The annual Grantee Survey went out in December 2019 to capture a broad overview from the not-for-profit sector on how The Community Foundation for Ireland is performing. All successful and unsuccessful grant applicants were approached and we received 177 responses, an increase from 2018.
Respondents provided information about their own organisation including their main area of work and what aspects they found most difficult to secure funding for. This information is key to our own learnings from the sector and how we can be most strategic in supporting the sector as whole.
We asked respondents to rate our knowledge on the sector. 74% ‘Agreed’ or ‘Strongly Agreed’ that the Social Change: Environment grants were relevant and responsive to the needs of community. Overall, 24% saw us as ‘Expert’ and 54% saw us as having a ‘Good’ understanding of the needs of local communities. This is very encouraging to see.
Under the Communications section, respondents were very positive about the website and the newsletter. It is important to note that there has been a significant 15% increase in the number of people reading our Philanthropy News newsletter since 2018.
The survey has given us a great insight into how organisations found the application process. The vast majority stated each aspect was ‘Easy’ or ‘Very Easy’ and 62% found The Community Foundation for Ireland to be better than other grant making bodies. From the statistics and from the comments we are also able to gather points for improvement to the application process, for example the Learning Network Events. See below for some top line results.
