In December 2021, we responded to the Institute of Voluntary Action (IVAR)’s call for funders to adopt more open and trusting practices that make life easier for those they fund.
The Berkeley Foundation is one of 100+ grantmakers to have signed up to IVAR’s eight commitments to funding charities in an open and trusting way. We have engaged in conversations with IVAR’s funding community, and we’ve listened to feedback from charities themselves. We know that the voluntary sector continues to face unprecedented challenges and we are committed to delivering funding programmes and managing charity partnerships in a way that reflects our confidence in and respect for the sector.
It’s now been a year since the launch of IVAR’s campaign, and we’re delighted to say that we’ve made progress against our commitments and will continue to refresh our commitments on an annual basis.
Here is how we are working towards the eight commitments as we strive to be more open and trusting through our grantmaking practice.
Do not waste time:
We clearly state our funding priorities and eligibility criteria on our website and have a clear Expression of Interest process, which has helped to reduce the number of ineligible organisations submitting applications to us. We share as much information as possible with prospective applicants, including detailed funding guidelines, webinars and 1:1 calls for each grant programme, to help ensure that organisations understand our requirements and exclusions. We endeavour to reflect on misunderstandings during the application process to make future funding programmes clearer.
Ask the relevant questions:
We review our application forms before every funding programme and test them with sector partners to ensure they remain succinct and relevant. We commit to keeping our application forms under review and seeking feedback from applicants to ensure that our approach is continually improving. We only ask applicants for additional information at the shortlisting stage.
Accept risk:
We believe that one of our strengths is our ability to accept risk - funding innovative work, pilot projects, smaller charities and work that is co-produced with communities where outcomes are not always clear from the start. We have reviewed and improved our due diligence processes and continue to review how we explain our approach to risk, to help potential applicants better understand this aspect of our decision-making. Our decision making processes include funding recommendations from young people and our charity partners.
Act with urgency:
We have continued to listen to and respond to the needs of the sector, providing additional support to our charity partners during times of crisis. We are clear about our decision-making timelines and make applicants aware of any changes. We seek to make decisions as quickly as possible, being mindful of resourcing and the required review and approval process.
Be Open:
We aim to provide useful feedback to all unsuccessful applicants. Our grant-giving data is publicly available via our website and 360 Giving, and we will continue to explore ways to make further information available about our grant-making, including success rates, diversity trends and organisational size.
Enable flexibility:
We have a core cost commitment - a strategic commitment to increase the proportion of unrestricted and core funding we are providing, in line with what we know charities need. We are committed to funding a proportion of unrestricted core costs through all of our grants and continue to explore ways in which we can provide unrestricted funding to our charity partners. We work collaboratively with all our partners and respond flexibly to their changing needs around project plans and timelines.
Communicate with purpose:
We are a relationship-based funder, and each organisation we fund has a dedicated Partnerships Manager. When we make a grant, we jointly agree the expectations from the relationship between us. We aim for a culture of partnership working, which creates the conditions for trust to be built on both sides.
Be proportionate:
We have reduced the reporting requirements for our smaller grants, and have committed to reviewing our monitoring and evaluation approach to ensure that our requirements are proportionate across the board. The purpose of reporting is to encourage reflection for our partners and an opportunity for them to openly share their successes and challenges. It also supports our own learning journey to become a more impactful funder.
For further information about IVAR’s Open and Trusting Grantmaking Campaign, please visit the website.