Rethinking the grant-making process
The coronavirus pandemic has been a drastic shock to our societal system, and it requires an equally drastic response from us all in order to overcome its effects. There is increasing demand for the services charities provide, which is met with the challenge of charities receiving reduced funding; reserves were severely depleted in order to survive the last 11 months. A recent article explores the way in which we need to rethink the process of grant-making, to adapt to the current circumstances.
The loss of charities would hit our society hard, and would have a detrimental effect on so many areas of our daily lives. In order to avoid this, charities need our help more than ever. This is a great opportunity for philanthropists to get involved with organisations that are in desperate need of their help, and to make a real positive impact amid the turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic. Few people have the same resources that philanthropists do, and so they are in somewhat of a unique position to use these resources for the greater good.
There’s a lot to consider when supporting a charity as a philanthropist, but one of the key core principles – especially now – is offering multi-year funding. Securing long term funding is crucial in our current times, and would allow charities to make realistic plans for their future, more than a handful of months in advance. It’s these plans that allow charities to have a real, lasting impact on the communities they help. Having guaranteed funding for a number of years will relieve a great deal of the stress that will have built up in the last year, and having the capacity to make plans for the future removes the feeling of running on a hamster wheel. They can stop playing catch up and get back to working on their longer term goals to better communities.
Funding systems and strategies need to be re-evaluated to take into account the current circumstances; a recently published report notes that due to the unique conditions that have come about due to Covid-19, grants have become more flexible and grant-makers have faced less restriction in their donations. We need to understand how to adapt effectively to the challenges we’re now faced with, and we need to find ways to be resilient in surviving through these challenges. Best practices and efficient ways of working need to be reviewed, to ensure that funds are being directed to the places that need them most, and these funds also need to be spent in a cost-effective manner.
It can be difficult to know what the best way to offer support to organisations is as a philanthropist, especially now when circumstances are so unknown, but having a framework in place for grant-making can really help. The aim of this framework is to create a more resilient, more equitable, and more adaptable future for the charitable sector. The hope is that, should another worldwide event like the Covid-19 pandemic occur, charities will be bolstered to weather the storm, rather than tread water to stay afloat.