The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation got lower than average ratings from its grant recipients, CEO Jeff Raikes disclosed in a letter.
The world’s largest charity contracted the Center for Effective Philanthropy to carry out the Grantee Perception Report, which surveyed 1,544 active grantees from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009. It got a 66 percent response rate.
The Gates Foundation earned high scores on knowledge, policy and practices in its strategy areas, but got negative feedback in four aspects, namely:- Lack of clear understanding about the foundation and the partners’ goals and strategies.- Confusion in decision-making and grant-making process.- High turnover of staff leading to multiple transitions in project leadership and management.- Inconsistent communication and unresponsiveness.
“We take this feedback very seriously, because we understand that some of these barriers are preventing our partners and us from having our maximum impact,” he said.
Raikes outlined the findings of the report and mapped out the foundation’s response to the negative feedback.
Raikes also made short-term commitments, including explaining how the proposal and approval process works, communicating the point of contact for grants, orienting all new grantees on the foundation’s goals and expectations, responding to all progress reports, and opening up new channels of communication.
