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Is Good Enough Reporting Limiting Your Funding?When you choose a birthday gift for a family or close friend do you pick something good enough? Would you return to a restaurant where the wait staff asks “Is your food good enough?” instead of “Everything taste good?”Probably not. So why would you expect your funders, board members and partners to accept reports that are barely good enough. And why would you accept good enough for your organization when you have an opportunity to be outstanding in the reporting of your accomplishments. I am often told by funders that they provide funding to local organizations because they know the organization and its purpose. The funders say they do not rely on reports because they are in regular contact with the organizations they fund by virtue of operating in the same community. But even though this coziness makes it easy to get some funding, it also creates artificial limitations. If you structure your reporting to only meet the expectations of the local funders who do not require much detail or measurement, you will minimize the possibility of appealing to regional and national funders and diminish your chances for larger funding opportunities. Non-local funders do not know your organization and grantors who make large donations have complex expectations for reporting. Good enough reporting keeps you local, outstanding reporting broadens your funding prospects.
Here are some things that will make your reporting outstanding:
Some of you are probably thinking that reporting already takes up too much time, not to mention that it is annoying. Just take a deep breath and read the above bullets again. This time try to think of all the time you have spent writing a grant from scratch (because you could not use reports or anything else already written) and the frustration you felt when you did not get funding (because they didn’t see the value of your proposal, project
Bottom line – do reporting on a level that matches your aspirations not on a level that is good enough. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com
ABOUT THE AUTHORJanet W Christy is a consultant specializing in getting information (from people's heads, reports, studies, focus groups, etc.) into a usable form, such as an operational/business plan, grant application, evaluation/assessment, report, policy manual or developmental plan. Janet’s blog can be found at https://janetwchristy.wordpress.com/ You can see more information about Janet and her firm, Leverage & Development, LLC at http://www.leverageanddevelopment.com. |
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