and community impact. Similarly, grantees provided higher than typical rankings for the extent to which the Foundation is advancing the state of knowledge in their fields.
89% of grantees indicated that the Foundation prioritizes their success throughout the duration of their grant and rankings were exceptionally positive for grantees’ comfort with approaching the Foundation when problems arise. Grantees noted the clarity and consistency of the Foundation’s communications as exceptionally positive, and, notably, the Foundation received the highest average in CEP’s dataset for how well grantees understand how their funded work fits into the Foundation’s broader efforts.
Grantees also ranked positively the clarity and helpfulness of the Foundation’s grant processes, noting that they have seen improvement across a series of grant processes over their time working with the Foundation.
We also learned where we can improve. While grantees indicated that the financial support they receive meets an important need for their organization/program, they reported spending more hours than they deemed reasonable on fulfilling grant requirements over the lifetime of the grant. Overall, rankings were lower than typical for the extent to which grantees felt the monetary support they receive (in certain instances) is a worthwhile use of the time required of them.
When asked how the Foundation could improve, more than a quarter of suggestions from grantees related to non-monetary grant support. Grantees asked the Foundation to provide more professional development and capacity building support and to make introductions to other funders. Another frequent theme that emerged in grantees’ suggestions was around grant-making characteristics, with grantees requesting more flexibility in the grants they receive.
“[Be] more flexible in how donated funds can be used. This can enable recipient organizations to adapt projects as needed to better address the changing needs of the communities they serve.”
How we’re responding
Grantee feedback has already shaped our plans for 2024 and beyond. In addition to continuing to strengthen our relationships with grantees, here are some additional areas we’re focused on:
Increasing grant flexibility
- We have extended the length of time for some of our grant programs, and will also continue to provide renewal grants within several programs. We will also be increasing our Indirect Cost rate in 2025 for new grants (from 20% to 25%), which will allow for more support for administrative, overhead, and fiscal sponsor fees.
Reducing time spent on fulfilling grant requirements
- In 2023, we revised all of our grant application and report forms to only ask for the information required, reducing the back-and-forth communications that used to happen with grantees via email.
- In the first half of 2024, we revised and simplified our financial reporting for grantees, specifically our budget report, to no longer require receipt/invoice numbers and individual dates for each transaction. We’ve also added a flexible funding component for our Resiliency Program this year, and, we are considering launching a fund that can be used for unrestricted giving, thus establishing opportunities that would require less reporting than the current project grants.
“Working with the Internet Society Foundation has been an extremely positive experience…they consistently demonstrate a desire to help us do more work in the most efficient, impactful ways… we feel very supported by the team and look forward to continuing our relationship in the years to come.”
Providing assistance beyond the grant
- Communications: We plan to provide additional support to our grantees, through tools and training to support their storytelling efforts, and by using our platforms more strategically to ensure wider dissemination of their work. We will also continue to publish more reports on the impact of grants made across our portfolio.
- Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL): We have been expanding our Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning sessions to take place during our grantee gatherings, enabling grantees across cohorts to learn from each other and strengthen their MEL skills.
- Grant Management: We’re considering offering some accounting and financial risk management training for some of our grantees, beginning with the Internet Society Chapters.
We remain committed to an ongoing process of learning and growth, and we sincerely thank our grantees for providing open and transparent feedback that allows us to reflect and improve going forward. We are excited for the future and look forward to strengthening our work to support the positive difference the Internet can make to people everywhere.
Read the complete findings from our 2024 Grantee Perception Report.